Working trip to Vitebsk Oblast

Belarusian President visited the Orsha Forestry as part of his working trip to Vitebsk Oblast on 21 April.

The President visited the agro-town of Kopys, a prototype of “the village of the future” from the same-name program. Wood-processing unit No.2 of the Orsha Forestry is located in the agro-town.

Upon arrival, the head of state immediately asked government officials about the state of affairs in the region: "What are the major problems?"

The President noted that emphasis is made on small towns. Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled that earlier a decision was made to improve the agro-town of Kopys to serve as an example for other settlements of how things should be done. The availability of jobs is crucial for development. Therefore, a woodworking enterprise of the Orsha Forestry was established here. It is currently employing 50 people. Many workers commute from other settlements, including Orsha. As the President noted, this raises the issue of housing. "People will move, live and work here," the head of state said. "Conditions must be created for people."

Speaking about the improvement of Kopys, the President highlighted that he had once given a task to construct a small bakery here. The bakery is now operational, and its products are in demand not only among the residents of the agro-town. "This showed us that we should set up similar small bakeries across the country. But we need to think about how to attract investors," the President emphasized. He added that many years ago, Kopys managed to create a kind of model for other agro-towns.

Aleksandr Lukashenko instructed officials to review the state of affairs in small towns, identify development prospects and determine what else needs to be done.

"We will see how small towns are being improved. We will discuss what is lacking and take measures. But don't play with fire. We give a lot of promises but not always deliver on them," the President remarked.

Belarusian Forestry Minister Aleksandr Kulik reported to the President on the provision of forestries with modern logging equipment and also the woodworking industry with wood raw materials. Speaking about exports, Aleksandr Kulik noted that the products are exported to the markets of 16 countries. The financial performance in the woodworking industry have improved, the minister added.

“These results are showing where our money and our perspective is. It is not even in oil refining. We have our own raw materials. We should develop this area, and everything which is related to this raw material,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

Last year the organizations affiliated with the Forestry Ministry supplied 10 million cubic meters of wood to state and private wood processing enterprises of the country. Head of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate Yuri Nazarov said that the enterprises that process wood in large volumes need to see the perspective. 

“It is necessary either to solve everyone's issues with the concern, or to hold annual bidding on the exchange, as it was done before,” the head of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate said. “They need to understand the diameters, the annual volume of roundwood they will be offered.”

“What is the problem then? If we have underprocessed raw materials, and someone needs them and wants to see the perspective, then what is the problem?” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “The main question has always been about prices: be it the commodity exchange or something else. Today we can decide on the prices keeping in mind the current situation. And sell them the product at this price.” The head of state instructed to solve the matter this year so that by 1 January such processors could see the perspective. 

The provision of machinery and tractor fleet for the wood processing industry was one of the issues discussed during the President’s working trip. “Today we have forwarders, harvesters, basic machines and mechanisms,” Aleksandr Kulik said.

Aleksandr Kulik informed that machinery harvested about 65% of the total timber volumes. The minister added that he expects that manual harvesting will be maintained at about 30%. In this regard, the President agreed that it is not always possible to reach all areas with the help of machinery and manual felling is still needed in this work.

The President got familiar with the exhibition of domestic forestry equipment produced by such companies as MTZ, Gomselmash, Amkodor, MAZ and others. There were also logging tools on display, including axes produced by MTZ. “This axe is good,” the head of state said.

MTZ also presented its caterpillar equipment - a tractor with an uprooter. Aleksandr Lukashenko asked whether MTZ produced track machinery for agriculture and whether it was in demand among farmers. The President is sure that every farm needs at least one such tractor.

When it came to MAZ machinery, the head of state asked how things were going at the plant and emphasized the need to expand localization. Aleksandr Lukashenko also asked about the MAZ-SPORTauto performance. After getting familiar with the machinery samples, the President toured the woodworking shop. The head of state examined the boiler room of the drying complex, the sawmill shop, the molding shop and the pallet production shop.

At the production site Aleksandr Lukashenko talked to a worker, a resident of Orsha. “Why don't you want to live in Kopys?” the President asked. The young man said that he had a family in Orsha, but admitted that he would willingly move to Kopys if he had a house and a plot of land there. The head of state noted that workers could be given housing so that after, for example, ten years of work at the enterprise they could buy it out.

Hence the issue of retaining young personnel in their first jobs, including in agro-towns and small communities. According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, mentoring could be one of the ways to retain young people. The development of small communities was one of the important topics of the President's visit to Vitebsk Oblast.

“We need to work on retention. Of course, they can transport people from Orsha, which is not far away. But it is desirable that people live here,” the head of state believes.