OREANDA-NEWS. November 28, 2007. To foster socio-economic progress in small and medium towns of Belarus is critical for dynamic growth of Belarusian economy as a whole, reported the Presidential website http://president.gov.by.

The state programme of development of regions, small and medium towns is as much important for the country as the state rural revival programme, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at the regular seminar for top-level officials of the central and local government bodies held under the topic “Development of Small Towns and Villages is the Priority Goal of Social and Economic Development of the Country”.

Accelerated development of small and medium towns has been named a state priority at the Third All-Belarus People’s Assembly. The socio-economic development programme of Belarus for the period ending in 2010 identifies accelerated development of small and medium towns as one of the deriving forces behind national economic growth.

Currently, Belarus is implementing the national comprehensive programme of development of regions, small and medium population centres 2007-2010. Its main goal is to boost people’s welfare through rational distribution of production resources, stepping up the level of development, efficiency and competitiveness of economy at the local level.

The state comprehensive programme provides for all-round development of 183 population centres, with the population in each of them not exceeding 50,000 people. Nearly one fourth of the country’s entire population live there.

The strategic goal of the programme is to make small and medium towns most favourable and safe places for people to live and work, the President said. “This is a comprehensive programme, and nobody will be able to wind it down. The implementation of this document has been under strict control,” said Alexander Lukashenko. “There is a need to encourage the population to participate, as much as possible, in solving the tasks that have been set. Everyone must work to help implement this programme. People must understand: we are doing this for our children and grandchildren,” he added.

It is in small and medium towns, at small and medium companies that Belarus has a considerable reserve for further production growth and for improving the quality of life of the people, the President said. “If we manage to boost our efforts in this area, we will achieve huge socio-economic improvements nationwide,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

Speaking about the factors responsible for promoting economic growth at the local level, Alexander Lukashenko emphasised the need to encourage the development of private business in small towns. Relevant measures have already been taken in this area. They include preferential tax treatment based on simplified taxation schemes, the auctioning off of inefficient or poorly-managed state-run property with the initial price amounting to one base value and the opportunity of free provision of such property under specific investment projects.

One of the short-term priorities is to create new jobs and improve the labour remuneration system in small and medium towns across the country. In 2007-2010, over 100,000 new jobs will be created under the programme of development of regions, small and medium towns, and salaries will be nearly doubled. As a result, the unemployment rate in these population centres is expected to fall to 1 per cent of all able-bodied people in prime working years. By 2011, the number of people working in the real production sector in these population centres is expected to rise by more than 7 per cent to 860,000.

“We must fulfil the programme of development of small and medium towns. A good basis has been laid down for it. The main thing today is to eliminate all unnecessary bureaucratic procedures and mobilise our efforts,” Alexander Lukashenko said.