Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 8 January (BelTA) – Belarus needs to work towards getting into the group of high-income countries, Belarus’ Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said in an interview with Belarus One TV channel, BelTA has learned.

According to Andrei Kobyakov, it will take hard work in the economic sector to increase wages for workers with salaries lower than the average one across the country. “We, however, must not get self-complacent. We need to continue working and seeking new areas of development so that we could get into the group of high-income countries,” the prime minister said.

“We need to understand that there are countries which we surpass in progress and there are many states which go ahead of us in material production, innovativeness and knowledge-intensive economic development. Here we have something to aim at,” Andrei Kobyakov said.

The premier noted that the country’s economy should get on a track of growth in 2018. It is expected that Belarus’ GDP will go up 3.5%. “We are a developing economy. One of the problems for such economies is a risk of falling into a middle-income trap when the country loses its competitive edge in the exportation of manufactured goods because wages are on a rising trend. These should not happen,” he said.