UNIT 9 THE BELARUSIAN ECONOMY

DISCUSSION

Answer these questions before you read the text below.

1. Where is Belarus situated?

2. What are the country’s main regions?

3. In what part of Belarus does the vast majority of population live?

4. Which nationality groups make up the largest percentage of the total population?

5. What are the two official languages of Belarus?

6. When did Belarus proclaimed its independence?

7. Who is the country’s president at the moment?

8. Who is the head of the government in Belarus nowadays?

9. What is the most highly developed sector of the Belarusian economy?

10. What are some of the leading agricultural products in Belarus?

11. What nations are main trading partners of Belarus?

12. What are the major problems facing Belarus today?

VOCABULARY

account for - составлять

in terms of – в плане

reserves - запасы

potassium salts – калийные соли

peat – торф

fuel – топливо

machine building – машиностроение

instrument making - приборостроение

oil refining - перегонка нефти

metal-cutting tools - металлорежущий станки

heavy industry - тяжелое машиностроение

heavy-duty truck – сверхмощный грузовой автомобиль

chemical fiber – химическое волокно

mineral fertilizer – минеральное удобрение

processed foods – бакалейные товары

farmland – обрабатываемая земля

mixed crop and livestock farming – смешанное сельское хозяйство (земледелие и

животноводство)

flax growing – выращивание льна

grains - хлебные злаки

sugar beets – сахарная свекла

Livestock breeding – племенное животноводство

Cattle – крупный рогатый скот

conducts trade – ведет торговлю

long-term development goal – долгосрочный проект развития

encourages domestic manufactures – поощряет отечественного производителя

Belarus has a well-developed economy. Industry accounts for 46 percent of GDP; trade and other services, 41 percent; and agriculture and forestry, 13 percent.

Natural resources. Belarus is relatively poor in terms of natural resources. The country has small reservesof petroleum and natural gas but remains dependent on Russia for most of its oil, gas, and energy. The country has large forest reserves. About one-third of the republic is covered in forest.

Belarus possesses, however, one of the world’s largest reserves of potassium salts. The country also is a world leader in the production of peat, which is used in agriculture and in briquette form as fuel.

Among the other minerals recovered are salt, building materials, quartz sands for glassmaking and small deposits of gold and diamonds.

Industry.Belarus is a highly developed industrial country. The main industries include machine building, instrument making, chemicals, oil refining, electronics, transport vehicles and tractors. Belarus manufactures computers, engineering equipment, metal-cutting tools, and such consumer goods as clocks and watches, motorcycles, bicycles, refrigerators, radios, television sets and others.

Heavy industry is the most highly developed sector of the economy. Machine-building industry is mostly concentrated in Minsk. It makes various types of tractors, heavy-duty trucks, other heavy machinery and electrical equipment.

Chemical industry produces chemical fibers, mineral fertilizes, petrol-chemicals, and plastics. The chief chemical product is potassium fertilizer.

Agriculture. Agriculture accounts for about a seventh of Belarus’ economic output. Belarus has a large amount of farmland. But a short growing season and a lack of fertile soil make farming difficult. Most of the country has mixed crop and livestock farming, with a strong emphasis on flax growing. The country’s principal crops are potatoes, grains (especially wheat, barley, oats and rye), flax, sunflowers, vegetables and sugar beets. Nearly 60 percent of the country’s land area is cultivated. Livestock breeding is another main component of agriculture. Cattle, hogs and sheep are the most important livestock raised in the country.

The agricultural sector in Belarus is dominated by large state (sovkhozy) and collective (kolkhozy) farms. In 1993 private farms began to appear. But the transition to private farms is slow and difficult.

Services. Service industries are industries that produce services not goods. In the recent past these industries were undeveloped in Belarus. Most service-industry workers were poorly trained and underpaid. Today private economic activity is flourishing. Many individuals and families are starting small businesses such as restaurants, barber-shops, dry cleaners and taxi services. Nevertheless, this sector of the economy remains largely underdeveloped.

Foreign Trade. Belarus consumes only 13 percent of the goods produced. A great amount of goods produced by Belarusian industries and agriculture is oriented towards Russia, Poland and Ukraine which remain the republic’s main trading partners. Belarus also conducts trade with Austria, China, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, the United States and other countries.

Belarus exports tractors and trucks, machinery, refrigerators, television sets, chemicals, potassium fertilizers, wood and paper products, and meat and diary products.

The nation’s major imports include petroleum, natural gas, industrial raw materials, textiles, rolled metal, rubber, sugar and some consumer goods. Russia, which supplies most of the country’s fuel imports is the most important trading partner.

Economic System. Until independence Belarus was fully integrated into the centrally planned Soviet economy. After gaining the independence most industry continues to be under state management, and agriculture remains collectivized.

A long-term development goal for Belarus is to built an open market-type economy – an economy that interacts freely with other economies around the world. At the same time Belarusian government is sure that market economy cannot solve all the economic problems. In Belarus government controls sale and purchase of land. State regulation controls inflation, encourages domestic manufactures, plans the all national policies in the sphere of resources and technologies.

In Belarus the major systems of energy, transport and communications and the branches which consume the national natural resources are under state control. Special attention is drawn to agriculture.

The economic course of Belarus is toward a socially oriented market economy which combines private enterprise and the modern level of social guarantees (living, health care, education) by means of state regulation.