Lukashenko ready to sell Belaruskali on his terms
MINSK. June 17 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has announced his readiness to sell some assets owned by the country's potash fertilizer maker Belaruskali, insisting, however, this deal should be concluded on Minsk's terms.
"You know who is eyeing our enterprises. Belaruskali is worth $30 billion. Do you have this money? We are ready to privatize Belaruskali. Our terms have been outlined. The most important thing is to allow it to continue developing and modernizing. I have already named the sum. Come to us and we will speak about it. If you have [$]12 billion, it is 40% of this sum. Put the money on the table, and the shares are yours," Lukashenko said at a news conference in Minsk on Friday.
There are plenty of enterprises and open joint-stock companies in Belarus in which the government holds large stakes, the president said.
Some experts mean the sale of blue chips of the Belarusian industry when they speak about structural reforms, he said.
"It is possible to sell them and at a higher price, especially as they belong to someone else. If I sold one enterprise for less, God Forbid, they would immediately call me corrupt, accusing me of putting this money in my pocket. And they have already started to say it. Although no one has ever counted the money in my pocket," Lukashenko said.
Proposals have been voiced to privatize both Belaruskali, Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), Belarusian Iron and Steel Works (BMZ) and the country's oil refinery, he said.
"People in Belarus mean by reforms taking something from the state and selling it to a private owner at a low price," the president said.
Lukashenko said he knows from his own experience that "a private owner, an oligarch, runs to the government begging for money when the going gets tough."
"No one wants to begin investing in an enterprise because he has not created it and has not invested a kopeck in it, and no one rushes to invest in a privatized enterprise. In the West, people become billionaires by selling cakes in the street and earning one cent, one dollar at a time. But wealth simply fell down on our neighbors," he said.
"We do not need this sort of privatization," Lukashenko said.