Lukashenko: Science should be compact and effectively managed

The structure of the scientific realm should become compact and should be managed effectively. The statement was made by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at the government session held on 5 August to discuss the development of the national science, BelTA has learned.

The head of state underlined it was necessary to prune rudimentary links in order to be able to advance primarily thanks to selling proprietary intellectual products with minimal support from the state budget.

Alexander Lukashenko pointed out that changes in the scientific sphere should not entail total destruction and breakdown.

“It is necessary to optimize organizations of the entire scientific sphere as soon as possible, primarily the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus,” said the President. “At present the Academy is like a state of its own, with over 120 of research, manufacturing, and social organizations of all kinds that employ 18,000 workers while only one third of the workers are researchers. Why can’t we see tangible results from such an impressive potential?”

“The government, other government agencies and structures should think about what we need science for. What tasks does Belarusian science have to accomplish? What are the priorities? Science should clearly understand these things,” said the head of state. He added that the government should find answers to these questions in association with scientists.

The President believes that in order to avoid further scattering of personnel and financial resources it is necessary to secure clear-cut organization and coordination of research at the state level, it is necessary to eliminate disunity between agencies, parallelism, and work redundancy.

“If we want science to produce tangible results in the manufacturing sector, we should revive industrial science, making it the promoter of advanced technologies at every concrete enterprise the way it was done in the Soviet times, for instance,” said the President.

In his words, university science should cater both to accumulating new knowledge and maintaining high education standards in Belarus. “If university professors stop pursuing research, they will drop behind modern scientific trends and will not be able to teach anything to anyone”. The head of state remarked that it would be necessary to work out an effective mechanism to renew the succession pool of science.

“A measured evolutionary approach is needed for the sake of preserving the best and giving a second wind to the Belarusian science. We should not offend the young ones, we should inviolately take care of those, who make up the golden intellectual fund of the country,” stressed Alexander Lukashenko.

“Science should be changed to acquire a new compact structure that will meet interests and needs of the country as a sovereign state,” said the President.