About 20 applications from the western and eastern regions of Ukraine have been received for the competition program of the XXVII International Festival of Modern Choreography (IFMC), which will be held in Vitebsk from November 19-23. As Marina Romanovskaya, Deputy General Director for Special Projects of the Vitebsk Culture Center, admitted to journalists during a press conference, the organizers themselves were surprised by such a number.

At the IV International Competition of Young Pianists named after Ya. Norvil, which gathered talented children and youth from Latvia, Estonia, Germany, and Belarus from January 16-18, the students of the Vitebsk Children's Art School named after A.V. Bogatyrev performed brilliantly.

Today, here at Vitebskdrev OJSC, interdepartmental and regional commissions are working, headed respectively by the Chairman of the Committee of State Control of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Yakobson and the Chairman of the Committee of State Control of the Vitebsk Region Vasily Maksimov.

The implementation of an outdoor lighting management system has allowed Vitebsk to reduce electricity consumption by 10-15% per year, i.e., from 11 to 9 million kWh. This was reported by Alexander Kravchenko, Head of the Vitebsk Regional Department for Supervision of Rational Use of Fuel and Energy Resources of the Department for Energy Efficiency of the State Committee for Standardization.

Among those awarded for giving birth to and raising five or more children are Oksana Burdyka, a housewife from Horadok; Irina Garbachevskaya, a nurse at the Yurtsevo Regional Hospital for Veterans of the Great Patriotic War; and Tatyana Zakharenkova, a senior cashier at the Center for Banking Services No. 02/02 in Polotsk of CJSC "Trastbank".

The investment program of the Vitebsk region in 2015 has been adjusted in favor of financing 12 objects included in it, reported Igor Isachenko, Chairman of the Committee for Architecture and Construction of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee.

On August 8, 2009, the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, A.N. Kosinets, visited Shumilino, Polotsk, Miory, Postavy, and Braslav districts. Alexander Kosinets criticized the district executive authorities on issues of landscaping and order on the land. An order was given to put the roadside strip in order as soon as possible, to carry out grading and asphalting of streets in settlements, access roads to mechanical yards, dairy farms, and social facilities. The work of roadside service is organized unsatisfactorily. A.N. Kosinets instructed the chairmen of city and district executive committees to establish proper order in the suburbs, in dacha settlements, and to create beaches and recreation areas on the lakes. In conducting the harvesting campaign, the chairman of the regional executive committee emphasized fast and high-quality work.

On May 2, 2015, the Head of Administration of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Matyushko Alexey Vladimirovich, will hold a direct telephone line with the residents of the region (call tel. (8-0212) 20-42-60 from 9:00 to 12:00), as well as the leadership of the city and district executive committees of the region and administrations of the districts of Vitebsk city.

In the first half of the year, the Vitebskoblимущество fund sold real estate worth almost 3.6 billion rubles through auctions, with about a quarter of this amount earned in June alone.