Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 8 May (BelTA) – Belarus drew on China’s experience a lot to build the state system. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the relevant statement in an interview with Chinese mass media — the China Central Television and the news agency Xinhua, the press service of the Belarusian leader told BelTA.

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that when he was still a member of the parliament, he carefully studied growth points of the Chinese economy and free economic zones. “When I became the president, I always quoted China as an example and said we should draw on China’s experience. We shouldn’t destroy things or rush things. If a new system is not ready, there is no need to destroy the old one. So we relied on Chinese wisdom and proceeded with reforms in a calm and thoughtful manner. We rejected the idea of shock therapy: destroy everything and plunge it into the dark waters of the market… We didn’t do it,” said the Belarusian head of state.

“We set out to implement all the components of market economy: free competition, free pricing, privatization and liberalization. We did all of this and still do it now but we do it gradually,” noted the Belarusian leader.

The President stressed that as far as privatization is concerned, the government sells enterprises that lag behind. “When we see that there is an investor in China, who is ready to invest money in the enterprise, the investor is welcome to come here on these terms. So we do it accurately and carefully. Just like you did it. And as you can see it has preserved our stability. Belarus is the only ex-USSR state that has seen no wars or human deaths as a result of confrontations. Because the matter of stability was important for us,” noted Alexander Lukashenko.

The Belarus President drew attention to fight against corruption. “How are we different from China? Virtually no differences. We have a similar legal base. We have the same attitude to swindlers, cheaters, and thieves. We fight corrupt officials just the way China does, using the most severe methods,” said the head of state.

“Or let’s talk about attitude to people,” continued Alexander Lukashenko. “Your government aims to satisfy needs of people, create jobs for them and give them decent salaries. You have advanced far to achieve those goals. Just like we have. We learned from you in the past. I was criticized for it for a long time but now everyone can see that I was right.”

“This stability helps us overcome all kinds of hardships: temporary and long-term ones. And it will last. A socially oriented economy, a market economy. We don’t discuss it. We will follow this way. In the end everything we do today, we do it for the people, you do and we do. Who needs it after all? People do,” stressed the President.

“Therefore, whatever we do, we always aim to take care of people. Certainly, we don’t always manage to pull it off, mistakes can happen, but it happened in your history, too. Nevertheless, we continue moving forward. We didn’t make mistakes with regard to the key thing. And it gives us hope that the country will remain as stable in the future,” believes the Belarusian leader.