Meeting with Lukashenko’s participation adopted conceptual decisions on how tobacco industry will develop from 2025
At a meeting with President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko focusing on improving the production and sale of tobacco goods, conceptual decisions have been made on how the tobacco industry will develop from 2025 – as noted by Chairman of the Belgospishcheprom Concern Oleg Zhidkov
Oleg Zhidkov primarily underlined that the tobacco industry has always been under close control from the state, since this business is quite specific, and it is impossible to carry out activities without special control.
“Budget revenues also depend heavily on the success of our enterprises, while the success of the work is concentrated precisely on our main capacities. There are three companies operating in Belarus, including a state-owned [enterprise] that ensures maximum utilisation. The issue is that all three factories are under sanctions pressure. Based on this, a range of issues need to be settled in order to restructure the format of the enterprises’ work and provide them with raw materials and orders, as well as ensure guaranteed budget revenues for 2025. Most importantly, it is necessary to ensure further control over the tobacco market and to prevent negative aspects possible from unfriendly partners,” Oleg Zhidkov said.
The Belgospishcheprom Head stressed that today’s meeting adopted conceptual decisions on how the tobacco industry will develop from 2025, “Accents have been placed enabling us to plan our work on production and on the organisation of order fulfillment by our enterprises. All this requires further detail so that everyone understands their area of responsibility. Issues of an exclusively organisational nature have been settled, with no additional financial investments from the state to maintain the industry. We did not ask for help; on the contrary, we outlined new approaches to the organisation of work that require the Head of State’s approval.”
Yuri Chernyshev, the Director General of Grodno’s Neman Tobacco Factory, spoke at the meeting about the measures taken to ensure the effective operation of the enterprise from 2025. In his talk with journalists, he stressed that today ‘the enterprise is loaded and works around the clock’, “The tasks set by the President will be fulfilled. I would not like to name specific figures, but they are higher than last year, and next year there will be even more. I don’t see any difficulties.”
According to Yuri Chernyshev, manufacturers have adapted to the sanctions pressure and even intend to expand the range of products. At the same time, he drew attention to the need to restore order in the market, “We have also discussed this issue because it’s not right when people don’t pay taxes and sell vapes on every corner.”
