Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko emphasized inadmissibility of formalism and red tape at the local level as he reviewed progress in fulfilling instructions regarding comprehensive development of Orsha District on 14 August, BelTA has learned.

The president recalled that in his State of the Nation Address in 2017 he instructed the government and the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee to secure comprehensive development of Orsha District, so that its growth pace would be at least twice as high as the region's average.

“It is unacceptable when the work at the local level descends to formalism and red tape,” Alexander Lukashenko emphasized.

The head of state had reiterated on numerous occasions that the efficiency of the government and local authorities would be measured by the way the instructions regarding the region's development are fulfilled. A task was set to develop a system-based approach that could serve as an example to other mid-size towns of the country.

A day before the president had inspected a number of Orsha-based companies, including the tool-making plant and Orsha Meat Packing Plant, as well as the Tekhnika Svyazi enterprise in the town of Baran. The president was briefed on the financial and economic performance, operation and prospects of each of these companies.

After that the head of state studied factory management and technological processes at these enterprises. As a rule, Alexander Lukashenko did not follow the pre-arranged itinerary, but personally inspected every meter of the companies' premises and saw places that had not been cleaned even in the run-up to the president's visit.

After seeing all that, Alexander Lukashenko harshly criticized the quality of work of local authorities, industry chiefs and companies heads.