Price regulation, social issues, personnel policy - President talks to journalists

The President talked to journalists after the meeting. Pricing regulation, social issues, personnel policy - this is the range of topics, which were discussed today at the highest level.

In early October strict price regulation was introduced in the country. With his directive the President actually put the prices "on hold", ordering the government to approve a new price formation procedure. By October 20, the Cabinet of Ministers had adopted the relevant resolution on price regulation. It applied to the majority of goods, from food and clothes to cars and equipment.

Social policy is our brand. Just the day before the President held a meeting on a number of social issues, including improvement of the Social Security Fund. The government was proposed to radically change the system, to include the entire cycle of pension and social insurance in one state body, namely to transfer all issues of the appointment and payment of pensions and benefits to a single structure - the Social Security Fund. But the President did not support the proposed innovations. Today he explained his decision in detail.

Alexander Lukashenko thinks it was right that the decision to accumulate pension funds in the Social Security Fund was taken. The decision to create the Treasury, where budgetary funds are concentrated, was also correct. "It's all done right. I created the treasury, so that banks did not spend the budget money and pensions - it's all in the treasury, in a common fund."

Figuratively speaking, the Social Security Fund accumulates all receipts for subsequent payments of pensions and benefits," - the President briefly formulated the essence of the system.

"I don't see the need to break this system. We have the most conservative stratum of our population - veterans, pensioners. So let this conservative system work, it's life-tested," the President said of the decision.

Alexander Lukashenko explained also why he had rejected the proposal to shift everyone to digital format, which was also discussed yesterday during the report. This issue concerns a very large number of people, because almost everyone has employment records, and the President is no exception in this case.

The initiative to fully digitize work record books and refuse from paper versions is considered extremely untimely by the head of the state: "It's just not the right time. As if there is nothing to do. If we shake up 2.5 million pensioners (they have enough problems) we will not achieve anything for a year, but how much money will be spent on digitization, how many thousands of people should be hired to carry out digitization."

We have agreed to digitize everything bit by bit, year by year," summed up the President. – There is no need for revolutionary upheaval here. In some areas, where it was supposed to radically change the social security system, I did not consider it necessary as long as the system copes with it. What for? The time will come and we'll have another look at it.

The personnel policy was another topic of conversation. The personnel mistakes can be costly. Especially in recent years, when the country, perhaps more than ever, needs a reliable support in the form of public servants.