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Lukashenka orders government to secure higher output of innovative products

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered the government on Friday to take measures to secure the industrial sector's development and an increase in the output of innovative products.

Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Belarusian leader expressed concern over a recent decrease in the output of grain harvesters, road construction equipment, bearings, steel wire, metal cord, and trackless trolleys, according to the government's news agency BelTA.

Mr. Lukashenka reportedly referred to Lidahraprammash, a struggling manufacturer of farming machinery in Lida, Hrodna region. "Have the government and the head of the regional executive committee set themselves the task of sending the company into bankruptcy?" he wondered, adding that the plant was expected to start manufacturing much-needed equipment for flax farming.

Mr. Lukashenka warned that the government needed to take measures to turn around the performance of ailing companies. He suggested that such measures should vary from stricter discipline to equipment modernization projects.

Mr. Lukashenka recalled long delays in the modernization of woodworking plants and said that imported equipment worth a total of almost €100 million remained idle in the logging and woodworking sector.

He also referred to the protracted modernization of the Byarozawskaya DRES power and heating plant in Belaazyorsk, Brest region. The state-owned company still has not been supplied with a steam turbine and a steam generator, although the supplier received advance payments of nearly €20 million between 2008 and 2011. // BelaPAN