Lukashenko promises to continue "fighting" for cheap energy :: Charter'97 :: News

Aleksandr Lukashenko has promised that the Belarusian government will not stop "fighting" for cheap energy supplies. The Belarusian government will not "leave the people in trouble" but will "do everything to create optimum conditions" for them, official information sources quoted the Belarusian leader as saying on Friday at a ceremony inaugurating a new plant in Minsk.

"We need to buck up, stop whining and realize that nobody, including the closest countries, will give us cheap gas and oil. But it does not mean that the leadership of the country will stop fighting for cheaper energy, component parts," he said.

Mr. Lukashenko said that despite higher energy prices, the country`s economic growth would not slow down, unveiling plans to modernize "several hundreds" of companies in the next five years and establish some 300 new enterprises. "This will be a totally new economy oriented above all at the processing of domestic material, the biggest possible substitution of imports and energy saving."

He said that the new energy prices had made prudence and production efficiency top of the country`s agenda. "This is an important condition for the implementation of all our plans. This is the question of strengthening energy security and independence of our country," he stressed.