Events

MINSK, 21 April (BelTA) – We need to develop a new concept of Decree No. 3, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said in his State of the Nation Address on 21 April, BelTA has learned.

The head of state stressed the need to draw conclusions from the situation with Decree No. 3. “We need a new concept,” he noted.

Alexander Lukashenko said that there are about 350,000 unemployed in the labor market. “What will we do with them? If you offer some other way how to make them work, I will back down. 350,000 people must work, because they pose a huge problem, especially for the law enforcement system. All in all, these are 500,000 people. We allowed 150,000 people not to work for different reasons,” the president noted.

The Belarusian leader stressed that it is necessary to draw conclusions from what has happened. “Indeed, we did not do well on the ground. But to blame the local level only is not the way to go. We have a power vertical, and we bear the responsibility for this,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

The president addressed the Belarusian MPs: “We have a problem and we should resolve it. There is no need to once again oblige unemployed people to pay a certain amount of money. You have to understand that, some 10,000 people will do it easily. But other people will not pay until February or March 2018. If they are not made to get a job, they will not get it. It is easier for them to go out and shout in the streets. We have learned that some of them even get paid for this. This is why we need to work out a new concept to make everybody work.

The president said that the country had a similar experience in the Soviet period.