Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

The adoption of the development strategy for the Interstate Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification of the Commonwealth of Independence States (CIS) through 2030 was one of more than 20 issues included in the agenda of the 57th meeting of the council.

The meeting was held in the format of a video conference, BelTA learned from the press service of the State Committee for Standardization of Belarus.

The development strategy reflects a common vision of cooperation areas. They have been harmonized with the CIS development strategy and the norms and rules of international organizations. An action plan of the strategy will be ready by the end of the year, the press service said.

The participants of the meeting also adopted Amendment No.1 to the Program on Interstate Standardization for 2019-202. It included 167 draft interstate standardization documents related to the fuel and energy, mining, metallurgical, petrochemical, chemical, agro-industrial and electrical sectors, as well as light industry, healthcare, engineering, information technology and other areas. The amendment was proposed by Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The fund of interstate standards includes 240 new interstate standards and amendments.

The participants of the meeting approved of a new wording of the procedure to compete for the CIS product and service quality excellence awards. The approved version of the document will be submitted to the CIS Executive Committee.

The eighth contest for the CIS Quality Excellence Award 2021 was announced at the meeting to stimulate the production and export of high quality products and services, innovative technologies and methods of effective management in the organizations of the CIS member states.

In the field of metrology, some national standards of Belarus and Russia have been recognized as interstate standard samples of composition and properties of substances and materials. They are intended for application in the field of state metrological control and supervision, state regulation to ensure uniformity of measurements.

The participants of the meeting discussed draft agreements on technical barriers in mutual trade in the CIS, and also on mutual recognition of accreditation of conformity assessment authorities.

More than 900 healthcare professionals have been honored in Minsk Oblast for their efforts to combat the coronavirus, Natalia Boyarskaya, the head of the main healthcare department of the Minsk regional administration, told BelTA after the awards ceremony in the Minsk trade union culture center.

“Today, we have honored 40 healthcare professionals of the region. All in all, more than 900 people have been rewarded since the pandemic started. The main criteria for the award is selfless work in the fight against COVID-19,” Natalia Boyarskaya said.

First Deputy Healthcare Minister Dmitry Pinevich noted that the fight against COVID-19 continues. “The Healthcare Ministry highly appreciates the work of medics. They worked as one team and professionally. It goes without saying that doctors need to meet the challenges of time, and the authorities help them with this. Otherwise, we would not have had these results. Now healthcare workers can take a breath and get well-deserved applause and awards. This is only a small part of gratitude to them. I feel proud of medics. All the technology and equipment would be useless if it weren't for our doctors and nurses. The work continues. We need to prepare for the autumn,” Dmitry Pinevich said.

The national air carrier Belavia has extended suspension of air travel to Russia till 7 August, BelTA learned from the website of the airline.

Flights to Krasnodar and Sochi were suspended till 15 August.

Customers who purchased tickets for these travel dates will be able to apply for a refund or to reschedule the flight till 30 March 2021. Tickets can be refunded and flights can be rescheduled at company's offices and customer service centers.

More than 300 polling stations will be involved in the exit poll at the forthcoming presidential election in Belarus, Candidate of Science [Sociology], scientific adviser of the poll Igor Pinchuk told reporters on 28 July, BelTA has learned.

The number of polling stations was determined using scientific standards and taking into account international practices. “We rely on the formula that provides for sampling without replacement. Based on the total number of polling places, we calculated the necessary number of polling stations to be involved in the poll. Thus, over 300 polling stations across the country will be included in the poll,” the expert said.

About a thousand specialists will be involved in the study. “The number of respondents is to exceed 12,000 people,” the scientific adviser said.

The exit poll will be held throughout the day. Interviewers will sample a certain number of people her hour. “Everything will be done strictly in line with the instruction and within a specific time frame,” he noted.

The exit poll will be held 10-15 meters from a polling station. “This is important, as the international methodology provides for sampling people at a certain distance. An interviewer cannot approach every person who leaves a polling station,” Igor Pinchuk said.

The results of the study will be published after polling stations are closed. “Not earlier than 20 minutes after. This is an international standard,” the expert added.

“The forecast error we will strive to achieve is 2%. However, the error of up to 5% is acceptable,” the sociologist noted.

Igor Pinchuk recalled that an election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited polling stations. “In other words, this is not a phone poll or an online poll, but a direct interview with a person who has already cast his/her ballot,” the expert said.

The exit poll presentation was held in Minsk on 28 July, during which journalists were also shown the uniform that interviewers will wear. The uniform will have logos of the Belarusian Committee of Youth Associations. The interviewers will have name tags confirming that they represent the Youth Laboratory of Sociological Studies. Every interviewer will wear a face mask and gloves.

The harvesting season, despite the fact that it started two weeks later in the Minsk region, is already called fruitful.

More than 200 tons of blueberries have been harvested! Organizations from the population also accept strawberries, currants, raspberries, cherries. There are more than fifty procurement points in the central region. Belarusian berries are also exported to the Baltics, Poland, Russia, Belarus reports 1.

Vadim Dvernitsky, Chairman of the Board of the Minsk Regional Union of Consumer Societies: "This year we have harvested 144 tons of garden strawberries, of which 67 tons are marketable berries. The harvesting season for blueberries this year came a little later, this is 2 weeks. Nevertheless we managed to procure 225 tons this year - 162 tons compared to the previous period. That is, we have grown today, despite the fact that our harvesting season for this berry began a little later. As for the mushrooms, over the past period we have prepared 3 tons."

In addition, vitamin products are processed on an industrial scale, sent to the distribution network and delivered to restaurants.

The exit poll at the presidential election in Belarus will be monitored by international and national experts, Director of the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in Belarus Vladimir Pertsov told reporters in Minsk on 28 July, BelTA has learned.

According to Vladimir Pertsov, the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in belarus addressed international experts to help monitor the exit poll. “We have sent invitations to many experts in a number of countries. These are the UK, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Armenia, and other states,” he said.

Some of them have responded already. The director of the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in Belarus did not specify the countries. “We expect answers from all the invited experts and changes to restrictions in some European countries due to the coronavirus epidemic,” he explained. According to Vladimir Pertsov, the initiators of the exit poll hope that more experts will confirm their participation in early August.

Apart from international specialists, national experts will observe the exit poll, too.

The national exit poll is due on 9 August. The sociological research has been initiated by the office of the Interstate Broadcasting Company Mir in Belarus. The survey will be conducted by the Youth Laboratory of Sociological Studies of the Belarusian Committee of Youth Associations.

The Central Election Commission has published the information on the number of voters in Belarus and abroad – 6,844,932, BelTA learned from the CEC website.

According to the CEC, there are 984,601 voters in Brest Oblast, 849,472 in Vitebsk Oblast and 1,069,567 in Gomel Oblast. Grodno Oblast has 751,084 voters, Minsk Oblast - 1,142,043 and Mogilev Oblast - 801,825. Most of them are in Minsk - 1,241,021.

5,319 Belarusians are expected to vote abroad.

A total of 5,767 polling stations have been set up for the Belarus presidential election. Forty-four of them are outside the country. They will work in the Belarusian embassies and consulates in 36 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, the UK, Hungary, Venezuela, Vietnam, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Canada, China, Cuba, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, the USA, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, and Estonia.

The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus scheduled the presidential election for 9 August. According to the timetable, early voting is scheduled for 4-8 August. The Central Election Commission shall sum up results of the election on 19 August at the latest. If the second round of the election is necessary, it will take place within two weeks of the first one, that is on 23 August.

An increase in the unemployment rate has been prevented in Belarus in such a complicated period of time. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the statement on the air of the Belarusian TV channel Belarus One, BelTA has learned.

Roman Golovchenko said: “The main task we had to accomplish in this period is to prevent a cascade loss of jobs, the closure of companies, prevent people from simply losing everything. About 60,000 people had to deal with part-time employment while about 50,000 people had to work fewer days per week. The process has been reversed since then. The situation is getting back to normal. Enterprises are getting back to normal while workers are getting back to working normal hours.”

In his words, attempts to fire workers for no good reason are high on the agenda. “The president always enquires about unjustified employment terminations, particularly in the private sector. I can confidently say that we've prevented those. The state labor inspectorate has inspected virtually 700 large and medium-sized companies and their observance of labor laws. The work continues. We are now monitoring about 200 privately owned small and medium enterprises. Rights of the workers have been violated only in a handful of cases. This is why the employment situation is absolutely manageable,” the prime minister noted.

Speaking about salaries, Roman Golovchenko stressed that the average salary in the country rose by 7.8% in H1 2020 while real disposable income of the population amounted to 105.4%. As for individual categories of workers (for instances, teachers in kindergartens), whose salaries are below Br1,000 for now, the prime minister stated that the head of state is looking closely into the matter. “I've told the head of state that we manage to keep public sector salaries at 80% of the country's average salary at least. By 2025 we should raise the ratio of salaries in two large public sector worker categories – healthcare workers and pedagogues – to 150% and 100% of the country's average salary respectively. We are on schedule so far,” Roman Golovchenko added.

The Transport and Communications Ministry of Belarus is waiting for a response of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) regarding the resumption of air travel between Belarus and Russia, BelTA learned from the press service of the Transport and Communications Ministry of Belarus.

“The Aviation Department of the Transport and Communications Ministry held consultations with Rosaviatsia and sent a letter to Rosaviatsia suggesting resumption of air travel. The Russian side has not responded yet,” the press service noted.

The ministry did not specify when flights might be resumed, as no agreement has been reached with Russia yet. “On our part, we are ready to resume air travel between our countries,” the press service noted.

A reminder, Russia announced a decision to resume some international flights from 1 August. International flights were grounded on 27 March to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The list of destinations will initially be limited to Tanzania, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

On 24 July Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko is set to go on a working trip to Pukhovichi District where he will inspect the 5th Special Operations Brigade in Maryina Gorka, BelTA reports.

The head of state will be told about the structure, staff and main tasks of the brigade. The president will also see the weapons and gear of the special forces units and visit the museum of history and military glory of the brigade. After that the head of state will meet with the staff of the brigade.

During the trip, Aleksandr Lukashenko is set to visit the Aquamarine swimming pool in Maryina Gorka and discuss the prospects of building more social infrastructure facilities in the region.

The 5th Special Operations Brigade was established in Maryina Gorka in 1963. The brigade fought in Afghanistan in 1985-1988 (the 334th separate special operations unit was established for this purpose). In the early 1990s the brigade performed the government's task to restore order in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In September 2002 Aleksandr Lukashenko presented a new banner and a letter of commendation to the brigade. Since May 2007 the brigade has been part of the special operations forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

The brigade is meant to perform intelligence and reconnaissance tasks both in the enemy rear and at home.