President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has tasked the government with maintaining existing sales markets and developing new ones. He stated this at a meeting with the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Petr Parkhomchik, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.The Head of State emphasized that the development of import substitution remains the number one issue for the Council of Ministers: "We talk about it a lot, we have started doing something. Misfortune has forced us, these sanctions, to engage in import substitution."

"I have already said that we should not discard any markets," the Belarusian leader continued. - If we can work in the West, we will work in the West, in the South, North, East - wherever we are needed, wherever our products are needed, we must work everywhere. Do we have a gigantic economy like Russia? No. The economy is compact. What we produce is needed, it is needed everywhere: both food and mineral fertilizers, especially now. To prevent hunger, and the West will buy these fertilizers. And it's nearby. Therefore, we should not refuse any markets."

Distant countries, such as Zimbabwe, for example, can also be promising, believes the Belarusian leader. "This is a unique region, a country," he noted. - And you can work in such countries, where there are also plenty of problems. For their entire lives, Zimbabwe has been strangled by sanctions. Apparently, gold and diamonds do not give some Western leaders peace."

Source: belta.by