Today, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko held a large meeting on the state and tasks of the industrial sector development.
The total number of participants in the event approached three hundred people. Among them were senior officials, members of the Government, chairmen of regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee, heads of industrial organizations, banks, research centers, and heads of administrations of free economic zones.
This meeting in the schedule of the Head of State was expected and had been prepared for a long time. Alexander Lukashenko instructed to further expand and strengthen the format of the event – so that both in terms of the composition of the issues raised and the representation of the participants, the conversation about the development of one of the most important sectors of the country was fundamental.
“As we agreed at the BELGEE plant, let’s hold our working meeting. We will discuss development prospects, as well as issues of product quality. Certain steps have been taken during this difficult time. New people have already taken some key positions, and a number of decisions have been made. Now we need to discuss how we will move forward. Both at the strategic and tactical level,” the President said at the beginning of the meeting.
Speaking about import substitution, the Head of State noted that Belarus can create competitive equipment using domestic materials and components. “There is no need to prove anything here. We can,” the Belarusian leader stated. However, according to him, in a number of areas, the renewal of products and production is very slow.
“Every critical position shows our weak points. It is precisely these that competitors then hit with sanctions,” Alexander Lukashenko noted. “It is necessary to take measures to ensure maximum technological independence and create conditions for the sustainable operation of the economy, independent of any sanctions. And this is a strategic task for our industrial complex.”
The President admitted the existence of the so-called screwdriver assembly, but only at the beginning of new production. “It is necessary to build reliable protection from any external factors – another task for everyone. That is why import substitution is so vitally important, which must be done constantly,” the Head of State emphasized. This task, according to him, is the priority of priorities. And although much is said about this, it is worth recognizing that the industry’s turn in this direction is extremely slow. The share of imported components in Belarusian products is still high.
“We set conditions for investors to achieve a certain level of localization. They accept them and fulfill them. And in our traditional production, the share of imported components in raw materials and materials remains at a high level, the indicators practically do not decrease from year to year,” said Alexander Lukashenko.
The President demanded that strategies be developed in all areas to increase the level of localization: “Bring the challenging tasks to everyone and ensure their implementation.”
More information about the event is available at Official Internet portal of the President of the Republic of Belarus.
