Belarus President promises aid to companies affected by global financial crisis

The state will help Belarusian companies, which have been affected by the global financial crisis, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told the AFP news agency (Agence France-Presse) in an interview. “We are helping and will help. We will support them. So far they haven’t asked major aid from us. First of all, we make them work hard instead of freeloading on the crisis. We will help where the help is needed,” he remarked. The President said, “The state has not left the economy unattended and will not, especially in this time of financial crisis”. “This economic crisis has taught a lot, especially Europeans,” stated Alexander Lukashenko. “Europeans talk more and more about our economic development model, the Belarusian model”. On the whole, the President believes a crisis is luck for the strong and a curse for those, who used to gamble on markets. “One who survives the crisis is strong. He will take a decent place after the crisis and will be successful on the market. Belarus was not so involved in it and we don’t have a huge external debt,” stressed the head of state. Alexander Lukashenko said, there is no drain of foreign capital in Belarus at all. The operation of Western banks in Belarus is not so large. According to Alexander Lukashenko, it is natural because they face liquidity problems themselves. “If you come to work here, and we have set up a lot of banks with foreign capital, please, do work in our country,” he said. According to the President, there is another topical problem: the demand for products has plunged by 30-40%. “Our country is export-oriented, this is why we don’t get that much revenues from export these days. This is the biggest problem for us,” stressed the Belarusian head of state.

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