Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorsky said that Minsk expected a Belarusian-Russian dispute over carriage of goods traveling from the Kaliningrad exclave to mainland Russia to be settled soon.
Resolving the dispute is a technical matter, official information sources quoted the premier as saying on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the Belarusian State Customs Committee tightened control over the movement of such goods, saying that some shipments officially in transit via Belarus never arrived at the place of destination.
In response, the Russian transport ministry decided to bar Belarusian trucking companies from carrying shipments to Russia from a third country and vice versa. The Belarusian customs agency replied that the Russian ministry had failed to "take into account external circumstances."
Mr. Sidorski said that the matter should be settled by "specific officials in charge of this work," by those in Russia above all, rather than by the prime ministers.
He accused Russia of violating bilateral agreements and said that Belarus was doing everything possible to establish a valid customs union with Russia.
Mr. Sidorski said that talks about transit shipments had recently been held in Smolensk. He said that he had been told that the matter would be settled in "a day or two."
According to him, the Belarusian delegation to the talks had suggested setting up a permanent working group that would be in charge of transport issues. The Russian delegation has not yet replied.
It is quite possible to ensure an export surplus in Belarus' foreign trade in 2007, official information sources quoted Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski as saying at Wednesday's news conference.
According to Mr. Sidorski, the government has proposed a number of measures that should be enough to ensure an export surplus. As he said, the task confronting the government is to ensure that this year's exports exceed imports by five percent.
The premier noted that the expected economic results of the first quarter of 2007 were making him confident that the task would be fulfilled.
Belarus' average before-tax monthly pay dropped by 7.6 percent to 617,244 rubels this past January compared with December 2006, while consumer prices rose by 1.9 percent, according to the country's Ministry of Statistics and Analysis.
Real average pay reportedly dropped by 9.5 percent in January 2007.
The dollar equivalent of average before-tax monthly pay fell from $312.2 in December 2006 to $288.4 in January 2007, and the euro equivalent dropped from €237.1 to €222.6.
In 2006, average before-tax monthly pay increased by 18.8 percent and inflation-adjusted average pay by 11.5 percent. //BelaPAN
Belarusian and Latvian border control experts met in Riga on February 27 to exchange experience in detecting document forgery, said the press office of Belarus' State Border Troops Committee.
The program of the two-day meeting envisages the Belarusian delegation's visit to Latvia's State Border Guard College and the checkpoint at the Riga International Airport, according to the press office.
The Belarusian experts will reportedly familiarize themselves with the system of training criminalistics experts. Officers at the airport's checkpoint will show them their practical skills in detecting fake documents.
The Belarusian delegation will share experience in using of a criminalistics laboratory for examining documents, the press office said. //BelaPAN
The Belarusian Council of Ministers, by its February 22 directive, adopted a list of the 15 most important indicators of the country's economic security, which would be monitored.
As official information sources said with reference to the secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the indicators include the degree of wear and tear of the main production facilities at the end of the year, the share of fixed capital expenditures in proportion to GDP, scientific research spending in proportion to GDP, the share of new products in overall industrial output, the share of domestic resources in the consumption of boiler and furnace fuels, grain output per capita, the share of imports in total retail food sales, the deficit of the consolidated budget in proportion to GDP, the government's foreign and domestic debts in proportion to GDP, the level of the government's gold and hard currency reserves in months of import, the unemployment rate, the proportion of the population with incomes below the Subsistence Minimum Budget, the minimum retirement pension in proportion to the Subsistence Minimum Budget for the retirees, and the proportion between exports and imports in foreign trade in goods and services.
According to the cabinet, the monitoring of the indicators is a system of continuous observation, scientific analysis and estimation for the purpose of achieving the goals specified in the 2006-2010 program of the country's social and economic development.
The objectives of the monitoring include the collection, processing and analyzing of data about the state of the indicators, and the prompt detection of deviations from the projected levels. //BelaPAN
The Belarusian government plans to draw up to €1 billion in investments in 2007 with the help of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (RZB), official information sources said while reporting on Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski's meeting with Patrick Butler, a member of the RZB Managing Board, in Minsk on February 26.
Good relations connect Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Belarus, Mr. Sidorski was quoted as saying at the meeting.
In 2005, the Austrian bank arranged for Belarus to obtain the first syndicated loan, which helped other banks work more efficiently in this sphere, Mr. Sidorski noted.
Mr. Butler reportedly expressed satisfaction with the bank's presence in Belarus. In January 2003, Raiffeisen Zentralbank acquired 50 percent in Belarus' third largest bank, Priorbank, for €30.6 million, and currently holds a 63.04-percent stake in the bank. "These four years show that the investments in Belarus were quite successful," Mr. Butler noted.
During their meeting, Messrs. Sidorski and Butler reportedly discussed the possibility of cooperation in other areas. In particular, Mr. Sidorski suggested using the potential of Raiffeisen Zentralbank for drawing direct investments from foreign financial institutions.
This €1 billion is supposed to be raised through receiving untied syndicated loans from international funds and specialized institutions, and placing bonds among investors, and to be used for the national economy's needs in general and for increasing the efficiency of Belarusian enterprises in particular, explained Priorbank CEO Syarhey Kastsyuchenka in an interview with the government's BelTA news agency. According to him, the RZB will now raise its presence in Belarus to the level of relations with the Belarusian government. It is expected to sign an agreement with the government to assist in drawing foreign financial resources. The RZB has reportedly offered to represent Belarus in international capital markets as a solid and reliable partner.
Mr. Butler said that Belarus is a borrower that has the smallest foreign debt. "Until recently it were banks that were major investors of Belarus, but now various funds display a rather big interest in Belarus," he was quoted as saying. He noted that the expected rates, conditions and terms would be more attractive than those offered by Belarus earlier.
With a balance sheet totaling €103.2 billion as of June 2006, the RZB is the third largest bank in Austria and one of the country's leading commercial and investment banks. It was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Vienna. It is the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group (RBG). The RZB also considers Central and Eastern Europe part of its home market. //BelaPAN
The condition of renowned Belarusian poet Ryhor Baradulin who is currently in the intensive care unit of the Presidential Administration's hospital diagnosed with pneumonia, has markedly improved, his wife, Valyantsina Baradulin, told BelaPAN on Tuesday.
The poet is expected to be transferred to a ward soon. He was hospitalized on February 22 with a fever.
"His condition has markedly improved and he has become much more cheerful. He even asked me to bring him his glasses, a pencil and paper," Mrs. Baradulin said.
The poet is given drugs by intravenous infusion six times a day. He still has a slight fever, but the second breast screening test has showed improvements, according to his wife.
Mr. Baradulin turned 72 on February 24 while in the hospital.
The poet was born in the village of Haradok in the Vitsyebsk region on February 24, 1935. Earlier this year, the poet once again was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for Ksty, which saw the light in 2005 and was translated into many foreign languages.
A book of essays by Belarusian philosopher Valyantsin Akudovich has been published by the Minsk-based Ihar Lohvinaw Publishing House.
Titled The Code of Absense, the book is said to have answers to the question why Belarus is not "where it dreamed to be in the early 1990s."
As Mr. Akudovich said in an interview with BelaPAN, the essays focus on the history of Belarus. "But I have separated the history of the lands that are currently called Belarus from national history," the philosopher stressed. "Many mistake a country's national history for its ancient origin. This is not the case, as national history in all countries is not very long and is connected with the appearance of the national idea in the 18th-19th centuries."
In the book the author looks at the formation of the Belarusian national idea and factors that have prevented the Belarusians from becoming a full-fledged people.
This is the fourth book by Mr. Akudovich. The previous one, Dialogues with God, won an independent literary prize in 2006.
A team of British experts was expected to arrive in Minsk on Monday to inspect a "specified area" in the Brest region to verify the lack of notifiable military activities there under the Vienna Document 1999 on confidence and security building measures, Colonel Alyaksandr Buzhan, chief of the Belarusian defense ministry's National Agency for Control and Inspections, told BelaPAN.
The team, which is led by Lieutenant-Commander James Schnadhorst, is expected to conclude the inspection on March 1.
Adopted by the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation in Istanbul on November 16, 1999, the document came into force on January 1, 2000. It succeeded Vienna Documents adopted in 1990, 1992 and 1994. All the 55 participating countries of the OSCE have acceded to the document.
It is aimed at achieving progress in disarmament and building security and confidence so that the participating countries will meet their commitment to refrain from using force against one another or any other countries.
The leaders of three opposition parties, Vintsuk Vyachorka of the Belarusian Popular Front, Anatol Lyabedzka of the United Civic Party and Syarhey Kalyakin of the Belarusian Party of Communists, as well as Iryna Kazulin, the wife of imprisoned former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin, left for the United States on Sunday afternoon.
As Mr. Kalyakin had told BelaPAN, during the visit, the delegation would have meetings with members of both chambers of the US Congress, Department of State officials, and representatives of non-governmental organizations. "Our main task is to tell them about the present situation in Belarus," Mr. Kalyakin said. "We'll also discuss the USA's possible influence on processes that are taking place in Belarus. There are opportunities, including diplomatic ones, to exert influence on the Belarusian government."
According to Mr. Kalyakin, they would suggest that the United States, the European Union and Russia should cooperate to develop a common policy regarding Belarus. "We would like this policy to be aimed at making Belarus a full member of the democratic community of states and a rule-of-law and rapidly developing nation," he said.
The trip is to last until March 5. //BelaPAN
28 February 2007