President discusses development of petrochemical industry in Belarus on Naftan

7 июня 2019

The Head of State has visited Naftan today, the leading Belarusian oil refining enterprise. The quality of Belarusian oil products is highly valued in foreign markets.

Consumers from large wholesalers to amateur motorists and professional carriers have asked to increase the supply of diesel or gasoline. The quality level is priceless in the conditions of tough competition and trade wars, however, as practice shows, Belarusian producers often lack the rigidity and aggressiveness when entering new markets. Hence the President reminded at the meeting in Novopolotsk about the responsibility of the relevant vice-premiers for foreign economic policy and strategy.

A visit to the Vitebsk region is a good reason for a comprehensive look at the situation in the region. The task is to rely on the development of other industries: machine building, machine tool building, and the municipal sector, in order to get away from the dependence of the petrochemical complex. In general, a lot has been done in the region. The flax processing plant was reconstructed, the shoe industry shows good dynamics. But the meat processing industry needs to increase the volume of raw materials and reduce costs. As for attracting investments, the indicators are lower by half compared with other areas. As before, the key task for the region remains to create the necessary conditions for raising the living standards of people and increasing wages.

In general, the performance of the region could be higher if Naftan worked more profitably. The region seriously depends on this enterprise. In April, both Belarusian refineries were forced to reduce the load and suffered losses due to the delivery of dirty oil from Russia to Belarus. Now it is time to address the issues of compensation for damage.