Lukashenka wants officials to get out of offices

The dictator criticised the government.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka held a meeting today to discuss the current problems of social and economic development, BelTA reports.

“The statistics for January is already available; February is over, too. Despite some positive trends in individual industries, the economy in general is not growing. The manufacturing industry is lagging behind, warehouse stocks and mutual non-payments are mounting. The measures to promote export are not working so far. This is already having its toll on people. Real income is not increasing,” he said.

“We know that we are not the only ones to face this kind of issues. However, we should not blame external factors for all our issues,” the ruler stressed.

Lukashenka ordered the government to prepare a report on the current situation, put forward concrete proposals and inform him about the fulfillment of earlier instructions. “It is high time to get out of offices and get down to real work. Today it is a number one task. You passed an action plan, submitted it to the parliament, as you were supposed to do in line with the legislation. However, this is not what I am going to discuss today. The scenarios you came up with – three, five or ten – are exclusively your business. I am interested in trends, progress and the things that were done to get the money for the products sold.”

The ruler warned against overdue accounts receivable for exports. “This is a criminal offence. We have already taken this problem onto the level of prosecutors of Belarus and Russia,” he noted.