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issues surrounding unsettled debts owed to Minsk for construction works carried out overseas. "I am being informed that the payment for the construction of the Garlyk mining and refining facility has not been received so far," Lukashenko said. "The government should undertake prompt measures to resolve these issues. If need be, you should involve the [Belarusian] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our representatives on the Eurasian Economic Commission." Meanwhile, according to Turkmen media reports, the Belarusian government asked Turkmenistan to allow the plant to be launched on March 31, 2017 and promised to finish construction work and supply all the missing equipment before the end of 2017 within the framework of an additional contract. As a result, "has hardly done anything since then to finish the project", according to the gundogar-news.com online outlet. According to report, although the plant was expected to produce 350,000 metric tonnes of fertilizers in the first year of operation, it has filed to produce even 5% of the stated production capacity. At the top of that, Turkmenistan is worried about possible threats of accidents that may claim victims and have a serious environmental impact. In November 2018, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov criticised the Garlyk plant’s performance. The facility’s production supposedly amounted to just 2.3% (32,300 tonnes) of its originally projected output volume.
32 BELARUS Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com