At an official ceremony in Vitebsk on January 18, the chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, Vadim Popov, presented the Honorary State Banner of the Republic of Belarus to the Vitebsk oblast authorities. “This shows the magnitude of the contribution of the Vitebsk oblast to the social-economic development of the country, effective labour of the residents of the region,” Vadim Popov said. The speaker of the lower house of the parliament read out a letter of congratulations of the President of Belarus and awarded the Honorary Diploma of the National Assembly to Vladimir Andreichenko, the chairman of the Vitebsk oblast executive committee.