Belarus High Technologies Park

Belarus High Technologies Park (HTP) is a special economic zone with a special tax and legal regime in the Republic of Belarus, contributing to the favorable and successful development of IT business. It is a Belarusian analog of Silicon Valley in the USA. Belarus HTP operates on the principle of extraterritoriality. The companies registered in it can enjoy all the advantages provided, regardless of the location of their Belarusian office.

Description

The original HTP mission is to create favorable conditions for the development of the export-oriented programming industry in Belarus, the development of other export industries based on new and high technologies, as well as to concentrate human, scientific, production and financial capacities to enhance the competitiveness of the national economy.

The organization is headed by the Director. There are two Boards in the Park structure - the Expert Board ^[1] and the Supervisory Board.

The High-Tech Park is the only organization in the country that has the right to provide tax benefits on a systematic basis. Residents of the High-Tech Park are exempt from all corporate taxes, including value-added tax. Individual income tax for employees of HTP residents has a fixed rate of 9% and is not included in the total annual income. In addition, the residents of the Park are entitled to pay mandatory insurance premiums in a reduced amount.

Highly qualified specialists enhance the competitiveness of Belarus HTP in overseas markets. They participate in IT projects of any complexity, starting from system analysis and consulting and finishing with the design and development of complex systems.  Belarusian specialists are being trained in prestigious international educational centers, such as IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Lotus, Sun, Novell. Another advantage of Belarusian developers is that they also have deep knowledge in mathematics, physics and other sciences.^[2]

HTP is actively engaged in supporting IT education and innovative entrepreneurship. Today, HTP resident companies support about 80 joint laboratories in Belarusian technical universities. The Educational Center of HTP “IT Academy” was founded to help people without IT background or relevant education make the very first steps in IT industry. ^[3] Active work is being done to teach programming to children and adolescents.

TIn 2016, the HTP business incubator in Minsk hosted 55 events (conferences, workshops, contests, hackathons, etc.) which attracted more than 9,000 participants (in 2015, there were 12 events and 2,000 participants). Here, startup companies rent offices at lower rates, receive advice on commercialization of their products and assistance in search for partners and investors.^[4]

In summer 2017, a new revolutionary draft Decree regulating HTP activities has been submitted to state bodies for consideration.^[5] The Decree aims to create conditions that would facilitate the inflow of international investments, the opening of foreign representative offices and development centers. The Decree was initiated by the Director of the Belarus HTP Vsevolod Yanchevsky, and the main legal partner has been “Aleinikov&Partners” law firm, whose contribution to legal safety of IT-business was acclaimed by the HTP's Letter of Recognition in February 2016.^[6] In close cooperation with government authorities, a working group of the best specialists of the country worked on the project. This Decree opens HTP doors for product companies, investment funds, as well as foreign companies that monetize IT products through advertising and paid subscription. Furthermore, with the proposed bill the digital currencies, as well as the mining associated with it, will be legalized and promoted. The bill will allow HTP residents to offer services of crypto exchanges, use cryptocurrencies and tokens and launch ICOs to raise funds. Belarus aims to pull Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency into the mainstream, not only in the Eastern European country but also internationally. This will allow for big mining centers to be formed which will be highly successful due to the excess and reasonable electricity that is available through the nuclear power stations in the country.^[7] With this draft legislation tabled, the National Bank has tested and approved the use of Blockchain technology in the banking sphere. The first practical use of this Blockchain network in the sector is the ability to transfer information about bank guarantees. The next step will be the introduction of the Blockchain technology in the securities market.^[8] On top of that, the Decree introduces separate institutes of English law that will stimulate investment activities, sets legal basis for driverless car technology, lifts many restrictions regarding financial operations for IT companies, stimulates a breakthrough in IT education, as well as creates prerequisites for new jobs and revenue growth.^[9]

Infrastructure

The territory of the Park of High Technologies is located near the main thoroughfares of the capital: the central avenue, the Minsk ring road, the road to the National International Airport (distance to the airport is 40 km), and the Berlin-Minsk-Moscow railway line.

Despite the extraterritorial principle of registration of resident companies, according to the Decree No. 12, HTP occupies about 50 hectares of land for the construction of physical infrastructure. According to the general development plan, the High Technology Park should become the embodiment of the idea of ​​a high-tech city whose inhabitants live, work and rest in comfortable conditions. ^[10]

The research and production zone will include a set of research and production buildings for HTP residents.

The residential area already consists of several multi floor buildings, as well as the kindergarten and primary school No. 31. In the business and educational zone there are a business center, offices of IT companies, a hostel for students of the IT Academy and a hotel. The public sports zone includes multi-purpose sports halls, a swimming pool, a sauna, a fitness center, a health trail, a restaurant, a café and a health center. More HTP branches are going to be opened in the regional centers of the country.

History

The initiative of ​​creating a Belarusian analogue of the Silicon Valley originates from Valery Tsepkalo and Mikhail Myasnikovich. On September 22, 2005, the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed the Decree "On the High Technologies Park".^[11]

In January 2011, the Educational Center of HTP "IT Academy" was founded.

In September 2011, the construction of the first residential buildings began.

On January 12, 2012, India-Belarus Digital Learning Centre named after Rajiv Gandhi opened. Belarus Digital Learning Centre is dedicated to train IT-specialists and to upgrade qualifications of the professors of Belarusian technical universities.^[12]

On November 3, 2014, Alexander Lukashenko signed the Decree No. 4, which amended and supplemented the Decree of September 22, 2005 No. 12 "On the Park of High Technologies". This decree expands the area of activities of HTP residents.

In May, 2015, HTP Business Incubator opened its doors to provide assistance to startup companies which develop their own products and build a special innovative environment in its co-working space designed for communication, learning, exchange of ideas and joint creativity.

In 2016, a joint educational project focused on teaching school students of grades 2-6 programming in Scratch was launched. The project was initiated by resident companies of Belarus Hi-Tech Park and supported by the HTP Administration and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus. ^[13]

On March 15, 2017 Vsevolod Yanchevsky was appointed director of the Belarus High-Tech Park.^[14] Before that, the position was occupied by Valery Tsepkalo.

Statistics

Today, HTP is one of the leading innovative IT clusters in Central and Eastern Europe. As of April 13, 2017, 173 resident companies ^[15]with a total number of 27 thousand employees were registered in the HTP.^[16] In 2016, the exports increased by 16 percent, received foreign direct investment grew by 16 percent, and the number of IT projects implemented for the Belarusian market rose by 56 percent (cmpared to 2015).

In 2016, the Hi-Tech Park attracted USD 169.2 million of foreign direct investment which exceeds the FDI received in 2015 by 16 percent.

By the type of investment, 74 HTP resident-companies were established by Belarusian investors, 32 are joint companies, and 59 residents were set up by foreign investors.

HTP resident-companies delivered their services to customers from 67 countries in 2016. 49.1 percent of the exports accounts for Western Europe, and 43.2 percent – for the USA. 

Table.1. Computer Services Exports. Balance of Payments by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus.

TOP-10 Exporters in 2016:

• EPAM
• Game Stream
• IBA IT Park
• Itransition
• iTechArt Group
• Exadel
• ISsoft Solutions
• ScienceSoft
• Viber Media
• LeverX International

Six companies residents of Belarus` Hi-Tech Park have been featured in the 2017 Global Outsoursing 100 list: EPAM Systems, IBA Group, Ciklum, Itransition, Intetics, Bell Integrator. ^[17]

Every year a new success story happens in HTP: World of Tanks, Viber, Apalon, MSQRD, Maps.me, Prisma.^[18]

Supervisory Board

Members of the Supervisory Board of the Hi-Tech Park:

• Vsevolod Yanchevsky – Aide to the Belarus President, Head of the Central Ideology Office of the Belarus President Administration (Chair person of the Supervisory Board)
• Inessa Kontsevaya – First Deputy Director of the Hi-Tech Park Administration (Secretary of the Supervisory Board)
• Mikhail Batura – Rector of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics
• Mikhail Kovalev – Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the Belarusian State University
• Alexander Kurbatski – Chair of the Department of Software Engineering of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the Belarusian State University
• Victor Laptev – Deputy Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee
• Anna Rabava – Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization
• Alexander Tuzikov – General Director of the United Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
• Dmitry Shedko – First Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization
• Konstantin Shulgan – Deputy Head of the Operative Analytical Center Under the President of the Republic of Belarus.^[19] 

References

External links

• Belarus High Technologies Park website
• Other similar organizations