Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 15 May (BelTA) – Over 5,000 Belarusian enterprises have a modernization program and have started implementing one already. The information was released by Vice Premier of Belarus Piotr Prokopovich at the opening of the Belarusian Industrial Forum on 15 May, BelTA has learned.

“Virtually all the Belarusian enterprises have embraced modernization. Over 5,000 enterprises have a modernization program and have started implementing one,” said the Vice Premier. At the same time 20-25% of Belarusian enterprises are busy preparing for modernization, working on design and estimate documentation, business plans and credit lines. “But they will get down to implementing their projects within the next 2-3 months,” said Piotr Prokopovich. “The Belarusian Industrial Forum will help them fulfill this task”.

According to Piotr Prokopovich, complex modernization of the national economy envisages more than technical changes. The process involves the assimilation of the latest technologies, latest research and production achievements, and new kinds of merchandise. The process also involves economic modernization, the introduction of the most advanced management systems that will help hone the competitive edge of products, BelTA has been told.

Held as part of the forum, the expo BelPromEnergo features the most important achievements of the production sector, power engineering, and the use of renewable kinds of energy. “It is necessary to introduce all of that at our enterprises,” Piotr Prokopovich believes. This is why the forum is of vital importance for the national economy now, when the country has embarked upon large-scale modernization. “At the forum we should try to sign new investment agreements, address problems of creating new enterprises. It is very important for the events of the forum to be aimed at achieving key goals: it is necessary to raise living standards of our people through modernizing the economy and raising labor productivity in line with the social and economic development program for 2011-2015, it is necessary to raise the competitive ability of products and use it to bolster the export potential,” stressed the Vice Premier. He reminded that the production sector has to export 80-85% of the output.

Piotr Prokopovich added that it is also important that technical modernization is in progress while ecological problems are being dealt with. “Modernization does not happen without ecology, they are mutually related,” he stated. “The future of the world economy lies with renewable kinds of energy. It is our future therefore while dealing with modernization at every enterprise, we should deal with these problems, too,” believes the Vice Premier. Energy effectiveness, energy and resource saving are the common goal that Belarus tries to achieve while carrying out complex modernization.