English

Official suggests moving some government offices outside Minsk

 

The head of the State Control Committee on Friday suggested moving the offices of the Minsk Regional and Minsk District Executive Committees from the Belarusian capital to other cities.

Speaking at a government conference chaired by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Alyaksandr Yakabson said that the measure would reduce the capital city’s population and ease its parking and congestion woes, according to the presidential press office. The official noted that the local government agencies could be moved to some of Minsk’s satellite cities, in particular Zaslawye.

Referring to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s 2011 directive that ordered the population of Minsk limited to 1.8 million people, Mr. Yakabson said that the number of the city’s residents had already surpassed 1.9 million and continued growing.

Minsk’s population keeps rising mostly because more and more people move to the city from across Belarus, attracted by higher-paying jobs and a higher standard of healthcare, education and entertainment, said the official.

Mr. Yakabson said that the creation of industrial and research hubs in the provinces could be a solution to the city’s overpopulation problem. In addition, he noted, the government should raise the standard of education at provincial universities, which would encourage would-be students to apply to schools in cities other than Minsk.
Another solution to the problem could become reducing the construction of housing in Minsk and around it and building more housing in other areas, he said. “Today the volume of housing built in the Minsk district alone is by 50 percent more than the volume of construction in the Vitsyebsk or Mahilyow regions,” he concluded. //BelaPAN