Fake #1 Lukashenko defended MAZ from investors
Thanks to its withdrawal from cooperation with foreign investors, the Belarusian authorities saved the Minsk Automobile Plant. The Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA reported this on November 29.
“May industrial giants be in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko has been saying. The very enterprises had been supporting the entire Belarusian economy during tough times. The government managed to save them and take them to a completely new level. <…>
Thanks to cooperation with the German automobile industry, manufacturers MAN and Neoplan, the Minsk Automobile Plant stayed afloat in the 90s. But the Belarusian enterprise never caught the bait of European companies. Therefore, the partnership was short-lived. As time has shown, Belarus has gotten only benefits from this,” the propagandists said in their fake news.
The financial condition data of MAZ indicates the opposite. The company was unprofitable from 2014 to 2018. Then in 2019, a plant with over 15 thousand employees got a net profit of BYN 33 thousand. In 2021, the plant’s profit increased to BYN 364 thousand.
However, the company’s debts amounted to BYN 454.86 million, and the uncovered loss on the balance sheet was BYN 441 million.
Data for 2022 is not publicly available, but according to Lukashenko’s statements, the financial situation of MAZ is difficult so far.
“About MAZ. The enterprise was driven into a swamp, there is no money, it is unable to operate, they came to the budget,” he stated at a meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ministers on February 14, 2023.