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12.11.2012

Belarus President in favor of government control in economy

MINSK, 12 November (BelTA) – It is important to keep the government control over economic processes. Alexander Lukashenko made the relevant statement at the meeting with students and professors of the International Economic Relations Department of the Belarusian State Economic University on 12 November, BelTA has learned.

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that the Belarusian economy is affected by crisis phenomena that happen across the globe. In his opinion, the government has no right to leave the economy when the economy is wide open.

According to the head of state, sovereign Belarus uses its own tried and tested economic development model, which relies on a combination of market economy institutions and effective mechanisms of government control and the implementation of a powerful social policy. The economic model has been tried and tested and has become the strategic foundation for the development of the Belarusian state. Alexander Lukashenko underlined that the system survives because it is flexible and gets constantly modernized.

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that he appreciates competition as the best thing about market economy. “We often argue about it with Westerners and even Russian colleagues. Many say that the government should stay out of the economy or its presence should be miniscule. However, nobody has come up with a scale to measure involvement. But we have been clearly and determinedly saying from the start that government control should not be removed from the economy,” said the head of state. In his words, there are many heated arguments about the social aspect, too. Many say that a person should be responsible for himself and the economy should not contain any social component. “We have been univocally saying for many years that everything that exists in the state should cater to the individual,” said the President.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, the government should be present in areas where it does no harm, particularly in economy. “But there are workers and enterprises, which are of strategic importance for the government and which should not be allowed to slip out of the government’s grasp. The global crisis is a proof of that. Everyone in the West now cries for the return of regulation, control, and management functions to the government. Which country, do you think, was the first one to cry for it? The United States of America. Economists have forgotten their theory. In Europe – Frenchmen and Germans – have also started talking about regulation, regulation of finances at that. Russia used to criticize us a bit but it is now talking about the regulation, including the regulation of the banking industry, finances. The creation of a super regulator is under consideration,” he said.

According to the President, it is impossible to return to state administration and perform the functions of control and regulation of economic processes tens of years later. “If the leverage is lost, if the government has not done it for some time, it is very difficult to resume doing it,” he remarked. Alexander Lukashenko pointed out that there was no need to hurry up with saying farewell to some government control and administration functions. “If we wanted to criminalize the economy one more time, we could leave it alone and could get the full set of crimes that exist in some countries, including so-called democratic and developed economy ones,” said the President.