President addresses the nation and Parliament

3 мая 2015

Alexander Lukashenko’s speech lasted 2 hours 40 minutes, consisting of about 15 direct instructions to the Government, the Presidential Administration, the National Bank and other bodies. He also gave answers to MPs' questions regarding economy, foreign policy, rural area problems and cultural issues.

The presidential address was closely followed by the Internet community. Belarusian users managed to make the traditional hashtag #agl29 a local trending topic on Twitter. For some time, the hashtag was even among Twitter’s top trends worldwide.

The economic block of the address outlined the reasons, consequences and solutions for economic problems. The ten global targets are as follows:

 

1. Effective economic management;

2. Enhancing control over the economy;

3. Reducing inflation;

4. Effective use of budgetary funds;

5. Antitrust and competition policy;

6. Creating a favourable business climate;

7. Developing financial markets and raising capital;

8. Export diversification;

9. New approaches to the development of agriculture and housing construction;

10. Improving legal culture in the economy.

 

According to the President, among the causes of the economic problems in Belarus are sanctions against Russia, the fall in oil prices, the decline of the Russian market and the devaluation of the Russian ruble.

Talking about effective economic management, the President tasked the Government with developing a set of regulatory documents dividing the state’s functions as an owner and as a regulator. An enterprise must be managed by a manager, not by law-enforcement agencies, he emphasised. 

The instructions given by Alexander Lukashenko to the Government and the National Bank were based on the 10 global challenges. Thus, the economic unit in the near future should organise restructuring of insolvent enterprises involving investors; introduce a moratorium on tax rate growth; reduce production costs (which is the main mechanism of combating inflation); update the mechanism for providing state support to enterprises; strengthen the tax and antimonopoly services; make proposals for shadow capital return; expand the export basket by high-tech products.

It is also necessary to provide the middle class with an easy access to housing programmes, develop and implement a system of measures on improving the legal culture in the economy and ensure private capital flow to agriculture. According to the President, the sphere is in need of new and more effective development methods.