A. Lukashenko demands stricter currency regulation rules in the country

February 25, Minsk /Corr. BELTA/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko demands stricter rules for currency regulation in the country. He stated this today at a meeting with the new government and newly appointed officials, according to a BELTA correspondent. "I want to draw the principal attention of the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Board of the National Bank: we are intolerably lax in our approach to the use of foreign currency earnings. A situation has developed where several hundred or tens, perhaps, of key enterprises bring currency into the country, and the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Board of the National Bank, based on incomprehensible free market theories, distribute this currency to anyone," the President said. He noted that if there is currency in the country, it can be taken and spent. "If there is no currency, ask those who have it. And stop taking currency away from the heads of enterprises and organizations that earn it and giving it to those who do not bring it into the country," Alexander Lukashenko addressed the Chairman of the Board of the National Bank. "This is a fundamental issue for our economy, and we must adjust our policy, not rely on some naked market theory," the head of state said. "I am not saying that everyone should be squeezed. The population is sacred. And we do not have problems with currency for the population. The population bought several million dollars and still deposited them in banks. But enterprises behave laxly. This includes the energy sector and others. Therefore, order must be established here," the President emphasized. "I am confident that this will have a normal effect, and we will no longer have problems with currency, exchange rates, and so on." -0-