Struggle against import unfolds in Belarus

• 11.04.2008, 16:32

All imported purchases in Belarus should be well grounded. Zyanon Lomats, chairman of the State Control Committee (SCC) said it in Minsk.

Situation with imported purchases in Minsk region and measures taken by the state bodies to optimise import and create import substitution industries were discussed at the session of the board of the State Control Committee of the Minsk region. Zyanon Lomats noted at the session:

“Some officials put their private interests above state interests, and it is the reason that we have so many violations in fulfilment of a programme of import substitution. Belarus produces a wide range of products, so we needn’t import analogical production. It concerns polyethylene water pipes, cables, machine constitutive elements, water and energy meters, etc.”

“We are losing millions of dollars on our inactivity and formalism when fulfilling import substitution programme,” Zyanon Lomats emphasised. He added that concrete people should bear responsibility for it.

Speaking about the Minsk region, the SCC chairman said the committee would find a reason of the fact that two import substitution projects were abandoned. He meant oak and ash milling and shrink foil production. As Zyanon Lomats thinks, “these projects are not implemented because they affect interests of some state officials.”

Participants of the session also noted that there is no demand for national import substituting production at the inner market. For example, military boots are produced in Belarus, but this production was bought by Russian force structures, while the Belarusian Ministry of Defence bought footwear in Saint Petersburg. For all that, Belarusian production is twice as chip as Russian one.

Uladzislau Tsydzik, Minsk region SCC head, said at the session there was no proper control of import substitution programme. So the State Control Committee is going to improve control of this programme implementation and switch it onto a proper track.