Visit to Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko visited the Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation in Pukhovichi District on 4 November.

The first question the President asked right after the arrival was: “What are we going to do next?” It should be noted that the Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation is a unique project.

The head of state was informed that almost a hundred facilities had already been put into operation since the start of construction works.

Aleksandr Lukashenko asked in detail about the participation of the National Academy of Sciences in the project, and the readiness of the domestic academic and applied science was for such ambitious construction works.

Belarusian scientists had certain solutions in this field, but could not test them because there were no suitable facilities and no demand for them. Now the Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation can act as a springboard for domestic microbiology.

The head of state also spoke about the raw material base of the BNBC: “This is a locomotive. This is absolutely our thing. And land plots should be allocated on the best terms.”

As BNBC Director General Daniil Uritsky reported to the head of state, the construction began in 2019, and despite the coronavirus pandemic, China’s funding kept coming because Belarus did not impose any large-scale restrictions and did not close its borders. “CITIC had only one project under construction in the world at that time - in Belarus. All its other projects were suspended,” he said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that COVID-19 was at the basis of all economic problems in the world. The President warned about such a scenario two years ago.

“At the time a lot of people did not understand what I was suggesting. ‘The whole world is going this way, and here he wants to destroy the Belarusians,’ they said. I always posed a question then: was the pandemic of artificial or natural origin? Today, almost everyone say that the pandemic was artificially caused. Why was it done? It was done to bring the whole world and, above all, China down, to bring the economy down, to make states collapse. Who would have benefitted from this? The ones who print money. They printed a lot of money. Today's inflation, which we are mostly importing to our country, is inflation created by the United States of America, and partially by the European Union: helicopter money, U.S. dollars, euros were thrown around. But, most importantly, economies like ours (and there are an overwhelming majority of them in the world) had to collapse. Today they are collapsing, falling apart. Russia is feeling the consequences, and will feel them even harder. Yes, we have not stopped our production, and today we have dozens of new projects completed ahead of October Revolution Day. This facility is one of those projects,” stressed the head of state.

Aleksandr Lukashenko expressed his gratitude to China for its support in the implementation of the project. The CITIC Group company, which acted as the general contractor, suspended the construction of all its projects, except for the BNBC, during the pandemic.

“Thank you very much for the tremendous help and support. Only close friends can provide such help and support. We are also thinking about medicines, which we are ready to produce for the West, together with China,” Aleksandr Lukashenko told Chinese Ambassador to Belarus Xie Xiaoyong. 

According to the Chinese ambassador, the BNBC is a strategic facility for Belarus and a unique project for both the CIS and Europe.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also tasked the Belarusian agricultural companies to provide the BNBC with the necessary amount of grain. The relevant instruction was given to Agriculture and Food Minister Igor Brylo. “You have another task for next year, which is to produce enough grain for state needs plus 700,000 for this facility. The total task is two million tonnes of grain including the state order for next year. We need to support this facility,” the President stressed.

Talking about the prospects of the BNBC, Daniil Uritsky said that the enterprise should be socially responsible because it was set up thanks to the support of the government and exists thanks to the farmers' efforts. The BNBC's products have high added value, and salaries at the company are pretty good [the average salary is Br2,200].

“Any business project must be socially responsible,” the President said.

The Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation has another object in the pipeline - the so-called prospective development project BNBC-3. It envisages the launch of production lines for vitamins, amino acids, starch and glucose products. This will be the brand-new production of vitamins (B2, B12, C) and new kinds of amino acids (valine, leucine, isoleucine) in Belarus and the CIS.

The implementation period for the project is five years. The head of state, however, asks to do it faster.

“If you tell us to do it within three years, we will do it,” the general director of the corporation said.

“I want it to be done within three years, but I am not demanding this. You will be provided with any support you need. We will do whatever you say. I am ready to come and work here, too. It would be great if you did it within three years,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.