Lukashenko demands tough control, order in trade

The Trade Ministry and the Belarusian National Union of Consumer Societies (Belcoopsoyuz) should be put in charge of the management and control over trade relations, Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting held to discuss the state and prospects of the consumer cooperation system in Belarus.

Alexander Lukashenko said that problems in trade in general should be studied in the nearest time. “This has nothing to do with this meeting. We are now going to carry out serious inspections in agriculture and then switch to utility facilities. However, nobody wants to check how things are going in trade. In due time we liberalized trade, and it was a bad mistake on our part. Even now all economists say that prices should be subject to regulation unless we have a fierce competition in manufacture,” the President underlined.

“I think that we should take a close look at trade and study the processes that are taking place there. Of course this should not harm trade and other market trends to, but we need to make some decisions. This may be a law or some other document but we should tackle the problems in trade,” the head of state noted.

Alexander Lukashenko said that he had earlier instructed the Prime Minister to review the work of the Trade Ministry. “You suggested dissolving it but this is what I suggest: let us try to save it and load it with work. I ask you to revisit this issue and vest the Trade Ministry and Belcoopsoyuz with the authority to bring order to trade. They should do it. Both the Trade Ministry and Belcoopsoyuz should be responsible for the management and control over trade relations in our country,” the Belarusian head of state underscored.