Siarhei Antusevich: Belarusian officials visit Vilnius for shopping

Import substitution in Belarus is a useless waste of time and money.

Siarhei Antusevich, the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, spoke to charter97.org about Mikhail Miasnikovich's recent statement. The Belarusian prime minister said Belarusians spent too much foreign currency in Lithuania and Poland.

“If even the head of the government notices the problem, it really exists. In Belarus, such problems are given attention when they become a dangerous trend. Even when it was prohibited to go abroad more than once in 8 days, queues on Polish and Lithuanian borders didn't become shorter. People prefer one-day shopping tours and spend more time on border than in shopping malls. What attracts people there is a question both for the Belarusian small business and big enterprises that, unlike Vilnius and Bialystok, cannot meet the demand and offer good quality,” the trade union leader is confident.

He adds that big shopping centres appeared in Minsk, but Lithuania and Poland offer high-quality goods and have plenty of shopping malls.

“The main thing is prices. Europe widely uses seasonal discounts. More and more Belarusians go there firstly to spend their money and secondly to change scene. People feel different in a free country. The authorities hardly make Belarusians buy domestic goods. This problem has roots in the Soviet times, when we had black marketeers instead of shopping centres. Anyway, people want to wear clothes of famous brands. No Belarusian businessmen can outdo Chinese or Polish light industry,” said the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions.

He stressed that the idea of import substitution was a useless waste time and money.

“We just should study how the Poles developed their light industry. We need to adopt experience of reforms instead of releasing instructions and decrees. I think Miasnikovich and other Belarusian officials go shopping in Vilnius. I don't hide that I buy clothes in Bialystok in order not to waste my time and be scared with Belarusian prices. They are sometimes not just inadequate, they are wild,” Siarhei Antusevich says.

Belarusian PM Miasnikoivch called on regional, city and district executive committees to work more actively with private business in the production sector.