Page 4 - BELRptAug18

2.0 Politics
Major Russian companies alongside the "big entrepreneurs in positions of power behind them" are responsible for the illegal transit of food sanctioned in Russia via Belarus , President Alexander Lukashenko said on July 17. "It is a major headache for us," government news agency BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying. "We do a crazy amount of work for Russia. The customs service and other agencies tell me that quarrels happen all the time over there. Biased articles [in mass media] are frequent. And we are getting reprimanded. Instead of gratitude they often blame us for doing a poor job stopping the embargoed goods." Over the past years, Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has repeatedly urged Minsk to stop illegal re-exporting Western and Ukrainian dairy and meat products, as well as fruits and vegetables to Russia. Recently, Russia intended to impose a ban on imports of milk, cream, whey and other dairy products from Belarus, but refused to do it without clear explanations of the move. Lukashenko added that according to the Belarusian security services, "all the negative processes relating to the banned imports and other matters are handled by Russian companies, sometimes major ones, with big entrepreneurs in positions of power behind them". "We should speak about it, too. No need to be shy. Don't tell the Russian customs service. Tell the government and the president of the Russian Federation so that they could straighten things out. I say it to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin often. But facts should be presented," Lukashennko underlined. According to the Belarusian State Customs Committee, since Russia enforced trade restrictions against individual countries and commodity groups the Belarusian customs service has carried out over 4,700 special raids, with the labour costs exceeding 108,000 man-hours. Some 2,200 administrative violations have been detected. As many as 30 criminal cases have been opened to investigate the illegal transportation of 25,000 tonnes of banned imports.
3.0 Macro Economy 3.1 Macroeconomic overview
Belarus' economic growth was higher than expected in the first half of this year topping 4.5%, which is almost twice the 2.8% forecast at the start of the year. The government is using the windfall to pay down external debt early and meet its major social and economic development targets, Belarus Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said at a government meeting on August 2.
All regions have reported an increase in the gross regional product and productivity the prime minister said. Processing manufacturing expanded by 7.9%, construction by 7.5%, trade (wholesale and retail) by 7.8%. Agriculture and transport went up by 3.9% and 3.7% respectively. Production of machinery and equipment surged by 19.2%, transport vehicles by 13.7%, woodworking products by 14.8%, and pharmaceutical products by 11.9%.
4 BELARUS Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com