During a meeting with a government delegation of the Austrian land Vorarlberg Belarusian president said that the project of using renewable energy resources pursued by Austria is interesting for Belarus. The president appreciated Austria’s contribution to boosting Gomel oblast economy. The government of the federal land Vorarlberg allocated EUR 100 thousand to construct two solar plants in Belarus. A woodworking waste treatment facility project is being finalized. There are efforts...

In 2006 the joint venture Rechitsapivo will invest more than USD 1,4 million to upgrading of its production capacities, BelTA was informed by company’s chief engineer Tamara Razvenkova. This summer a new automated line for bottle production with the total capacity of 4,000 bottles an hour will be installed. Reconstruction of the compressor shop will be continued. It is due to be completed in 2007. All in all, Rechitsapivo will allocate USD 3 million for reconstruction by 2010. Hence, the...

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies will continue implementing a Chernobyl programme "Humanitarian Aid and Rehabilitation" in Gomel region, the organisation's secretary general Markku Niskala told a meeting at Gomel region executive committee today. According to Markku Niskala, the Chernobyl programme is one of the long-lasting ones, which main purpose is medical examination of people, who live in polluted areas, and detection of cancer and other thyroid...

An exhibition of pupils of the Children Art School #3 has opened in the Leonid Schemelev art gallery in Grodno. Director of this cultural establishment, arts critic Tatyana Bembel has informed BelTA that the exposition is a final stage of a year-long project “Belarus and Japan: two countries – two tragedies”. The project started with an exhibition in the House of Friendship in Minsk on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima tragedy in Japan. The drawings reflect...

The Chernobyl program does deserve the attention of international organizations and foreign countries not only on the jubilee days. At various international summits Belarus has repeatedly stressed the need of holding unbiased assessment and rendering real help rather than giving promises, said chairman of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich characterizing the involvement of international scientific community in the efforts to elaborate a concept to minimize the...

Urgent issues on the rehabilitation of people and territories affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe will be high on the agenda of the second day of the international conference “Chernobyl 20 years later. Strategy of restoration and sustainable development of the affected regions”. According to the information given to BelTA in the press service of the Chernobyl committee under the Council of Ministers, the work of the conference will be conducted in five sections “Rehabilitation of...

Over the last 15 years the social security of Belarusians, who were affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe and live in radiation-polluted areas, has increased a lot, according to results of a social poll carried out by the sociological and political studies centre of Belarusian State University in late 2005. Director of the centre David Rotman told BelTA, they had polled 1,020 people of varying age and social status, residing in Chernobyl-affected regions of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine –...

The international conference “Chernobyl. 20 years after. Strategy of recovery and sustainable development of the affected regions” intends to summarize the 20-year track record of mitigating the accident consequences and to draw up long-term recommendations on rehabilitation and socio-economic development of the affected regions. The conference will take place April 19-21 in Minsk and Gomel and will be devoted to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Attending the conference...

As of April 1, 2006 there were 729 Belarusians aged over 100, Svetlana Yermakovich, consultant of the veterans and elderly affairs department of the central state social security agency of the Belarusian labour and social security ministry, told BelTA. She noted, there are more women than men among Belarusian long-livers. It is women who are the oldest Belarusians as well. Those are Minsk resident Anna Adamovna Borisevich, born in 1888 (July 1, 2005 saw her turn 117). In 1889 resident of...

In Q1 2006 the volume of gas pumped through Belarus' gas trunks will increase by 15.1 per cent up on the corresponding period of last year to 17.7 billion cubic metres, the ministry of statistics and analysis told BelTA. According to the ministry of statistics and analysis, Belarusian consumers had 6.4 billion cubic metres of gas transported, 7.9 per cent up on January-March 2005. In Q1 2006 the Belarusian oil trunks transported 26 million tons of oil, 100 per cent as against the same...