MINSK, BelTA. Under its new director, Andrei Kuntsevich, the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research (BISR) will focus specifically on conducting strategic research, First Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration Vladimir Pertsov said as he introduced the new director to the institute’s staff, a BelTA correspondent reports.
Vladimir Pertsov recalled that the Head of State had instructed BISR to concentrate specifically on strategic research. He also stressed the need to establish closer cooperation with the departments of the President Administration of Belarus, including the presidential press service.
“We need substantive analytical documents that contain a strategic component and set out specific courses of action to support management decisions by the government officials to whom these documents are addressed,” the First Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration said.
According to Vladimir Pertsov, BISR has accomplished a tremendous amount of work recently, including a sociological study whose findings were recently made available to the general public and provided an objective measure of public sentiment across a range of issues.
“Among other things, it has enabled us to understand, during the politically calm period we are currently experiencing — despite the heightened tensions outside our borders — what concerns people and how their perceptions of the world differ across the various regions of Belarus,” Vladimir Pertsov said.
The First Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration also stressed the importance of international engagement, including expert diplomacy. In his view, particular attention should be paid to the events attended by BISR representatives.
“We should select those strategic events where we can not only showcase our expertise, but also gain useful insights, bring them back home and share emerging trends, including the global perspectives and ideas being discussed by our colleagues from other countries, primarily the world’s leading powers,” Vladimir Pertsov said.
Attention was also drawn to the domestic agenda.
Speaking to reporters, BISR’s new director Andrei Kuntsevich noted that over its seven years of operation, the institute has become a prominent platform bringing together leading analysts and experts from a wide range of fields.
“As the head of state has emphasized, it is important not to stand still. We need to move forward and maintain momentum in our development. That means improving the quality of our analytical materials, which serve as a basis for the most important government decisions,” he said.
According to the BISR director, particular attention should also be paid to strengthening the institute’s professional staff, enhancing its media presence, and developing international contacts while making greater use of the opportunities offered by expert diplomacy in the interests of the Belarusian state.
“At the same time, BISR’s key tasks as a Belarusian think tank remain essentially unchanged: providing timely and objective analysis, in-depth expertise, and high-quality forecasts of the socio-political and socio-economic processes taking place both within our country and in its external environment,” Andrei Kuntsevich said.
Regarding BISR’s regional offices, he noted that their effectiveness would need to be thoroughly assessed, along with how they could contribute to fulfilling the tasks currently facing government bodies.
Source: BelTA
Photo: Kristina Aksyonova
