President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is setting the new bleached sulphate pulp plant at Svetlogorsk Pulp and Paper Mill for a new stage of development.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is setting the new bleached sulphate pulp plant at Svetlogorsk Pulp and Paper Mill for a new stage of development. He stated this today, while visiting the production facility, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
"We need depth in pulp processing. We need to make appropriate packaging materials and bags from it," the President said.
Alexander Lukashenko recalled the task set to maximally phase out the use of polyethylene, which harms the environment: "Therefore, we need to move away from it. Everything needs to be wrapped – buns, pies, and so on – in paper. We have plenty of this resource. But from this pulp, we need to create such packaging and other materials."
The President announced the decision made to build a workshop next to the plant no later than the current year and purchase the necessary equipment. "It is not cheap. It will probably cost 80 million euros. But we will incur these expenses. We will install the machine and process the pulp here. And thus, out of the 400 thousand tons that you will produce, we will process 300-350 thousand tons here on-site and supply it to our enterprises. 50 thousand tons will remain for export," the head of state explained.
The second area, which should also not be delayed, was named by Alexander Lukashenko as the production of viscose pulp. "You can do this at this enterprise. Aspen and alder are needed, which we have nowhere to put today, they are going to waste. Therefore, we need to speed up. We will process it here," the President stated.
Alexander Lukashenko noted that viscose pulp will be in demand at the neighboring enterprise in Svetlogorsk. Currently, this raw material is purchased through imports.
"That is, everything you produce here today, you produce for good money. This is normal. You need to repay the loan you took, settle with the budget," the Head of State remarked.
He particularly emphasized the importance of deep processing of raw materials and obtaining highly liquid finished products. "This is a completely different level for our country," said Alexander Lukashenko.
According to him, the purpose of his visit is to verify how the instruction on the construction of the new plant was fulfilled.
Regarding previous problems in cooperation with the Chinese company CAMCE in establishing production, the Head of State positively assessed the fact that domestic specialists ultimately coped with mastering the enterprise's capacities independently. "Well done. Thank you very much for this! This is the second purpose of my visit - to thank you for the fact that, having refused an unscrupulous contractor, you built this enterprise yourselves and are producing good products today," Alexander Lukashenko summarized.