One of the topics was the modernization of agricultural production, including the handover of state-owned agribusiness assets to private companies, which will manage the assets. The matter was discussed using Vitebsk Oblast as an example, however, the president scaled it up to the republican level. «We will consider a variant using Vitebsk Oblast as an example. Privatization would be too drastic a term. It looks like we hand over state properties into management or sell them to private companies right away,» Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
A concrete step-by-step anticrisis plan was worked out for Vitebsk Oblast at the beginning of the year, he added. One of the steps is handing over the underperforming enterprises to a new owner, which will manage the assets. The new owner has appropriate managerial potential and financial resources for rehabilitating the enterprises, getting them to make quality products, and for selling the products on the home market or foreign ones.
In accordance with this strategy a decision has been made to hand over Orsha Meat Canning Plant to Agrokombinat Dzerzhinskiy and to assign individual agricultural enterprises in Orsha District to OAO Savushkin Product. As an investor Savushkin Product has signed a contract to lease the property of OAO Polotsk Dairy Plant for the sake of consequent accelerated development. «It is necessary to understand that such decisions are no gift for a private owner but a burden if anything,» he stated.
Continuing the line of thought, the president noted that in every case obligations have been stipulated, including obligations to modernize manufacturing facilities and repay previously accumulated liabilities. «Naturally, the obligations are not simple. You should also take it into account,» he said.
The president drew attention of the chairman of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee and of the prime minister to the fact that if agribusiness assets are transferred into the management of private companies, then state interests must be prioritized. It is quite logical that a private investor would be interested in buying an enterprise as cheaply as possible. At the same time, the state is interested in getting a reasonable amount of money for various assets.
«I’d like to warn the governor and the prime minister: your heads will roll if everything over there is not fine from the point of view of the state. Certainly, a private owner wants to pay as little as possible. It is natural. But you have to sell it for as much as possible. But we have to understand that the key is not getting some money. Getting money is important but it is not the key. The key is for these enterprises to develop,» Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
The head of state also remarked that heads of private companies would have to invest in the development of the district where these enterprises are located. Among other things processing enterprises will have to pour efforts into the development of their own raw materials base and invest in agriculture. «They will be held accountable for having their own raw materials. Here is land for you. Use it to make raw materials. Pay well to those, who will make them. Pay these people. It is another issue. I want all of you to understand my policy in this regard: we must be statesmen through and through,» Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
He also formulated another requirement for heads of private companies: the money they earn has to stay in the country instead of getting transferred abroad. «All the earnings must stay here. Our guys, who make money here, must invest them here,» the president stressed.
