Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

The modernization of the local road network in the Minsk region is proceeding at a faster pace.

This was stated by the head of Minskobldorstroy Denis Stepanov. As part of the four-year state program for the development and maintenance of roads in the capital region, more than 1,700 kilometers have been repaired from the planned nearly 2,000. Today, there are all prerequisites to assert that the plan will be implemented, Belarus 1 reports.

Denis Stepanov, general director of Minskobldorstroy CUE: “We have a clear and understandable, ranked list of repairs in the region. That is, all roads that are to be repaired in the near foreseeable future are fixed, named. They are all practically in use. Today there is no doubt that we will carry out this work."

As part of the program, stopping points, pedestrian and bicycle paths were built and modernized. This work is also ahead of the curve.

The Healthcare Ministry is working out orders to regulate the operation of healthcare institutions in case of the second wave of COVID-19, BelTA learned from Belarusian Healthcare Minister Vladimir Karanik.

The official noted that although the virus is now less active, it is still in the population. “This is why we are now moving onto the next stage: orders are being drafted on peculiarities of operation of healthcare institutions amid a coronavirus infection. There is no need to reserve such a large number of hospitals for this kind of patients, but we should be ready to provide medical aid if such a patient happens to turn up in any Belarusian medical institution,” Vladimir Karanik said.

Plans to respond and repurpose hospitals in anticipation of the second wave have been prepared. Hospitals are getting more breathing support equipment. Schedules for reconstruction and construction of new facilities have been adjusted. Spare means of individual protection are being stockpiled in order to satisfy feverish demand of the population among other things.

“For the last week we've been seeing steady positive dynamics, which applies to the number of detected infection cases and, which is more important, to the number of complicated disease forms, the patients, whose coronavirus infections are complicated by pneumonias. The number of infected patients and the number of pneumonias have been reduced by several times over the course of one month, which allows us to reversely repurpose hospital capacity in all parts of the country. Hospitals are reverting to normal operation,” the healthcare minister noted.

If Belarusians stay concerned and social distance remains in place, then thanks to antiepidemic measures and regular work to track contacts the country will be able to pass the second wave more easily or not notice it too much, Vladimir Karanik added.

Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei met with Latvia's Ambassador to Belarus Einars Semanis in Minsk on 9 July 2020, BelTA learned from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The parties discussed the current state and prospects for further development of the Belarusian-Latvian cooperation, the schedule of highest and high-level bilateral meetings. The Latvian side was informed about the course of the presidential election campaign in the Republic of Belarus.

The Belarusian State Border Committee and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have launched a joint initiative Child Friendly Border. Minsk National Airport, which has been chosen as the starting point of the partnership, presented the innovations that will make travel with children comfortable in a ceremony on 9 July, BelTA has learned.

The project involves creating comfortable and friendly conditions at checkpoints for families with children departing Belarus. The airport has designated passport control booths (two in the arrivals hall and two in the departure hall), mounted the information stands with materials on responsible parenthood, children's rights and measures to prevent infectious diseases and arranged a games area for kids with a game table, an interactive sandbox, several children's cars, colorful photo zones and many more.

Chairman of the State Border Committee Anatoly Lappo noted that the joint initiative will be launched at border points across Belarus. “In the coming years we together with UNICEF are planning to develop further the Child Friendly Border initiative. We are set to set up playgrounds near international checkpoints and border outposts, carry out joint actions and activities to support children crossing the Belarusian border, and children of border guards,” he said.

UNICEF Representative in Belarus Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar noted that a great number of measures are being taken in Belarus for the safety and well-being of children. “This is our first initiative in the former Soviet Union to arrange a child friendly border in an airport. This will allow little passengers to have fun as they wait to board the plane. We hope that now it will be more interesting for children to pass passport control and stay at airports,” Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar said.

The Minsk airport has indoor and outdoor children's playgrounds, baby care rooms, and facilities for children with disabilities, director general of the airport Vyacheslav Khoroneko added.

The list of countries that still register new cases of the novel coronavirus has been updated, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry.

Another 12 countries have been removed from the list. These include Algeria, Andorra, Vietnam, Cyprus, Cuba, Lebanon, Mauritius, Malaysia, New Zealand, San Marino, Thailand, Tunisia.

People coming from these countries are not required to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival in Belarus, the ministry noted.

Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei met with outgoing Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to Belarus Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, BelTA learned from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vladimir Makei lauded the active and effective work of the UNICEF Office in Belarus under the leadership of Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar. The parties discussed the most relevant areas of cooperation between Belarus and UNICEF, including child safety in cyberspace, assistance to child victims of violence, children with disabilities and others, and confirmed that the increasing funding for UNICEF country programs in Belarus indicates a high level of cooperation and its potential for growth.

The minister commended the successful work of the UNICEF Representative in Belarus to involve the Belarusian government bodies, public associations, business and private partners in cooperation on issues under the UNICEF competence.

Vladimir Makei thanked Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar for the effective and timely support of the UNICEF Office provided to the Belarusian healthcare institutions, schools and institutions during the period of the active spread of coronavirus.

The UNICEF Office launched a large-scale campaign involving numerous partners and raised $1.58 million in a short period of time to purchase the necessary materials and equipment.

In recognition of his personal contribution to strengthening and expanding cooperation between Belarus and UNICEF, Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar was awarded the Partnership badge of merit of the Belarusian diplomatic service.

Belarus is interested in enhancing the dialogue with the UNICEF on the rights of children, Belarus' Education Minister Igor Karpenko said as he met with outgoing representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to Belarus Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar in Minsk on 7 July, BelTA learned from the press service of the Education Ministry.

Igor Karpenko noted Belarus' high interest in maintaining and enhancing the dialogue with UNICEF, including in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals aimed at protecting and respecting children's rights and preserving their health. The minister expressed gratitude to the UNICEF Mission in Belarus and personally Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar for his contribution to the implementation of the national plans and policy actions on the health of children and teenagers in Belarus (including children with special needs, orphans, refugee children), protection of children's rights, and prevention of bad habits, HIV/AIDS among children and young people.

The Education Ministry shares one of the key principles that underpins the new UNICEF country program for Belarus for 2016-2020 – Leaving No One Behind (i.e. without an individual approach) as well the key priorities of the program, such as creating a safe environment for children, realizing the rights of children with psychophysical development needs and disabilities, the prevalence of a social not medical approach to disability and disabled, creating a supportive environment to reduce the vulnerability of adolescents and to ensure their full participation in decision-making that relates to their lives.

The work on the fourth UNICEF country program for Belarus for the period 2021-2025 began at the end of 2019. During the meeting, it was noted that the the Education Ministry continues implementing the Child Friendly Cities Initiative (Brest hosted the international forum of child friendly cities in September 2019). Belarus has established national and urban coordinating centers to implement this initiative as a platform for the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals; there are children's and youth parliaments (councils) influencing decisions in the interests of children, and regional resource centers for youth initiatives. The country is implementing the inclusive education concept and is promoting mediation as one of the most promising methods of conflict resolution involving a third neutral party. The National Action Plan for Improving the Situation of Children and Protection of Their Rights for 2017–2021 for 2017-2021 is currently in progress.

Dr. Rashed Mustafa Sarwar thanked for the joint work on the projects aimed at protecting and respecting the rights of children, preserving their health, and expressed confidence that all initiatives of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) will continue to be supported in Belarus.

The multifunctional center of Indian culture will open at Belarusian State University on 10 July, BelTA learned from the press service of the university.

The center will operate at the Faculty of Sociocultural Communications and will become an integrated space to recreate the sociocultural features of India in Belarus. It will run studies in Hinglish representing the symbiosis of English and various languages of India, video conferences, thematic lectures, meetings and cultural events.

The center will consist of several zones: academic, literary, cultural and recreation. It will also house an Indian cinema center. The academic zone will be designed for 25 seats and fitted with high-quality equipment. More than 100 pieces of Indian art, reference and scientific materials in the original language and in the Russian translation will be featured on the literary zone. The cultural zone will present fabrics, figurines, and artifacts from five regions of India, and the recreation zone will offer to taste the national drinks of this country.

Students of the Communication Design Faculty worked on the design of the office. The concept is centered around the idea of geographical and cultural diversity and contrasts of India. Future designers painted the walls in different Indian styles conveying the exotic, bright colors of that country. The opening of the new office of Indian culture is a continuation of the efforts to strengthen and develop BSU's ties with India. Since 2017, the BSU Faculty of International Relations has run the Center for Indology which specializes in teaching the Hindi language.

The Center of Indian Culture has been set up with the support of the Indian Embassy in Belarus. The opening ceremony will be attended by Indian Ambassador to Belarus Sangeeta Bahadur, Rector of Belarusian State University Andrei Korol, Dean of the Faculty of Social Cultural Communications Sergei Vazhnik, and also professors and students of the university.

People who do not have their own dwelling should provided with it first of all, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with top officials and executives of the city of Minsk on 7 July, BelTA has learned.

The head of state touched on the performance of construction organizations, prices for new housing. A number of measures has already been taken to ensure that everything is done transparently and fairly in this sector. «We managed to bring down prices a little bit, especially for housing for the people on the waiting lists. We will keep an eye on this process. The main indicator is the price of one square meter," the president said.

«We will build more rental housing. We have already tested this mechanism. These houses offer small apartments. I visited one of such houses, looked around recalling my youth when my family had to live in a tiny apartment. The house I visited in Borovlyany has two-room apartments. These houses are built fast. They are beautiful houses. We have a lot of young people who do not have their own dwelling,» Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

According to him, there are no restrictions on the number of apartments one could own. «You are welcome to build as many as you can afford. We need to provide first of all people who do not have housing,» the Belarusian leader stressed.

The situation on the Belarusian labor market is quite manageable.

Labor and Social Protection Minister Irina Kostevich made the relevant statement on the air of the TV channel STV, BelTA has learned.

The official said that employment in January-March 2020 was on par with last year's. «Changes began in April-May. We saw the problem. In January-May 2020 the number of working Belarusians dropped by 0.2%,» Irina Kostevich said.

In her words, an analysis indicates that employers (large and medium-sized businesses) were reluctant to resort to mass layoffs or to firing people due to unfounded reasons. «We've examined 288 medium and large businesses and saw that 70% of those fired terminated their contracts on mutual consent. A small number of employers violated the Labor Code,» the minister noted.

According to the source, employers resorted to longer downtimes and reduced working hours. The employers opted for these measures in order to keep their workers employed. Forced part-time employment was quadrupled in May. «Yes, it is a massive increase but the most important thing is that people kept their jobs, that the employer kept professionals, who are hard to find on the labor market. It seems to me the employer demonstrated a socially responsible attitude in such cases,» Irina Kostevich said.