OREANDA-NEWS. On June 11, 2009 while getting familiar with development plans in Minsk, President Alexander Lukashenko demanded that the development projects currently in progress in downtown Minsk be completed without delay, reported the Official website president.gov.by.

The President was shown models of two development projects in the central part of the city.

A residential area, office space, shopping malls, commercial facilities and also a five-star hotel will be built near the Svisloch River, close to the streets of Maxim Bogdanovich and Yanka Kupala. The main investor will be the State General Reserve Fund of the Sultanate of Oman. The Fund invests in the most promising and repayable projects around the world. The Minsk projects will require US550 million worth of investments.

The Omani investors assured the Head of State that the new projects would fit in nicely with the existing residential layout and would not spoil the general view of the city.

By and large, the President approved the development plans but said he wanted to have the feasibility report scrutinised once more, as well as the terms for the allocation of land parcels for these projects. ‘We will hold negotiations on market terms only. We will orient towards average European prices,’ said Alexander Lukashenko. The investor is getting enormous land parcels for development ‘not just in the capital city, but in the centre of Europe’, said the President. The projects should be delivered in no more than five years. The projects envisage relocating the Kirov Machine Tool Factory to a new place, which is a costly operation. But neither the factory workers nor the city nor the state should sacrifice their interests in this situation.

Addressing the municipal authorities, Alexander Lukashenko said that funds should be channelled primarily in large-scale development projects, and construction should be sped up. But there must be no squandering of time and money, he said.

While visiting the Town Hall, the President got familiar with the plans for the construction of an aqua-park near the Pobeditelei Avenue–Minsk ring road intersection, a new museum of the Great Patriotic War in the vicinity of the Minsk-Hero City monument, and the ethno-cultural centre Belarusian Heritage in the Chizhovka city district. In addition, the Head of State was shown some completed projects and some projects that are close to completion.