On March 25, Minsk / Tatyana Polezhay - BELTA /. The focus of housing construction needs to be shifted to the regions to prevent the overpopulation of Minsk. This was stated today by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, during his visit to the Minsk Town Hall and his familiarisation with the development prospects of the capital until 2015, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. "We should not gather the entire population of Belarus in Minsk," the President emphasized. "The government needs to shift the focus of housing construction to the regions. The formula is the same all over the world: jobs do not go to the workforce, but the workforce goes to the jobs, not the other way around. We must separate the productive forces and direct people there," said the head of state. Alexander Lukashenko recalled that the requirement to prevent the overpopulation of Minsk must be strictly observed. In his opinion, only point development should be carried out in the capital. "Everything must be subordinated to the interests of the capital and the interests of the people who live here," the President stressed. "We must aim for no more than 1 million 800 thousand people to live in Minsk. One million eight hundred thousand people – and no more, before we get into trouble. Because today it is already impossible to drive or walk around Minsk, tomorrow – gas pollution, people will start pushing, we will gather people from all over the republic in Minsk, and we will overpopulate the city," the President said. As reported to the head of state by the Mayor of Minsk, Nikolai Ladutko, about 170,000 people have moved to Minsk over the past 10 years. Approximately 2.2-2.3 million people are constantly in the capital, including students. Since this year, restrictions have been introduced on queuing for improvement of housing conditions. Citizens who have lived in the capital for the last five years can join the queue. As for the dynamics of the increase in the queue of those in need of housing, about 20,000 people were added in 2010, and about 130,000 people were added between 2006 and 2011. Alexander Lukashenko recalled the need to develop satellite towns of Minsk and create jobs there. -0-

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