In line with the 2011-2015 state innovative development programme, last year, 458 projects were implemented, with 79 production facilities opening. New technologies and types of produce were launched in the spheres of industry, power engineering, construction, chemistry, petro-chemistry and medicine. Exports of Belarusian science-intensive and high-tech goods tripled against 2011 last year, exceeding $10bn.
Grodno hydroelectric power station has reached its designed capacity of 84m kWh of electricity per annum, bringing a saving of over 20m cubic metres of natural gas each year. Meanwhile, construction has begun on the Belarusian nuclear power station — using Russian credit.
The Belarusian Cement Plant JSC and Krasnoselskstroymaterialy JSC have commissioned two modern resource-saving lines, with an output of almost 2m tonnes of cement per annum at each. In addition, BelAZ JSC has designed a mining dump truck able to carry loads of 450 tonnes: ready by summer 2013 for sale to Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Far East and Asia.
The ICT sphere sees the United Informatics Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus creating a modern system of remote Earth sensing via satellite Meanwhile, the NAS’ Physics and Technology Institute is now manufacturing multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicles.
Major projects in the spheres of medicine, pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies have helped Belarus improve its ranking in the World Bank’s Knowledge Economy Index by 11 positions (59th position out of 146 countries). Belarus has also considerably improved its economic and institutional regime rankings and that for ICT (up 21 places), as well as for knowledge and innovations.
