OREANDA-NEWS. Only 42% of Belarus' industries have been fulfilling their production upgrade programmes successfully, Belarus' Vice Premier Piotr Prokopovich said a report to President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.

“2,820 Belarusian industrial companies, in which the state holds a stake have prepared production upgrade programmers, including 701 companies, in which the state-owned share exceeds 50%,” the president's press-service reports. Prokopovich admitted a lack of substantial progress in production upgrade: roughly 42% of the enterprises successfully proceed with the modernization program while 25-30% are below the planned targets.

In turn, Lukashenko pointed out that it was necessary to carry out both technical and economic modernization. The head of state spoke about contemporary management systems that produce impressive results without significant material investments.

The president addressed the government with the following speech: “I would like you to dispel my concerns. Yes, we are modernizing enterprises primarily to make good export products, because export is a priority for us, we need foreign currency, it has always been a stumbling block for us. It is likely we will have to be dealing with this issue for a long time just like countries similar to Belarus do. Now that we have borrowed money abroad, bought good equipment and manufactured a quality product, won't our modernization efforts be wasted, if we again end up with overstocked warehouses, because we are unable to sell the merchandise?”