Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 11 October (BelTA) - The good mood of the ice hockey fans is more important than the extra $10 million, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told a press conference for Russian regional mass media, BelTA learned.

“I have warned everybody both private traders and state-owned retail organizations not to overprice their services during the IIHF World Championship. Usually, you know, prices are sky-high during big sports events. Ukraine is still criticized for the European Football Cup,” said the head of state.

In his view, people who come to the country to attend a big sports event will still pay hotel services even if they are thrice as high, but "leave the country with bad impressions”. “Let’s imagine we get this extra $ 3 million or $10 million. Well, what is $10 million for the country?” asked Alexander Lukashenko. According to him, the impressions of the guests about the country are more important. "We will be careful here and will not allow service providers to overprice their services and hurt people," he said.

Asked whether Belarus uses its transit opportunities efficiently, the President noted that "there is a room for improvement and the country is working on this.” In this respect, he mentioned the establishment of toll road in Belarus.

Alexander Lukashenko reminded the journalists about his reasoning to introduce a departure fee at the border for citizens going shopping in the EU. “In January-August some of our citizens visited the European Union 700 times. They take there fuel or some other products and bring clothes to sell here. We used to call them profiteers. Today it is a business. Every year our citizens take out $3 billion to buy rags in the EU, in Lithuania, Poland. And they say the Belarusians are poor...,” said the Belarusian leader and stressed that he believes this is the problem.

Meanwhile, Belarusian products are of high quality and in demand in the Russian market, the President said. “Linen, clothes, footwear sell out within three hours at any fair. This is true for Moscow too, which is a demanding city,” he said. "When Russians suspended the import of Belarusian dairy or some other products, people from Bryansk and Smolensk started coming to Belarus to buy things here. No one has the right to stop them on the border. It speaks volumes about the quality and competitiveness of Belarusian products,” said Alexander Lukashenko.