25 October, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. In 2013, it is planned to construct 600,000 sq.m of housing in the Vitebsk region. This was announced today at a meeting of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee by Vladimir Belous, Chairman of the Committee for Architecture and Construction of the Regional Executive Committee, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. According to Vladimir Belous, the region's target for 2013 is to construct and commission 600,000 sq.m of total housing area. It is planned to allocate preferential loan funds solely for the construction of 240,000 sq.m of residential buildings, including 140 houses with a total area of 10.8 thousand sq.m in agricultural organisations. Funding is allocated for the construction of apartments for the resettlement of citizens from dilapidated and emergency housing, as well as social housing, rental housing, and housing for large families. Approximately 350,000 sq.m are planned to be built using citizens' and organisations' own funds without attracting loans. In total, from January to September 2012, 304.5 thousand sq.m of total residential building area were commissioned in the Vitebsk region from all sources of funding, which is 76.1% of the annual target. Of the total volume, 124.9 thousand sq.m were commissioned in rural areas and small urban settlements, 62 houses (apartments) with a total area of 4.9 thousand sq.m were commissioned in agricultural organisations of the region, and 168.9 thousand sq.m were commissioned in apartment buildings in cities for citizens registered as in need of improved housing conditions. 216 apartments with a total area of 16.1 thousand sq.m were built for large families. Individual developers commissioned 99.9 thousand sq.m of total residential building area, accounting for 32.8% of the commissioned housing. Over nine months, more than Br1 trillion of investments were utilised for housing construction, including Br499 billion from preferential credit resources. The majority of districts fulfilled and exceeded the housing commissioning target set by the Council of Ministers (Ushachsky, Vitebsky, Dokshitsky, Dubrovensky, Lepelsky, Miorsky, Chashniksky, etc.). At the same time, Beshenkovichsky, Braslavsky, Gluboksky, Gorodoksky, Rossonsky, and Sennensky districts failed to meet their targets. Vladimir Belous cited poor work organisation and insufficient control over the construction process by customers and district executive committees as the main reasons for this. Insufficient concentration of workers at commissioning facilities was also a contributing factor.