Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 4 December (BelTA) – Cooperation between Belarus and Russia in the area of information technologies is rather good. The opinion was voiced by State Secretary of the Union State of Belarus and Russia Grigory Rapota as he visited the Hi-Tech Park in Minsk on 4 December, BelTA has learned.

The official said he believes that IT cooperation between the two countries will continue developing in the future at a rather noticeable pace. “Cooperation between our countries goes on. It is important to create the right legislative basis in each country. Specialists will know what to do after that,” said the State Secretary of the Union State.

According to Grigory Rapota, the Hi-Tech Park is a hallmark of Belarus that can change the entire country. “I’ve always known that Belarus has highly qualified specialists in the area of high technologies. The fact that a total of 16,000 people work in the tech park indicates a serious desire to secure one’s place under the sun. By the way, according to special rating agencies, Belarus is more and more often referred to as a center of high-tech programming products,” he said.

The State Secretary of the Union State also remarked that branches of Belarusian hi-tech centers are being created in Russia. In turn, Director of the Hi-Tech Park Administration Valery Tsepkalo noted that several Russian companies also work in the Hi-Tech Park. Those are Sberbank Technologies, Yandex, and Kaspersky Lab. At present the Hi-Tech Park represents primarily European investments, but the share of Russian investments is rising, he remarked.

In January-September 2013 resident companies of the Hi-Tech Park exported $307.9 million worth of software development services. HTP residents catered to customers in 56 countries. Western Europe accounted for 45% of the total. It was followed by the USA with 40% and the CIS states with 12%. The main importers of HTP services were the USA, Russia, Germany, the UK, and Czechia.

The Hi-Tech Park is home to 134 companies. Of them 60 companies have been created by Belarusian investors, 74 ones have been created with assistance of foreign investors. The latter include 43 companies with 100% foreign registered capital and 31 joint ventures.

As of 1 November 2013 the total number of people employed in the Hi-Tech Park exceeded 16,000 people. In January-September 2013 as many as 1,386 jobs were created.