Lukashenko: talented people, intellect of the nation – the greatest wealth for Belarus
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has visited today the National Children’s Technopark in Minsk. The Head of State congratulated students and teachers on Knowledge Day and the beginning of a new academic year.
Addressing the children, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that today’s meeting on Knowledge Day is symbolic, “All representatives of the authorities visit schools, colleges and universities today. Of course, how can one get around this great temple of the most promising, most intelligent, advanced and literate. You are not children. You are already adults. Your knowledge and even experience – all this together suggests that you are adults. It was the desire for new knowledge that brought you – gifted and talented – to our National Technopark.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the idea of creating a technopark originated at the moment when he visited a similar educational centre Sirius in Sochi, “And this idea fell on fertile ground. I have been there several times and studied this centre in detail. My guide there was the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who initiated the creation of the Sirius centre in Sochi. At that time, I told him that it would also be nice to set up a similar technopark in Belarus, and that we need Sirius to support us. He gave the relevant order right there. So we, studying the experience of Russia, first of all, and then of the whole world, set about creating this centre here.”
The President urged the pupils of the National Children’s Technopark to work for their country in the future and remember it, “So that you live on this land, which raised you. This worries me, of course. Although I understand that you are people of the future, people of science. And science today cannot be isolated within the framework of even the largest advanced state. Science is international, and it has always been like that. Only then it has a prospect for development when it is international. But wherever you are, you must remember that this is your land, that this land has done everything for you to grow up literate, advanced and able to work in any country.”
The Belarusian Head of State noted that the current pupils of the technopark are a kind of pathbreakers, because for two years the educational institution has been practicing, testing, and seeing what is best, “And already this year you are studying here, gaining knowledge and practice like modern people. We can say that you’re standing at the origins.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko paid special attention to another area: the commercialisation of the results of the work of the technopark’s students, “You are no longer small children. You are creating ‘some’ product. I say ‘some’ because I don’t know how it would take root in the markets and would you be able to sell it. But we will do everything and help you if you come up with something, invent something useful for production, for our country, be it industry, agriculture, transport, communications, etc. We will be happy to purchase this product from you as a matter of priority. That is, today it’s necessary to produce and sell, commercialise your knowledge.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko drew attention to the fact that after gaining sovereignty, by creating a technopark, we looked beyond the horizon. One of his first assignments was to establish funds to support gifted and talented youth.
“I have always said and I will repeat today: talented people, the intellect of the nation is the greatest wealth for Belarus,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. “If there are such people, we will cope with any challenges, maybe we will manage without a large amount of oil and natural gas. The key to preserving sovereignty and statehood is you, too. You are the future in general. You are the smartest, and you have proven it.”
The President underlined that very hardworking, disciplined and purposeful people live in our country, “Just think that back in 1944, the war was still raging, a third of the population died, almost all cities and villages were destroyed, roads and bridges were destroyed, but Minsk was already carrying out restoration works. Our fraternal republics rendered us enormous assistance. An automobile plant was being built in 1944, which produced the first MAZ trucks already in 1947 while two years later, the first Belarus tractor rolled off the assembly line of the Minsk Tractor Works. Enormous efforts were required for this. It was in Minsk that the first serial Soviet computer was created, which was a real intellectual and labour feat for the generation that still remembered the horrors of that war. We, Belarusians, are proud of the fact that we then did the impossible.”
