Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 18 December (BelTA) – Belarus may pioneer the development of electric transport in Europe. Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich made the statement at the ceremony held on 18 December to award distinguished Belarusians, BelTA has learned.

“The government has set up a taskforce in charge of working out proposals for electric transport development in our country. In several years we are going to commission the decent electricity generating capacity of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. As you know a nuclear power plant cannot adjust its output radically and has to keep it constant. At night Belarus will have a large volume of electricity to spare. As far as electric cars and the relevant recharging stations are concerned, we can be kind of pioneers among European countries,” said the Prime Minister.

According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, the government has already formulated concrete tasks to develop this sphere. The tasks include new technologies, new jobs, the saving of conventional kinds of fuel. The development of this sphere will contribute to the development of other branches of the economy.

According to the Prime Minister, the development of a biotechnology cluster in Belarus looks as promising. “We have an advantage because we have good domestic research products that can be used to set up new enterprises. The work is in progress already. At present the annual output of biotechnology products is estimated at $500 million despite the fact that we started this five-year term virtually from zero,” he said.

A lot is being done to develop pharmaceutical industry. The production sector sometimes fails to live up to present-day requirements. In particular, Mikhail Myasnikovich mentioned the production of various biologically active additives. The Prime Minister said that if relevant interesting proposals for pharmaceutical industry development are available, including proposals from foreign investors, the government is ready to enable conditions to support these projects.