MINSK, 4 January (BelTA) – Belarus is leading among the CIS countries in terms of a salary and pension amount in a US dollar equivalent, Deputy Labor and Social Security Minister Valeryan Korol told a press conference on 4 January. According to him, one of the major goals of a socially-oriented state such as Belarus is a sustainable growth of living standards of the population and creation of necessary conditions for human potential development. In his words, Belarus’ social and economic development program for 2006-2010 focused on increasing people’s real income, cutting unemployment, raising social guarantees and developing a reliable social security system for socially vulnerable categories of the population. “Today we can say with confidence that the preset goals have been achieved. Wages and pensions are on a steady increase. Over the last five years the real salary has risen 1.6 times. Belarus tops the CIS states in terms of salary and pension amount in a US dollar equivalent,” the official said. He also said that Belarus maintains controlled, stable situation on the labor market. Registered unemployment fell to 0.7% of the economically active population. Unlike most post-Soviet states Belarus has preserved and developed the system of state social support for the various categories of the population. There are government programs of social support for veterans, the disabled, families with children. The state social standard serves as the basis for the existing and new forms of social services. The system of targeted social assistance to low-income people is continuously upgraded. In 2011, according to the deputy minister, the labor and social security system faces critical and important tasks. We need to start working on a number of government programs and continue efforts to improve the level and quality of life, further improve the legislative framework of the social sector. Social policy in 2011-2015 will be based on the continuity of goals and priorities, which were formulated and implemented in previous years. The national model of a socially oriented economy has proved effective and will be developed in the future,” Valeryan Korol said. On 5 January Belarus marks the Day of Social Worker.

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