President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chavez has announced that Belarus will be assigned three more oil deposits what will enable it to produce two million tonnes of oil in 2009. The agreement was reached during a meeting of the Venezuelan leader with Viktor Sheiman, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, co-chairman of the Belarusian-Venezuelan joint high-level commission, who is in Venezuela on an official visit, BelTA was told in the press centre of the State...

“I see my country as a stable state where 13 million people not 10 million will be living in ten years. But we need the population of 25-30 million on this land, and it will be then that we will be fully independent and sovereign. I would like to see more people live here. I would like Belarus to become a rich country, be a country with a young face, with more young people,” Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview to Russia Today TV channel and RIA Novosti news agency, BelTA was told in...

The state will support the development of high-tech manufacturing, in particular, TV making, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told media on February 15 after visiting RUPP Vityas. The head of state commended the Vityas administration for diversifying the production business. “Setting up additional manufacturing facilities with a view to preserving the production of principal television products is the right thing,” he remarked. The near future belongs to the development of...

Border checkpoints Bruzgi and Berestovitsa (Grodno oblast) have been reopened after reconstruction, Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus (SCC) Alexander Shpilevsky told BelTA. Bruzgi and Berestovitsa are the largest border checkpoints at the country’s western border. They are located on a major motorway and have access to the second trans-European transport corridor Paris-Berlin-Minsk-Moscow. Russian cargoes, which are transported in this direction, account for 60-70% of the...

On February 15, representatives of the CIS border departments made a start of the International Friendship Relay Race in Minsk. According to Oleg Abyzov, the deputy chairman of the Belarusian State Border Committee, the International Friendship Relay Race is timed to the 90th anniversary of the border troops and the 63rd anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The decision to hold the relay race was passed by the CIS Council of Border Troops Commanders on September 12 2007....

Ensuring the border security of Belarus in the western direction should not create obstacles for economic entities of the European Union, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said when signing the resolution on the state border policy and ensuring the border security of the Republic of Belarus in 2008. “Today the EU is Belarus’ second largest economic partner while the economic interests are most important for us,” the President said. “Moreover, we do not need to expose ourselves...

The launch of the Belarusian satellite designed for earth remote sensing is scheduled for Q4 2009, BelTA learnt from the Federal Space Agency of Russia after a delegation of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus visited the Iosifyan All-Russian Electromechanics Research Institute. Representatives of Belarus took part in a session of the operative-technical direction tasked with creating the Belarusian space satellite. The Belarusian delegation was familiarised in detail with the...

Belarus and Lithuania have reached an agreement concerning the location of the radioactive waste storage, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Lithuania to Belarus Edminas Bagdonas told a press conference in Minsk on February 13. In his words, the issue has been settled, Belarus is completely satisfied with the solution. The radioactive waste storage will be located in Stabatiskes near the Ignalina nuclear power plant four kilometres from the Belarusian-Lithuanian border instead...

Belarusian industrialists and entrepreneurs are in favour of stepping up the dialogue with business circles of European Union countries, BelTA learnt from Anatoly Kharlap, President of the Union of Non-Profit Organizations “Confederation of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers)”. He noted, the importance of this cooperation avenue was stressed by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during his speech before students of the Belarusian State University on February 12. “Now...

Nuclear plant construction and satellite launch projects will become a good impetus to further intellectual development of the Belarusian state, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said during a meeting with the students of Belarusian State University. “Launching a satellite and construction of a nuclear plant are not ordinary things. “An intellectual breakthrough” is needed to become a space power. To train nuclear plant personnel we are, in fact, creating a separate school in...