The December 26 session of the Council of Ministers of the Belarus-Russia Union State approved the Union State’s fuel and energy budget for 2008 and budgeted balance sheets of the demand and supply of the most important types of products, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told mass media. According to him, the session considered 16 various issues and took positive decisions on all of them. In particular, at present the Union State has been implementing about 40 programmes and...

Russia believes the US economic pressure on Belarus to be inadmissible, Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Zubkov said in Moscow on December 26 after a session of the Council of Ministers of the Union State. He stressed, Russia believes that the enforcement of any economic sanctions by the USA administration against Belarus is politically motivated. “We believe the pressure on Belarus is inadmissible and we back up the republic in this issue,” said Viktor Zubkov. Prime Minister of Belarus...

To improve living standards and encourage highly-qualified professionals to stay in the country, Belarus needs to integrate more actively into transnational corporations, Chairman of the Presidium of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences Mikhail Myasnikovich told BelTA. “When participating in such corporations we turn into partners from competitors. We get access to more sale markets, experience, an opportunity to improve professionalism due to probation courses and specialists...

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has congratulated Belarus’ Christians who celebrate Christmas on December 25, BelTA leant from the presidential press service. This great holiday unites families, generations and nations in the striving for spiritual transformation and renewal, in the desire to share the warmth with each other, the head of state said. “For millions of people Christmas is an eternal symbol of pureness, sincerity, humaneness and mercy. During these wonderful...

Belarus and Russia need to create the joint boards of some ministries and governmental departments, State Secretary of the Union State Pavel Borodin said when meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky on December 21. “We need to create the boards for agriculture issues, trade and economic cooperation. This would facilitate settling some issues, enhance the responsibility for implementing the decisions,” Pavel Borodin said. A session of the Union State Council of Ministers...

In 2007, the transit traffic via Belarus increased by 30%, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee Leonid Dosov told a session of the Public Council. The Belarusian customs service is ready to service transit traffic and guarantees fast and high-quality services as transit goods move across the customs border of Belarus. “A 30% increase in transit flows is testimony to this,” he noted. Attending the session of the Public Council were seniour officials and specialists of the...

Additional measures aimed at developing the national flax industry will be discussed at a government session chaired by the President of Belarus. The press service of the head of state told BelTA, Alexander Lukashenko had given an instruction to prepare a session to analyse flax cultivation and flax fibre processing in Belarus in order to work out the necessary measures to improve the state of things in this area. Certain issues regarding the development of the country’s agribusiness were...

The eighth session of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus ended on December 20. The upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament passed forty-six bills and four presidential decrees during the session. In his concluding speech Gennady Novitsky, Speaker of the Council of the Republic, noted that the Council had concentrated efforts on reinforcing the state, developing the economy and improving living standards of Belarusians. For example, the Speaker said, the next...

Russia has given a $1.5 billion state credit to Belarus. Finance Minister of Belarus Nikolai Korbut and Vice Premier, Finance Minister of Russia Aleksei Kudrin signed the corresponding intergovernmental agreement in Moscow on December 20. Aleksei Kudrin told media, the credit is provided for 15 years at Libor plus 0.75% per annum, with the payments postponed by five years. According to the official, at present Libor stands at around 5%. “The credit’s interest rate is market-based,...

The most important parameters of the next year's social and economic development guidelines of Belarus have been approved. The President of Belarus signed corresponding decree No 656 on December 18, the press service of the head of state told BelTA. The basic GDP growth target is set at 8-9%, which corresponds to the targets outlined by the 2006-2010 national social and economic development programme. However, in order to fulfil the head of state’s instructions concerning the mobilisation...