Mikhail Marynich: “Chinese money will be spent on dirty industry”

China will give Belarus credit for $ 1.5 bln, a corresponding paper was signed today in Minsk during the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. The money is to be spent on the construction of new production lines of cement.

Belarusian Former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Mikhail Marynich believes the idea of the cement production must be treated cautiously:

“These technologies are dirty, and such enterprises are never environmentally friendly. In my opinion, it is unwise and unjustified to overload the republic with cement production.

We’re obviously observing a building rise, and hence the demand on cement is great. But there are no long-term forecasts signifying the great demand will be permanent.

And one more thing - the governments of the countries that care of their future try to get rid of harmful industries which are being moved to the countries with much man power and less ecological problems.”

Today the Chinese part has pledged to give more credits, but this time Belarus will get less money: anyway, the intergovernmental agreement implies a credit for $ 27 mln.

Belarus is the third country that the Chinese Prime Minister has included into his visit. Wen Jiabao has already been to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan where he met with the Presidents of these countries.