Krutoi: We need to keep working as hard
Political campaigns are still far away, but we need to work now, without losing steam, Head of the Belarus President Administration Dmitry Krutoi told the media after the conference of the president held on 10 September to discuss topical domestic policy matters and preparations for political campaigns, BelTA has learned.
"The political campaign is still far away, as the president said, but we need to work now and keep up the momentum," Dmitry Krutoi said following the event. According to him, one of the important topics became handling of people’s petitions. The legislation in this area was updated two years ago.
"One way or another, our self-exiled opposition spread an endless amount of fakes related to various fields every day," Dmitry Krutoi emphasized. “We are calm about it. The president asked about the current emphasis in the information agenda and in terms of citizens' petitions to the President Administration, about the most problematic topics that concern our society."
For example, during the active preparation for the new academic year, fakes related to school uniforms, the content and the prices of textbooks were spread in the information field. "Jobs and wages are being widely discussed on the Internet. Fakes say that an economic bubble is supposedly growing in Belarus, because wages rise at an accelerated pace," Dmitry Krutoi cited another negative example.
He explained that the analysis of citizens' petitions shows that people are concerned about absolutely other things: "We do not observe a big surge. Even in some regions the number of petitions has decreased, for example, in Minsk and Grodno. There is a slight increase in Vitebsk and Mogilev. Usually, people are not concerned about global political matters, but about specific domestic and social issues related to the place where they live."
About 30% of the petitions are related to housing and utilities, and this number has not changed for many years. However, there are more and more petitions regarding the quality and maintenance of roads. "People know that for the last two years the government has significantly increased and even redistributed part of the budget allocations in favor of road construction. Therefore, everyone wants these plans to apply to the area where they live," the head of the President Administration explained. According to him, during the meeting the president encouraged civil servants to explain to people the situation with roads "more concretely, honestly and transparently" using specific districts as examples, not only nationwide. In general, the attitude to the improvement of the road network at the level of republican and regional highways is positive. "But, nevertheless, some specific places cause a certain resonance," Dmitry Krutoi said.
As for jobs and wages, the head of state once again drew attention to the great importance of this matter for people. "The president considers the level of people's income and employment as the most important factors," Dmitry Krutoi pointed out. According to him, unemployment in Belarus is now at the lowest level. Certain branches of the economy even do not have enough workers. He explained that the growth of wages is going in accordance with the forecast figures within the framework of the country's medium-term development plan until 2025. "We do not exceed production, export, and income targets. There is no sensation," he emphasized. "Despite the sanctions pressure (almost half of the Belarusian economy is under some kind of sanctions), we are meeting all the forecast figures."
These figures will become the basis for the country's development plan for the next five years, which was also discussed at the meeting with the president. The head of state announced the holding of the Belarusian People’s Congress in early 2025, where it is already planned to outline the country's prospects for the next five years. "So that during 2025, when the active work on the country's development plan until 2030 begins, we will understand what directions we will follow," Dmitry Krutoi said.