OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2010.  The state will provide all the necessary resources to finance a program to promote the Pripyat Polesie despite the fact that it is a large-scale and expensive project, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told reporters during his working trip to the Gomel Oblast on 14 April.

“This program is not that expensive. We will find these Br500 billion, may be Br1 trillion to help local people, to finance the program. We will implement it. There are no low-cost projects. But this money will benefit the people,” the Belarusian President said. He noted that all kinds of resources will be involved to finance the program: own funds of individuals, enterprises, bank loans and budget funds.

Alexander Lukashenko reminded of the implementation of a program to mitigate the Chernobyl aftermath that took about USD 35 billion. The President emphasized that this money was not wasted, but was used to help people. “After the Chernobyl accident nobody wanted to live or work in this area. People were intimidated; the Chernobyl tragedy was used for political ends. We are still clearing up the mess that was made,” he said.

The head of state expressed regret that the use of the Pripyat bottomland is hardly profitable yet. In his opinion, this place should be set in order; otherwise, it will become completely desolate in a couple of years. “We should fix this place up and make a better use of the local resources, from fishery, cattle grazing in the bottomland, and crop farming to farm tourism,” the President said. All agricultural enterprises along the Pripyat river should be brought into a perfect state. “We have demonstrated that we can do that. This place should be used to cultivate the things we cannot be grown anywhere else,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

He was glad to state that the demand for rural cottages in Polesie is growing. The state should by all means encourage this trend. According to the President, the money will be spent not only on the reclamation of Polesie, but also on improving other beautiful places across Belarus, for example in the Vitebsk and Minsk oblasts.