A field meeting of the Council for Interaction of Local Self-Government Bodies under the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus was held at the Glubokoye District Executive Committee. The main item on the agenda was the discussion of problems related to the construction of infrastructure and housing in settlements with a population of less than 20,000 people.

Opening the meeting, the Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, Natalia Kochanova, noted:

- Strong regions mean a strong country. This is the path we will follow. Unfortunately, the potential of rural regions and small towns is not being fully utilised. Our task is to collectively develop approaches and identify key directions for the implementation of this strategy.

The Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Subbotin, delivered a report on housing construction in the Vitebsk region in 2024:

- Last year, 538 apartments for large families, 1339 rental apartments, and over 20 apartments for orphans and children left without parental care were built in the region. The same trend continues this year. The Council of Ministers has set the task to commission 20% more housing than in previous years and to provide housing for 480 large families.

At the meeting, the Minister of Architecture and Construction, Ruslan Parkhamovich, spoke about the problematic issues of housing and infrastructure construction in rural settlements and measures to resolve them; the Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Nataliya Pavlyuchenko, spoke about rental housing as a mechanism for retaining social sector workers; and the Chairman of the Glubokoye District Executive Committee, Alexander Shubsky, spoke about the impact of infrastructure construction on the development of the city.

Minister of Architecture, Ruslan Parkhamovich:

- The Vitebsk region has the largest number of rural settlements. Over the past 5 years, the population has decreased by 8.5%. Among the measures to retain staff, it is proposed to return to the system of departmental housing with the right of purchase by the employee after a certain period of service, preferential loans for 90%, and for a certain category, 100% of the cost per square meter, and to expand state support for rural housing construction.