On May 29, the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of Belarus will consider a secondary education development program for 2007-2010. The meeting will be chaired by First Vice-Premier Vladimir Semashko. The program is an organizational basis for the state policy in the sphere of secondary education describing a whole range of interconnected actions aimed at meeting strategic goals and priority tasks of general secondary education. It is a fundamental document aimed at forming the...

The development of the Belarusian-Russian relations depends on the position of Russia, President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters today in Brest. “Russia understands well that the ball is in its court,” the President said. Commenting upon the results of the Belarusian-Iranian summit, the Head of State said that in its relations with Iran Belarus does not pursue the goal of “alienating itself from Russia”. “Only if Russia wants this alienation, it will happen. If we are taken...

Cyprian company SB Telecom is interested in investing in the reconstruction and refitting of Belarusian cement mills. The press service of the Belarusian head of state told BelTA, on May 24 Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko met with SB Telecom CEO Ead Samawi. During the meeting other joint investment projects were discussed as well. In particular, SB Telecom intends to take part in building a premium hotel in Minsk. The head of state thanked the investor for the company’s charity...

Today, at the second reading, the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus (the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament) has adopted the bill “On State Social Security Privileges, Regulations and Guarantees for Certain Categories of Citizens”. 100 deputies voted in favour of the bill; 1 voted against it. The bill changes the terms of providing privileges to certain categories of citizens in paying for utilities services, Vladimir Potupchik, the Minister of...

President Alexander Lukashenko has told reporters today he is satisfied with the agreements reached with President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “We are satisfied with the results of the talks and the agreements reached. We have reached all the goals we intended to,” he said. The Belarusian-Iranian top-level talks held on May 21-22 have been very intensive. “There are no such issues today that we have not reached agreement on,” he added. The Head of State thanked the President of...

The bilateral relations between Belarus and Iran have reached the level of strategic partnership, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said today during a narrow-format meeting with President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Your very prompt visit to Belarus coming shortly after my visit to Iran attests to the fact that we have established the relations of strategic partnership,” the Belarusian leader said to the President of Iran. There has been a lot of “talking” over...

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has approved the concept of construction of the business and public center and residential area Minsk City. The center will be constructed on the site of Airport Minsk 1 and the Minsk Aircraft Repair Plant which will be relocated outside the city. Issues on implementation of the general plan of Minsk City development were in focus during a report by chief architect of Minsk Victor Nikitin to the President.

In recent years the CIS economic development has been keeping steadily high despite all the critical remarks about the Commonwealth’s effectiveness, Vladimir Garkun, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee and CIS First Deputy Executive Secretary, told media in Minsk today. In his words, the annual GDP growth is one of the most prominent indicators of the Commonwealth effectiveness. Last year the figure stayed at 109% across the CIS and in Q1 2007 it totalled 108%. Cash revenues...

Benefits in Belarus will be streamlined on the basis of targeting and justice, Nikolai Cherginets, the chairman of the permanent commission for international affairs and national security of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, told a press conference in Grodno. He takes part in a session of the commission which discuses the development of cooperation between the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly and the Belarusian diaspora abroad. Nikolai Cherginets said...

The main targets of the banking system development in Q1 2007 were met, Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Belarus Piotr Prokopovich reported to the President on May 15. The Head of State demanded the main guidelines of the monetary policy of Belarus should be implemented in 2007, BelTA has been told in the president’s press service. At the same time Alexander Lukashenko pointed to the necessity to make sure that the demand of the real sector and population for loans be...