Belarus’ development programme until 2030 must be effective and realistic

On November 10th, Belarus’ President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting to finalise the country’s socio-economic development programme for 2026–2030. The Head of State emphasised the importance of preparing a high-quality and truly effective document based on real-life conditions, our experience and available resources.

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Aleksandr Lukashenko also reminded that the programme will be submitted for consideration at the Belarusian People’s Congress in just one month.

“This is primarily an issue of our strategy, particularly concerning the socio-economic development, although all related topics are also covered. Therefore, it is extremely important now to make the correct project decisions and submit them for consideration by our delegates at the Belarusian People’s Congress. After discussion, possible revision and approval, the five-year programme will become the law that guides the future work of all state bodies and organisations. I underline: it will become law. This means that what we outline and what is adopted at the Belarusian People’s Congress must be strictly followed,” the President noted.

The Belarusian leader emphasised that state and regional programmes, along with annual forecasts and other related documents, must fully comply with the decisions of the Belarusian People’s Congress. “Adjustments and changes to the country’s development directions can only be made through the decisions of this representative assembly,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.
The Head of State highlighted the importance of preparing a high-quality and truly effective programme, ‘one that avoids unrealistic projects and is based on real-life conditions, our experience and available resources’, “Earlier in the summer, the Government developed the concept for this programme. Several priorities were suggested, which have been frequently expressed by the public and were included into the President’s election programme.”
The Belarusian leader pointed out priorities including the digital economy, robust regional development, roads and transport infrastructure, affordable housing, quality mobile communication, tourism and improved comfort standards.
“Additionally, we face numerous urgent challenges in the economic sector, especially in the areas with significant development potential that could serve as drivers of economic growth. These include enhancing the technological level of production, boosting investment activity of enterprises, reducing various costs, increasing labour productivity and more,” the Head of State pointed out.
The Council of Ministers, together with interested parties, has presented a draft five-year programme outlining five key priorities. As stated in the Government’s report, this plan is further elaborated through related state programme projects, regional strategies and specific target indicators. “As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. Delegates of the Belarusian People’s Congress have expressed their interest in actively contributing to the completion of the document. These people are experts in the field. I supported this initiative and instructed that our top economists and other specialists be involved to offer their insights,” the President said.
A working group was established, consisting of delegates with significant experience and expertise in various fields.  Aleksandr Lukashenko reminded that it is headed by Roman Golovchenko, Chairman of the National Bank’s Board.
People need realistic, comprehensive and understandable document, Aleksandr Lukashenko underlined. 
According to the Head of State, the working group — in co-operation with the Government — has prepared an updated draft of the programme with eight priorities, but the President still has some questions regarding the new version. One of them concerns the content of the sections (cause-and-effect links), and the President noted in this regard, “The proposed indicators (tasks) are a kind of commitment to people. This means that they must be supported by concrete actions, tasks and, most importantly, financing.”
The second point deals with the feasibility and interconnectedness of digitised tasks. “Take, for example, a significant increase in migration: we somewhere recorded the figure of 100,000 people. Does this mean that we are unable to develop our internal labour potential and finally take control of the rational distribution of productive forces evenly throughout the country? This must be done actually, and — as I have said more than once already — we need to start with housing: to build accommodation in places where it is needed for the economy. Moreover, which categories of migrants are included in this number? Let me remind you that we have adopted very strict legislation regarding their integration into the country’s life. That was our people’s demand, they promised that the labour productivity would be much higher.”    
The Head of State noted that he is not against including more intense targets in the programme, if someone would propose them, “Everything must be justified and financially calculated. At the same time, no parameters should be underestimated!”
The third point concerns the inclusion of a priority to strengthen the state’s defence capability. “This topic — being of paramount importance — has its own specifics, it relates to the military policy, strategy and defence,” the President stressed. “In fact, this is about the necessary security contour that ensures peaceful and calm socio-economic development of the country. If a person does not feel the support of the military power, all talks about the economy would be challengeable.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that the developers of the document had carried out a number of preparatory events, organised discussions, launched platforms for collecting people’s proposals, and received 70,000 responses. “With this in view, it is necessary to answer the question of how Belarusians see themselves and how they see their country. We will listen to the opinions today and, taking into account the general opinion, the Government (involving others if necessary) will finalise the draft programme in order to bring it to the delegates of the Belarusian People’s Congress.”
The President commented on the position of Americans who doubt that there are tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.
The inclusion of a priority to strengthen the defence capability in the draft programme was one of the issues on agenda. As noted by Aleksandr Lukashenko, this topic — being of paramount importance — has its own specifics, it relates to the military policy, strategy and defence. Among other things, this is due to the existence of sensitive issues that should not be publicised, and the nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of Belarus is among them. “Americans still claim that they do not know whether Belarus has [nuclear weapons] or not. Well, that’s fine, let them think so. We have warned them. We are not disclosing how much, where, or how… That is my business. They [nuclear weapons] are in a safe place. I said even more: we have ensured it underwent technical maintenance. We took them to Russia, serviced and brought back the most modern version of tactical nuclear weapons. We cannot disclose all this, and not so much for our people as for them [abroad] to show this,” the Head of State stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko added that the same approach applies to the Oreshnik complex, which will be put on combat duty in December. “We will not disclose the details. This is a mobile complex, it will never be stationed in one place. It will change locations and [be able, if necessary] to strike from a certain point,” he stated.

Following the meeting, Dmitry Krutoi, Head of the Belarus President Administration, told reporters that one of the fundamental achievements of the discussion was that no one disagreed on the target indicators. “This applies to gross domestic product, investments, exports, real wage growth, price control and inflation. That is, it is possible to say that in terms of key macroeconomic and financial indicators, the programme is balanced and agreed on,” Dmitry Krutoi emphasised.
The discussion will continue regarding the priorities set out in the programme, and the developers will make a final decision before the meeting of the Presidium of the Belarusian People’s Congress.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by