{"id":79104,"date":"2024-04-11T14:35:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T11:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/79104\/"},"modified":"2024-04-12T14:35:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T11:35:18","slug":"lukasenka-frustrated-with-industrial-slowdown","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/79104\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka frustrated with industrial slowdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka told executives and officials on April 9 to improve Belarus\u2019 industrial performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n \"\"\n
\n \n
\n (pxhere.com)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Why are we slowing down?” he questioned. No one in the audience dared to tell him straight that his political system is to blame because it creates problems out of the blue.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruler scolded his subordinates as if he had come to power yesterday and had to clean out someone else’s mess. Who prevented him from putting the economy in order during his nearly three decades as head of state with royal powers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the contrary, he made a mess of the economy and politics by breaking off ties with the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claims West is afraid of competition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Foreign trade in recent years has been characterized by Belarus\u2019 forced retreat from Western markets, accompanied by “the destruction of cooperative ties with Western suppliers,” the Belarusian leader complained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was one of his favorite tricks – replacing the real causes of tension with the West with imaginary ones, and claiming that Belarus is a too powerful and advanced country for the West to compete with it in a fair way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the European Union suspended almost all sanctions against Minsk, including trade restrictions, after \u0141uka\u0161enka had released all political prisoners in the run-up to the 2015 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European partners were buying cheap gasoline and other petroleum products from Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithuania profited from Belarusian transits, mainly potash, via the port of Klaipeda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe was not enthusiastic about the new sanctions \u2013 a double-edged sword \u2013 but it was forced to respond to Minsk’s brutal crackdown on the peaceful uprising of 2020, a huge number of political prisoners, the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in an operation conducted by Belarus\u2019 security forces, the engineered influx of illegal migrants to the EU borders and \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s complicity in Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sanctions affected industries because the Belarusian strongman refused to count the votes honestly in 2020 and crushed the popular uprising with brutal force and medieval cruelty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soviet-style solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka set his government the task of ensuring technological independence as much as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urging companies to increase the level of localization, he said: “Make sure everyone is aware of the difficult tasks and ensure their implementation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same spirit, he gave advice and instructions on how to tackle other issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, his management style resembles Soviet leaders with their command vocabulary: increase, strengthen and improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Projects to achieve technological sovereignty should drive industrial renewal, help the entire economy to reach an advanced level of efficiency and competitiveness,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, “We need to get closer to the Japanese level of quality.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka also talked about giving up foreign software in favor of domestically-designed solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it is not a bad idea, but was it a good idea to hit programmers with batons on their smart heads in 2020?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the Belarusian IT industry is limping on both legs, as professionals and companies relocate abroad amid political reprisals. Other industries have also been affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka suggested rehiring a few thousand retirees to address a labor shortage. He is expecting those who delivered Soviet quality all their lives to deliver Japanese quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All eggs in Russian basket<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some industrial giants are faltering, he said, citing a decrease in the production of refrigerators, tractors, loaders and engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babrujskahrama\u0161 has cut production by more than a quarter. The Minsk Bearing Plant operated at only 12 percent of its capacity in 2023. Nearly 6.500 tractors are stored unsold at MTZ warehouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka urged companies to compete aggressively in friendly markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia. But the problem is that the friends are mostly poor and backward countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, Russia helps. Officials said that more than 90 percent of Belarusian products are sold in Russia, but even there, Belarusian goods have been priced out by Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has given up on its former effort to diversify trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, almost a third of Belarusian exports went to the EU and a substantial share was sold in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Prime Minister Raman Ha\u0142o\u016d\u010danka reported that Belarus missed out on $16-18 billion in annual revenue from exports to the EU and North America. This is the price of dictatorship and vote rigging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He asked officials “why, after all the high-level talks, do we not cooperate with Equatorial Guinea?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n \"\"\n
\n
\n\n \u0141uka\u0161enka during a visit to Zimbabwe (2023)\n <\/div>\n \n
\n (Press office of the president of Zimbabwe)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In general, ties with the Global South are still weak. Almost everything in Belarus, including logistics, is tied to Russia. All the eggs are in one basket. And the basket is the empire trying to expand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest strategic threat to Belarus is that the country “is being absorbed by the Russian economy,” said Zmicier Kruk, of the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center. In his opinion, “under the current conditions of huge dependence on Russia” Belarus has no chance of “becoming a truly competitive economy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moscow is not helping Belarus for free. In return, it is gradually taking over Belarusian sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia is backward technologically and can hardly help Belarus in this respect. The two regimes have taken a dead-end street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka told executives and officials on April 9 to improve Belarus\u2019 industrial performance. “Why are we slowing down?” he questioned. No one in the audience dared to tell him straight that his political system is to blame because it creates problems out of the blue. The ruler scolded his subordinates as if he had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":78634,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-79104","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u0141uka\u0161enka frustrated with industrial slowdown | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka told executives and officials on April 9 to improve Belarus\u2019 industrial performance. "Why are we slowing down?" he questioned. 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