Meeting with senior officials of Council of Ministers

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko convened a meeting with senior officials of the Council of Ministers on 17 August. The meeting is to discuss draft normative legal acts related to economy and national security.

According to the head of state, the participants of the meeting are set to focus on four main topics: draft integration programs of the Union State, rehabilitation of insolvent companies, improvement of the public security monitoring system and adjustment of some functions of the government.

Much has already been said about the integration in the format of the Union State. This topic had been raised at the latest Belarusian People’s Congress and at the recent Big Conversation with the President press conference. Aleksandr Lukashenko suggested hearing out the report by Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov who represents Belarus in negotiations on integration programs with Russia.

“First of all, I want to know when we will formalize and implement these programs,” the President noted.

The bill ‘On the settlement of insolvency’ had been discussed at the level of the head of state about a year ago. Back then the government had been told to change the approaches to this document: to move away from bankruptcy towards rehabilitation of struggling enterprises. The concept of the bill has also changed – now the focus is on shielding companies from external shocks. “At the same time, I want to say that dealing with these shocks is primarily the concern of labor collectives and company chiefs,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.

“In addition, we are set to move away from using courts at all stages of handling economic insolvency cases,” the President noted. “The coordinating role in the financial recovery will finally fall to the government, respective government agencies and executive committees,” the President said.

The head of state noted that public security is relevant at all times, and this is a fundamental duty of any state. “Looking back at the end of last year, we have realized today what public security is and what it is based on. We need to work for the future. We should rely on advanced technical solutions that will be up to the task in all kinds of situations. We are very far behind the world’s leading states in terms of technology. We need to catch up,” the head of state said.

A draft decree providing for changes to the public security monitoring system was submitted to the president. The head of state asked how the new approaches would contribute to better public security and how much these reforms will cost. “I ask you to keep in mind that we cannot afford ineffective use of public funds,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.

“The adjustment of some powers of the government is part of the effort to redistribute functions between state authorities. It is proposed that the government will no longer need to define and communicate its position to state representatives when it comes to alienation of large real estate facilities,” the president said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko asked what effect these proposals and amendments are expected to produce and whether the state will be able to retain control over the sale of attractive assets in this case. The approach should be the following: everything should depend on whether these proposals are relevant or not, he added.