Belarus President outlines major housing construction targets

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has instructed to ensure an increase in housing construction in Belarus up to 15 million square metres per annum by 2015. The head of state gave the instruction as he heard out a report from Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Piotr Prokopovich on April 28. The presidential press service quoted Piotr Prokopovich as saying, the target is supposed to be reached through maximum increase in individual housing construction and timely preparation of construction sites for it as well as the construction of engineering networks. The President was informed about the fulfilment of his instruction to increase housing construction. In line with the programme designed to achieve the goal housing construction is supposed to reach 10 million square metres per annum by 2011. The NBRB head said, main targets determined by the 2008 Major Monetary Management Guidelines had been successfully reached since early 2008. Over the four months of the year lending to the real economy increased by almost 50% in comparison with the same period of last year. Much attention is paid to housing construction loans, lending to agriculture and consumer loans. Since early this year the interest rate policy has been in line with the Major Monetary Management Guidelines. The NBRB head said, the country’s payment system has been operating stably, with the national currency being steady. Since the beginning of the year the Belarusian rouble gained Br8 against the US dollar or 0.37%. Piotr Prokopovich assured, the trend will continue and at the end of the year the exchange rate of the Belarusian rouble will correspond to the Major Monetary Management Guidelines. The National Bank will try to secure the exchange rate of Br2100 per $1. The stability of the national currency is ensured by the performance of the economy: over the four months foreign currency proceeds have increased by over 40% in comparison with the same period of last year. The country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves have reached $5.5 billion. Thus the annual goal is almost reached. The head of state was also informed about the operation of the Polesie State University, in particular, about steps meant to create a scientific and manufacturing base of the university for the next few years as well as the launch of the work aimed at creating a biotechnologies faculty. The President demanded that everything should be done to make the university a leading higher education establishment in the country, compliant with the best international standards. During the report other issues were considered, including the development of agricultural companies the National Bank takes care of.