On 2 June President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko met with Zenon Lomat, Chairman of the State Control Committee of Belarus to receive his report.

According to Mr Lomat, the number of inspections over the past five months has reduced nearly twofold comparing with the same period last year (from 4,278 to 2,190).

A total of seventy proposals have been submitted to the Government regarding ways to reverse some negative trends in the economy. The proposals pertain to the promotion of goods in the domestic market, substitution of imports by analogous domestic products, energy saving solutions, how to streamline the fulfilment of national programmes and optimize mediation services.

Following orders from the President, the State Control Committee is now holding inspections at Mogilev Regional Executive Committee, Belgosstrakh (Belarus’ major underwriter), Beleximgarant (another big insurance company), Belarusian Steel Mill, Integral (research association), Belavia (national air carrier), Slutsk Sugar Refinery and other companies.

Also, the Committee oversees the execution of orders given by the President of the Republic of Belarus. As of 1 June, the Committee was eyeing the execution of 2,146 presidential orders. Out of the 760 orders that had to be carried out by 1 June, only 25 were not executed and the execution of eight more was incomplete.

The Belarusian beer industry was another topic raised in the course of the meeting. One fourth of all beer sold in Belarus is imported beer. The share of Belarusian-made beer in the home market is shrinking. Moreover, the various grey schemes are being increasingly used to import beer. For instance, one natural person is responsible for grey trade in Br15 billion worth of beer through seven pseudo business entities he controlled.

The State Control Committee will continue to oversee the implementation of national, industry and regional programmes, first of all those relating to import substitution. Special attention will be also paid to stiffening the rule of law in land relations, to analysing the current situation in and the outlook for the domestic securities market, to the situation with the production and selling of domestic fabrics and to other issues.