Posted: 16.06.2022 17:44:30

Lukashenko: future-oriented areas, including biotechnology, should be developed in Belarus

The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, believes future-oriented areas, including biotechnology, need to be developed in the country, BelTA reports

Photo: www.belta.by

As he was being reported today on the integration of biology and medicine, the Head of State explained that such attention to biology is not due to his youngest son’s interest in this sphere. “I generally admire chemists, mathematicians, biologists, and physicists. I am purely a humanities-minded person, but I have faced [the issue] profoundly at the state level. It is hardly possible to do without biology. No medicine can exist without biology. COVID scared us, and we quickly began to produce a vaccine – taking technology and something else from there, bringing it here, mixing and making… And what about our own? We have the basis, and we had to build a factory. Biology is everywhere," the President said, adding, “These viruses... We had COVID yesterday, and now monkeypox has come, or something else. Well, there is no way without the science of life (as it is being qualified by you). Therefore – when faced with this – I realised that we need to somehow seriously approach medicine, healthcare, science based on biology."

Aleksandr Lukashenko informed that he had agreed with the President of Russia to liaise in this sphere, “The best samples in the world are here, and we have agreed with President Putin. He is great – [saying]: you are welcome, any laboratories [can be used]. The most advanced biological laboratory [in Russia], as he told me, was created in Sirius [educational centre].”

According to the President, Vladimir Putin invited Belarusians to take advantage of the Russian experience and, among other things, to jointly develop the relevant branch in Belarus. "We should take advantage of this, also getting acquainted with the best samples in the world regarding development of medicine, healthcare, biology, and so on. There is no way without biotechnology. As you can see, we have started to act in this direction in Belarus – not today or yesterday, but the day before yesterday," the Belarusian leader noted.

The Head of State stressed the importance of developing other advanced areas. A couple of days ago, the situation in the microelectronics industry was studied at the Presidential level. “Today we are focusing on biology, and we will further look at other future-oriented areas related to defence and economic development – such as, for example, nuclear power or space. The Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation has been built. These areas will always be in demand. Let us think of how we will develop them – so that not to lag behind and not to lose our own school,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.