Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

The size of some taxes may be temporarily raised in order to compensate for the money spent on fighting COVID-19.

Belarusian First Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Kiyko made the statement during an expanded-participation session of the Budget and Finance Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly on 17 December, BelTA has learned.

The official noted that as a temporary measure they suggest raising the size of the profit tax for mobile carriers and the universal telecommunication services operator from 18% to 30% in 2021-2022. The profit tax can be raised from 25% to 30% for pawn shops.

The income tax on money earned by individuals as part of contracts with residents of the Hi-Tech Park and the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone may be raised from 9% to 13%.

The government is also in favor of raising the size of the land tax and the rental fees for land plots, which are provided for building shopping centers, including parking lots of these shopping centers, from 0.7% to 1.5% of their cadastral value.

Municipal councils of deputies may be authorized to raise or reduce the size of the universal tax on self-employed businessmen and other natural persons depending on their kind of business. The Minsk City Executive Committee may be granted the right to raise the size of this tax by up to four times.

Oblast councils of deputies may be authorized to introduce a local tax on vehicles with the max weight of 5 tonnes and below that cross the Belarusian border. The size of the local tax will not exceed three base amounts.

According to Dmitry Kiyko, the alternative to this budget consolidation is much worse. The government would have to reduce spending, increase deficit, or raise the size of the main taxes on corporations and individuals.

Dmitry Kiyko explained that revenues from these fiscal measures will be spent on fighting COVID-19. This year the government has spent about Br600 million extra on it, including on salary bonuses for 86,000 people. Apart from that, about Br1.5 billion was channeled into the real sector of the economy due to the pandemic.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to the Republic of Korea Andrei Popkov met with SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Embassy in the Republic of Korea.

SK Bioscience is one of Korea's largest vaccine manufacturers. The company is pursuing its own COVID-19 vaccine and is collaborating with global biotech companies to produce components for a coronavirus vaccine.

During the meeting the parties exchanged views on the latest trends in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, emphasized the importance of having national infrastructures to produce vaccines, and discussed possible ways of cooperation, including in the field of research.

They also discussed a possibility of partnerships between companies from different countries in the production of vaccines.

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Apostolic Nuncio to the United Kingdom Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti on 17 December, BelTA informs.

Claudio Gugerotti worked as Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus in 2011-2015. This time he is visiting Belarus as a special envoy of Pope Francis. “We are pleased to welcome you in Belarus as a person who has left a good mark after your service. You spent a couple of years here,” the head of state said at the meeting with the archbishop.

“I very happy that His Holiness Pope Francis sent you to Belarus. It's a pleasure for me to have a meeting with you. I have good impressions from the meetings, talks and conversations that we had when you served here. I've always said that Pope Francis, in my opinion, is a people's person,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president asked Claudio Gugerotti to wish a Happy New Year to Pope Francis and to wish him strong health. “If he gets sick, he should not worry: he can come to Belarus for treatment, we know how to treat. But now it's better not to get sick. Soon we will celebrate Christmas and New Year – there is no time to get sick. But in any case, he can come to Belarus,” the head of state said with a humorous undertone.

The archbishop assured that he will covey these words to Pope Francis. In his words, the Pope wanted to celebrate Christmas together with believers, but quarantine measures do not allow doing it right now.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also thanked the special envoy of the Pope for the visit describing it as a good sign. “We've always had many topics for discussion. Some issues remain unsolved as more time is needed. But we've made certain progress,” the president said.

Claudio Gugerotti also believes that a lot was done for the development of relations during his service in Belarus. “Unfortunately, you left us too early. After the United Kingdom you need to come back,” the head of state said. “There can be retirement after the United Kingdom. We don't see much sun there – it's quite dangerous to health,” the archbishop also said jokingly.

Speaking about the pandemic, the head of state said that the situation had begun to stabilize in Belarus. “As of today, we have a few good signs: there has been no exponential increase for two weeks, we have stopped at a certain figure. And the main thing is that the number of pneumonia patients has been reducing by 20-30-40 every day. Therefore, I am optimistic and I believe that we will manage to keep it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The Roman Catholic Church is the second largest religious denomination in Belarus. In the past 20 years the number of religious communities of the Roman Catholic Church increased four times to 498 in the country. They are united in four dioceses of Minsk and Mogilev, Vitebsk, Grodno, Pinsk.

Communities of the Roman Catholic Church operate 514 churches and are building 31 new churches. From 1998 to 2020 the state has transferred about 300 facilities to the church for religious purposes.

There are eight Roman Catholic bishops in Belarus. Parishes have 453 priests, including 71 foreign nationals, mostly from Poland. There are 36 foreign nuns. Belarus has two theological schools in Grodno and Pinsk. The Roman Catholic Catehetical College was opened in Baranovichi in 2009. The John the Baptist catholic college was registered in the Minsk and Mogilev diocese in 2013. The Saint John Paul II academy was registered in 2015. However, its construction has not started yet. The Saint Casimir catholic college was registered in the Grodno diocese in 2018.

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Minsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Turchin on 17 December, BelTA has learned.

The agenda of the meeting was dominated by two topics - economic performance of Minsk Oblast and the way the region is combating the coronavirus.

According to Aleksandr Turchin, preliminary data suggest that the gross regional product in January-November this year was 99.9% as against the same period last year. “Such a figure seems to be high, but disappointing: we fell short of 0.1%. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the year the figure was 91%, and now it is 99.9%. In other words, the region picked up steam over this time. We have cautious optimism that by the end of the year the GRP will be as high as last year's,” the governor said.

“Well, hopefully. You are falling short by just a tenth of a percent... However, we still have December. It seems to be not bad. As an economist, you understand that we need a result, because we should not expect that the next year will be good. You see what is happening around us. Therefore, let's say that we have done the impossible, but we should have done a little more,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

As to the situation with coronavirus in Minsk Oblast, there are grounds to believe that the COVID-19 has hit the plateau in the region. “According to our estimates, two weeks of data point to a plateau. There is no increase. Pneumonia cases and confirmed coronavirus cases neither increase nor decline,” Aleksandr Turchin said.

Scientists of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA) of Russia have developed algorithms that can accurately predict the severity of the coronavirus infection, TASS learned from the press service of the FMBA.

“Researchers from Russia's Federal Medical and Biological Agency analyzed a great number of clinical and diagnostic parameters of a sample of over 6,900 patients who had symptoms of varying severity. This allowed them to develop mathematical models of the outcome of the disease based on machine learning algorithms,” the statement reads.

These algorithms confirmed that a number of clinical factors can help predict the severity of the course of the disease with a high degree of accuracy (about 90%). The clinical factors that were taken into account in the analysis were ferritin, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, respiratory rate and others.

The FMBA concluded that the likelihood of death of coronavirus patients increases with age, gender, body mass index and glucose levels.

The bill on contributions to the the state extra-budgetary social security fund of the Republic of Belarus passed the first treading in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus on 16 December, BelTA learned from the press service of the lower house of the Belarusian Parliament.

The bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on 8 September 82020 by the Council of Ministers. The document is meant to ensure a comprehensive settlement of the issues regarding the payment of state social insurance contributions to the state extra-budgetary social security fund, to define the legal basis for the payment of compulsory insurance contributions, professional pension insurance contributions and other payments.

“Until now we had a number of regulations in this area, and we needed to systematize them into one comprehensive law. With regard to innovations, it is proposed to use an automated information system to monitor the fulfillment of monetary obligations both by contributors and by the fund in collecting contributions,” said Valery Strelchenok, a member of the Standing Commission on Labor and Social Affairs.

According to him, it is also proposed to introduce a new category of payers - organizations that provided monetary allowances to military servicemen. “We are also formalizing such category of payers as self-employed citizens. Also, persons in occupational therapy rehabilitation centers, or in prison will be regarded as working persons if they perform paid work. The bill determines the procedure to restore pension rights of an individual violated in the course of criminal proceedings. Such cases may include termination of criminal prosecution, an acquittal in court, or unreasonable criminal prosecution and further rehabilitation,” the MP said.

The victory of Shakhtar's volleyball players in the National Cup did not go unnoticed by the Chairman of Minsk Regional Executive Committee Alexander Turchin, who sent congratulations to the club on this success.

“Congratulations on your victory in the final of the Cup of the Republic of Belarus in volleyball among men's teams in 2020! For three years, a team from the Minsk region has become the winner of the Cup, which indicates the high skill of the athletes and is the result of the serious work of all club specialists. Shakhtar's victory went down in the history of sports achievements of the Minsk region as a vivid example of skill, perseverance, dedication and strong sports character. I thank everyone who, with their talent and work, brought the team closer to the coveted cup. I am glad that the team's achievements have strengthened the sports image of the Minsk region and brought joy to the fans. I wish the team good health, good luck and new sporting achievements! ”- said Alexander Turchin in his congratulations.

Volunteers of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) invite Belarusians to send New Year and Christmas cards to their dear ones and at the same time to participate in a charity project, BelTA learned from UNICEF in Belarus.

The Good Things Start with Us project will last until 15 January and will take place on the platform https://www.unicef.by/nycard2021/.

On this website anyone can send an electronic or paper postcard of a unique design to their loved ones for a small donation. The money raised will be spent on the Family for Every Child project that helps children with disabilities to return from nursing facilities to their families. In exchange, the participant of the campaign will be able to send New Year and Christmas wishes anywhere in Belarus. The names of the sender and recipient are added to the text of the card, which makes it personalized.

“The COVID-19 pandemic forced many to stay at home and observe voluntary self-isolation. In such a situation, words of support can come in handy. In addition, amidst the holiday bustle, it is sometimes difficult to find time to buy and sign a postcard. Therefore, UNICEF volunteers in Belarus will take care of it this year,” the organizers explained.

Since 2018, the Family for Every Child project has been implemented in Gomel Oblast in partnership with the Let's Help Children Together charity with the financial support of Priorbank, Raiffeisen Leasing and the Government of the Russian Federation. For the first two years, the focus was on families who raise children with disabilities. About 500 parents received information about their rights, available medical services, rehabilitation, social services and educational opportunities. The condition of 51 children in 45 families improved. In four cases, specialists prevented abandonment of children. In 2020, UNICEF continued to work in the region. The technology of case management is being introduced into the work with children and families in vulnerable situations. Another focus is on preventing the institutionalization of small children.

Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei met with Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Russia and concurrently to Belarus Abdulrahman Bin Suleiman Al Ahmed to receive the copy of his credentials on 15 December, BelTA has learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The parties discussed the topical issues of bilateral relations in political, trade and economic areas.

The minister and Saudi Arabia's ambassador confirmed their interest in intensifying the cooperation between Belarus and Saudi Arabia, including the exchange of visits of official and business delegations and the preparation of the next meeting of the joint intergovernmental committee.

Vladimir Makei wished the ambassador fruitful work in Belarus.

A meeting of the Sustainable Development Council took place at the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly on 14 December, BelTA learned from the press service of the upper chamber of the parliament.

“The year 2020 is very important not only for Belarus in terms of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but also for the entire international community. This is the year that launches the last decade before the end of the 2030 Agenda,” said Anatoly Isachenko, Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic and National Coordinator for the Sustainable Development Goals.

In his opinion, for Belarus this year is also the year of developing new strategic documents and plans for the next programming period, which should also be harmonized with the Sustainable Development Goals.

The members of the Council took stock of Belarus' progress in SDGs achievement, and discussed the preparation of the national sustainable development strategy till 2035, the social and economic development program for 2021-2025, the state sectoral programs, issues of green economy and sustainable development in the context of climate change.

“The success of the implementation of the Agenda 2030 in Belarus will depend on how we plan our next steps for the country's development. The achievement of high living standards, economic growth, development of a full-fledged competitive environment, creation of comfortable conditions for life and development of personal potential, preservation of natural systems for the present and future generations should become our fundamental priorities,” the national coordinator for the SDGs said.

The participants of the meeting stressed the extreme significance of new efforts and the generation of ideas aimed at improving the architecture of sustainable development.

Attending the meeting were representatives of government bodies and organizations, UN agencies, members of the SDG parliamentary and partner groups.