Meeting to discuss ways to improve system of planning and supervising implementation of strategic projects

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko convened a meeting on 20 October to discuss ways to improve the system of planning and supervising the implementation of strategic projects.

“The shock restructuring of the global political, economic and financial relations prompts every country to think not only about protective and compensatory measures. We need to calculate the strategic prospects for the development of the national economy (which means the state). We need to look into the future," the president said.

The head of state emphasized the importance of such strategic projects: “This is the future not only of any system but of any country in general. Strategic projects, if we talk about Belarus, are the future of our country,” he said.

“No person, no system, no state can exist without the future,” the president added.

At the same time, he drew attention to the obvious shortcomings in this work: “Even if we have reasonably developed strategic projects, we do not always implement them,” he said. The head of state warned that control over the fulfillment of the instructions will be strict.

According to the head of state, the main reason for the current meeting is to discuss how to improve the system of planning and supervising the implementation of strategic projects. Everything is important in this area - from the idea to its implementation and guaranteed economic effect, Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.

The head of state stressed that over thirty years Belarus has developed a network of research institutes in various fields. There are the Committee for Science and Technology and the National Academy of Sciences which study, analyze, make forecasts of scientific and technological progress, publish articles in specialized journals. All of this is necessary. 

“We must admit however that the real sector of the economy does not seek to use the works of scientists on a mass scale for some reason,” the Belarusian leader said. “Not all new developments reach production.” According to him, very few large, breakthrough projects have been developed over this time.

“Yes, we have built a nuclear power plant, BNBC [Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation]. We produce the world’s largest haul trucks, implement space programs, develop and test products of innovative biomedicine, which are unmatched worldwide. However, all these projects have been launched only at the president's suggestion,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

“As we can see, there are some flaws. They are primarily in the planning of strategic projects, objects of high (5th and 6th) technological paradigms,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko added that in spring 2023 he instructed the government, the Academy of Sciences and his assistant Aleksandr Kosinets to launch work on the so-called brain core, capable of evaluating and supervising large-scale projects in the country. By the way, such projects have already been identified.

“We need such a center which will see what is going on and make all of you implement these projects,” the head of state explained.

The government presented to the head of state a variant featuring two main structures: a center that develops ideas and calculates their economic effect, and a council which makes decisions on the viability and relevance of such ideas.