Belarusian technical regulations in civil engineering industry to be reformed

MINSK (BelTA) – The Belarusian Architecture and Construction Ministry intends to reform technical standards in the country within two years, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister Dmitry Semenkevich on 22 March.

The Belarusian Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister specified: “The Ministry will only specify technical requirements concerning the safety of construction projects. The current number of regulatory documents exceeds one thousand and will be reduced to over 70 documents. These documents will lay down clear-cut requirements that are to be observed. We intend to accomplish it within two years. In essence the country's technical regulations will be reformed.”

Dmitry Semenkevich explained that architects will take care of the other requirements. According to the source, the Stroytechnorm enterprise is in charge of implementing the technical standards policy in Belarus. Last year the enterprise came up with a concept for reforming the approaches to technical standardization. “We have already started implementing this project this year,” remarked the Belarusian Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister.

“We intend to replace the bulk of the requirements with guidelines for designers. We hope that our public associations, including the Union of Architects, will act as customers in the development of such guidelines,” said the official.

The reform is expected to encourage innovations in the Belarusian civil engineering industry. “At present many say that, unfortunately, our technical norms slow down this process. This is why we are going to specify only the norms, which in no way interfere with innovations,” concluded the Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister.