Lukashenko to new Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection: solving mineral-related problem will earn you a monument
President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko has appointed Sergei Maslyak Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, until recently he worked as Minsk’s Zavodskoi District Administration Head
The President immediately outlined the main task for the new Minister: to intensify exploration works, “We recently held a serious meeting in this regard. I will say it bluntly: we need to dig and search. You need to get everyone to work in this direction. I do not believe that we do not have the minerals we need. If you solve this problem at least to some extent, then you will earn a monument. Of course, we have more or less explored our mineral fertilisers and so on, but I do not believe that we do not have large volumes of oil.”
According to the President, only one company in the country works in this direction: Belorusneft led by Aleksandr Lyakhov. “It’s not a bad company, but we have only one of the kind in the country. There is no competition. We take only one person's word for granted. He is a very good specialist, but we did not invent that: there should be competition, we need more opinions, proposals, and so on,” the Belarusian leader said.