|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Following the decrease of investment activities
in 1992-1996, from 1997 a tendency of growing production volume has been seen
in construction.
Housing construction is one of the priorities in the social policy of the Belarusian State. As regards construction of housing facilities, the Republic takes today a leading position among the CIS countries. Citizens are given state support for construction of housing accommodations represented by single free subsidies and preferential credits. Active work is done to find sources of financing. In the nearest time the extra-budgetary forms will be given priority for housing construction.
Priority development of the housing
construction has changed the structure of construction-and-erection work and
significantly increased the share of non-productive sphere. To improve and
develop housing construction, a transfer has been made in the recent years to
construction of buildings of modern architectural and planning systems allowing
a substantial increase of consumer properties of dwelling houses, a reduction
of construction cost through reduction of their material intensity and energy
expenses at the stage of construction.
For the purpose of implementation of the State
program of development of physical culture and sport a great work is being done
in Belarus to build and reconstruct sport facilities. Sport palaces are
constructed in all large cities of the country.
Work is performed in the Republic for creating
the national system of technical standardization and certification meeting the
European standards. The Belarusian contractual organizations are equipped with
skilled personnel of all construction professions, many of whom have experience
of work in the Republic and in other countries. As requested by employers, work
can be performed as a complex including design and turn-key commissioning,
using materials, structures and engineering equipment of Belarusian make.
Belarusian architects, town planners and designers,
having switched from typical designs to individual creative work, were able to
perform, within a short time, a whole number of projects and designs connected
with the creation of original architectural forms. Among them is the building
of the on-land satellite communication station - the Teleport of the Republic
of Belarus, hockey and sport palaces in the cities of Minsk and Vitebsk,
reconstruction and planning of the historic centre in the town of Novogrudok,
and of the central part of the town of Pinsk. In compliance with the program of
construction of housing accommodations for servicemen evacuated from Germany
seven living townships and 5 plants for production of construction materials,
items and structures were built in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.
Many complexes of constructed buildings
represent complex structures for multi-functional usage with the application of
modern effective structures. These facilities have been erected with a high
quality of construction and finishing work.
Over the last three years, complexes of
economic and expressive architectural estate-type living houses have been built
in different regions of Belarus.
Town builders and architects of the Republic
take an active part in the work of international forums and organisations.
Co-operation is developing with the UN Centre on Population Centres (Habitat)
and with the UN ECE Committee on Population Centres. Belarusian specialists
have made a weighty contribution into the development of the Town Construction
Charter of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Specialists in the sphere of territory planning
took part in the program on development of the Paris-Berlin-Warsaw-Minsk-Moscow
communication system. They also participate in the TACIS project of complex
development of Neman European Region.
The material basis of the industry is the
construction materials and structures industry the share of which in the total
production output of the Republic constituted about 5% for a number of years.
The sector includes over 1,400 enterprises and production facilities of
different forms of property. Among them 158 enterprises have their independent
(industrial) balances, manufacturing over 70% of the commercial products of the
sector. They are sufficiently powerful enterprises with the average number of
employees from 200 to 500 persons (14 enterprises employ over 1,000 persons).
The enterprises of the sector manufacture over
150 types of construction materials and products. Among them are cement, wall,
roofing, heat-insulation and non-ore materials, asbestos-cement and ceramic
products, sanitation technical items, etc. The potential of the enterprises
manufacturing construction materials and structures allows a complete supply
for domestic needs of the Republic and export pro-ducts to foreign countries.
Belarus exports glass, cement, wall, roofing and finishing materials, etc. The
country produces domestic materials and products making it possible to
construct buildings and structures with service life and design requirements
being at the European level.
In 1996, was started which manufactures
polished glass. Gomelsteklo Enterprise, the third in the world in capacity,
uses technology of polished glass manufacture meeting the world standards,
which made it possible to produce products competitive on the world market.
Krovlya Joint-Stock Company (town of
Osipovichi) organized a joint Belarusian-German venture for manufacture of
roofing materials based on non-rotting substrates (synthetic and glass) with
bitumen-polymer coating. By European standards the service life of such
material reaches 40 years unlike traditional roofing tarpaper.
Keramin Enterprise is constantly broadening the
nomenclature and increases the volume of output of string ceramic lining tiles
with technical level and quality meeting the European standards.
The Belarusian Cement Plant was the first in
the world to use a "dry" method for production of cement from
over-humid raw materials. This technology allows to produce high-brand cement
and save fuel and energy resources.
The Republic has one of the best in the CIS
plant of lightweight metal structures (in Molodechno). The enterprise equipped
with modern high-productivity equipment manufactures complexes of lightweight
metal structures, multi-layer wall panels with effective heat materials.
Among enterprises manufacturing construction
products the most known in foreign countries are the Europe largest enterprise
for manufacture of crushed stone Granit (in the town of Mikashevichi),
Gomelstroymaterialy Enterprise, etc. Products of the oldest enterprises of the
industry, the Borisov Crystal Plant and Neman Glass Plant, are known not only
in Belarus, but also far beyond it. The products are well-known in Europe and
Asia, America and Australia.
Russia is traditionally the biggest trade
partner of Belarus. Over 75% of the industrial product export and of
contractual construction work of the Republic of Belarus go for the Russian
Federation.
At the present stage of reforms, great
attention should be paid to development of international co-operation and to
involvement of foreign experience, technologies and investments. Joint ventures
have been organised for manufacture of roofing materials on non-rotting
stratums at Krovlya Enterprise, of glass containers at Oktyabr Glass Plant, of
rolled steel at the Molodechno Plant of Lightweight Metal Structures, etc.
Main efforts of scientists working in the
industry are aimed at solving most important problems of construction
production: reduction of cost, materials and energy intensity of construction
and improvement of its quality. Research institutes have fulfilled a range of
research and design work for creating new resource- and energy-saving
construction systems for living houses. Living houses of the new generation
allow using the construction base of the Republic to build the same structures
for governmental housing accommodations and apartments customer made. Such
housing accommodations differ from the traditional houses by higher consumer
properties; in future they can be easily modernized without substantial capital
investments. Facilities are constructed in the Republic now using new
construction systems. The construction documentation has been prepared that
assure the development of mansard construction, heat rehabilitation of the existing
housing facilities, construction of additional levels on buildings built
before.
In the course of socio-economic reforms
conducted in the Republic along the way to a market economy, the construction
sector faces tasks on privatization and structural reconstruction of
production; technical update and modernization of fixed assets; further
increase of the export potential of the sector; formation of a new housing
policy oriented towards extra-budgetary forms of financing of housing
construction.
Great attention is also paid to reduction of
construction costs, manufacture of quality and competitive products,
development of facilities for production of effective and environmentally-pure
heat-insulation, wall and roofing materials and of special types of machinery
and equipment.