OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2007. By the end of the current five-year planning period the Belarusian light industry should become one of the leading Belarusian industries, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko while visiting Svitanak, a major Belarus’ manufacturer of knitted wear, in Zhodino, Minsk region, reported the Official website of http://president.gov.by.

During his visit to Svitanak, the Head of State discussed the current situation in the Belarusian light industry as a whole.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union caused a breakdown of supplies of raw materials for Belarusian light industry companies; the latter virtually lost their sales markets, as they had no experience of working in a competitive environment. Every new year brought more problems to the light industry which faced an urgent need to upgrade its companies, to employ new energy-efficient equipment.

The President has been paying much attention to this economy sector in recent years. In 2006-2007, the government provided financial support to the Bellegprom concern to the tune of nearly Br 80 billion. Still, the sector is struggling to tackle its financial difficulties, and the quality of its products provokes numerous complains from customers.

In 2007, the concern met but a half of its planned socio-economic targets. Its output was 98.5 per cent as against 2006, while the forecast had been 104-105 per cent.

One of the most serious problems is that around 80 per cent of the concern’s fixed assets are badly worn out now. It is only 50 per cent of all light industry manufacturers in Belarus that operate efficiently, while 61 per cent of their total number had stocks of unsold ready-made goods as of the end of 2007; the stocks were bigger than their average monthly output. This Belarusian concern accounts for no more than 10 per cent of all sales of light industry goods on the Belarusian market.