Alexander Lukashenko: the country's social and economic development program must be implemented in full

Photo: president.gov.by

The country's social and economic development program for the coming years adopted at the 5th Belarusian People's Congress in 2016 must be implemented in full, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at the meeting with Prime Minister Sergei Rumas on 16 October, BelTA has learned.

Sergei Rumas briefed the president on the government's plan of action for the next two years. The plan is based on the decisions of the 5th Belarusian People's Congress and the head of state's instructions laid out in his State of the Nation Address in 2018.

Alexander Lukashenko said that he had carefully studied all the materials and stressed that the country's social and economic development program adopted in 2016 must be implemented in full. “The main thing is the result. Any activities should be well-thought decisions. We are experienced people and do not need to experiment,” said the president.

He added that he is not against the proposals made by the previous government regarding the establishment of supervisory boards at some enterprises. “But we will deploy very serious control over the government's implementation of these proposals, and especially over the people who will be appointed to the posts of chairmen of these supervisory boards. Remember we need to fulfill our main program, our promises to the people,” the head of state said.

Some social issues were also on the agenda of the meeting, in particular the proposal of the government to raise pensions.

“The government calculated that this year we will raise pensions by somewhat 8-9%. It will be a good increase, but next year we need to move forward. We expect the salaries to exceed Br1,000 due to the fact that we will raise wages of low-paid workers. The decisions on these issues have been adopted. They are also under control. The government will be moving forward in this direction. People need to realize that the money should be earned. It does not come out of nothing,” Alexander Lukashenko said.