Belarus may cut support for government programmes with high lobbying potential

During the workshop related to problems and prospects for agricultural development, Chairman of the Parliament’s upper chamber Mikhail Myasnikovich underscored that the time was ripe to look into spending on agricultural support programmes and question those responsible for their implementation. In his opinion, such funds were not spent efficiently and did not ensure adequate pay-back. The state is trying to review approaches to financing of those public sectors, which have high priority and have a great lobbying potential in the government. It is worth noting that social tension is growing in the agricultural sector due to the biggest wage arrears among other economic sectors. Meanwhile, current initiative of senior public officials to optimise financing in agriculture is not their first attempt to change the situation in agriculture and is unlikely to become a success.