Lukashenka's Property Management Directorate To Establish Network Of Pharmacies

Viktar Sheiman was entrusted with the task to develop pharmaceutical business of the dictator.

Property Management Directorate of Lukashenka (PMD) has been actively developing pharmaceutical business recently.

tut.by reports, that this sphere of activity has been in footprint of PMD before, but now, as the site of PMD indicates, it has been separated into a separate subdivision.

"LekoTsentr" branch has been established on the basis of the tour operator "TsentrKurort". Its main activities are wholesale and retail trade of medications, medical products and related products (cosmetics, perfumery, a variety of products for children and personal hygiene products). Wholesale department of the branch purchases medications of Belarusian and foreign origin (Europe, US, Russia).

Currently the trading structure of the branch "LekoTsentr" includes a pharmacy warehouse and 21 pharmacies of different categories. Most of them are located in Minsk. The PMD was issued a license for pharmaceutical activities in 2004. But earlier pharmacies were located on the territory of recreation centers, resorts, hotels which were included in the PMD system. Now many pharmacies are located in shopping malls.

"LekoTsentr" is not yet on the list of 10 major pharmacy networks of Belarus. However, they have potential and resources to achieve this, a market participant said.

According to an informed source, they have been structuring businesses of such a multyprofile holding as PMD for more than a year already.

"What once seemed to be a side element, now gets a new impulse for the development. What once was unmanageable, now is being consolidated. In principle, these are normal business processes. At one time, German Gref, the head of Sberbank of Russia, has set the task to "teach an elephant (ie the largest state bank of the Russian Federation trusted to him) to dance." Viktar Sheiman, the head of the President's Property Administration, is facing approximately the same task," – the source said.

We didn't manage to get comments from "LekoTsentr".