“I Said Straight Away I'd Work Only as Prime Minister Not to Worry About Minor Things”

Prominent quotes of Leanid Zaika.

Today Leanid Zaika, famous Belarusian economist and outstanding personality, died. Belarusians will miss his original thoughts, bold statements and incredible sense of humour. Leanid Zaika regularly commented on the economic situation.

Belsat collected vivid quotes from his interviews, which show what kind of person and citizen we have lost.

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One should laugh at oneself, as well. A person needs only two qualities in life: high professionalism and a sense of humour.

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I tell my young colleagues and acquaintances: do not live on your pension. Either make money earlier or die earlier. Now I read lectures, including abroad. I learned English, French and German until after 30. It's never too late to learn.

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I said straight away I'd only work as Prime Minister. Not to worry about minor things. That was back when Sergei Ling was still Prime Minister, and I was a member of the Council of Experts under the Council of Ministers.

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5000 economists graduate in Belarus every year. Which of them do you know? Look, there's a building across the street where they train marketing managers. I don't know where we can find so many businesses for these managers. I needed a valve fixed. I called to ask for a plumber. They said he would come in three days. The problem is that there are no plumbers. There are hundreds of managers and no plumbers.

Government policy when the coronavirus broke out

Human life always comes first among all priorities. We must realize that human beings are our number one priority. Enterprises, factories, cars, everything else - especially taking into account the Belarusian specifics that we have not created anything new for 30 years - are of absolutely no interest.

I think the country could have been under quarantine for two months. We would have lost 16% of GDP, that is 8% of GDP per month, but all this would have ended. People would not have been sick in such numbers. Two months later, everything would be working again. We would have caught up to 6%, and the final result would have been a drop of only 10%. In 2015, we had a 37% dollar drop in GDP. Has anyone noticed that?

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Lukashenka is acting completely inadequately. He has already suffered from a "Napoleon complex". He doesn't understand anything. Lukashenka thinks people are stupid. He'll call for a glass of vodka and bacon crisp again.

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I feel sorry for these people in power. They're confused, weird. They have a "death rate of 1%". I would offer them to come to their senses. Neither children nor grandchildren will forgive them for this inadequacy.

Savings

I have been saying for ten years that if you have less than $100,000, then buy some champagne, have a nice candlelit dinner, and don't worry.

Seriously though, keep 40 per cent in dollars, 20 per cent in euros, 20 per cent in Chinese yuan, and the rest of the money can be Swiss francs. The more differentiated your basket, the better.

The crisis and how you get out of it

Now we have fallen down. There are two options. The first is to get up, shake off the dust, and keep going. That is what they want to do. And the second option is to get up, mend your clothes, go to the shop, buy a bicycle and cycle. That means to switch to new technologies, a new intellectual economy and so on. The country should get out of the oil and gas economy. For Belarus to move to the intellectual economy, one needs a new elite that can bring the idea to life. The oil age is coming to an end. Gas is the thing of the past. Electric transport, clean water is needed. We need a new intellectual society with knowledge and education of high priority. It is the way of the future.

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Two months are needed to wake up. While the next eight years are spent on changing life in a new civilized manner.

Money

One month they can get 500 dollars. In two months, it will be 300 dollars again. There's nothing one can do about it. Again, the weighted average labour cost in Belarus is $330-350.

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The country's leaders assumed they could print money like stamps. It's incompetence, stupidity to the third power. I can call it a situation of unprofessional stupidity.