Five-year social and economic development to be adopted at All-Belarusian People’s Assembly

The program of Belarus’ social and economic development in the period between 2016 and 2020 will be presented to the delegates to the Fifth All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, Mikhail Myasnikovich, chairman of the Council of the Republic, said at the upper parliamentary chamber’s meeting on Thursday.

Mr. Myasnikovich did not specify when the Assembly would take place.

He said that work on the government’s draft 2016 National Budget Law, Social and Economic Development Forecast for 2016 and 2016 Monetary Policy Guidelines and on the draft social and economic development program was nearing completion.

On October 14, Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered Mr. Myasnikovich, who leads a monitoring group that generates proposals for encouraging social and economic development, to involve lawmakers and prominent experts in the discussion of the documents.

Mr. Myasnikovich said that a “competent working group” had already been set up to handle the matter, and that he had submitted the first proposals to Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakow and Pavel Kalaur, head of the National Bank of Belarus.

Mr. Myasnikovich noted that he had just learned about Mr. Lukashenka’s decision to hold a “special meeting” on October 20 to discuss “approaches to 2016 and the responsibility of the staff for the fulfillment of social economic tasks facing the country.”

The Fifth All-Belarusian People’s Assembly was expected to be held as the culmination of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s reelection campaign, just like the previous four Assemblies. Experts suggested that Mr. Lukashenka had decided against holding the event ahead of the October 11 presidential election because of his failure to deliver on promises made five years earlier.

Mr. Lukashenka held the First All-Belarusian People’s Assembly in October 1996, shortly before a constitutional referendum that extended his first five-year term of office by two years and gave him sweeping powers.

At the Second All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, held in May 2001, participants adopted the 2001-05 social and economic development program and Mr. Lukashenka delivered a report titled, "For a Strong and Prosperous Belarus," which became the motto of his campaign in that year’s presidential race.

Participants at the Third All-Belarusian People’s Assembly and Fourth All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, held shortly before the 2006 and 2010 presidential elections, respectively, lauded Mr. Lukashenka’s policies and unanimously adopted five-year social and economic development targets. // BelaPAN