The performance of the Belarusian economy in 2013 and the first four months of 2014 indicates that the traditional model of the development of the industrial sector has ‘exhausted itself,’ Prime Minister Mikhail Miasnikovich said during a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday.
It is necessary to take decisive measures to improve the situation of the industrial sector and radically restructure it, Mr Miasnikovich said.
Unlike the construction sector, the agricultural sector and farm produce processing industry, and the utility services sector, the industrial sector, a leading branch of the Belarusian economy, does not have an inter-agency group generating proposals for improving its performance, he stressed.
The official expressed concern that companies under the authority of the industry ministry were rapidly losing ground to other sectors of the economy in terms of their contribution to Belarus’ overall industrial output. They accounted for 12.8 percent of the country`s industrial output as of May 1, or two percentage points less than four months before, he said.
Mr Miasnikovich ordered First Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Siamashka to take urgent measures to remedy the situation. He stressed the need to improve management systems and reduce costs and noted the poor efficiency of so-called holding companies. The mergers that resulted in their establishment were often purely mechanical, he explained.
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