By Olga Belova
The foreign economic activity of the Academy’s organisations includes work on export contracts. “Last year alone, the NAS was fulfilling contracts with organisations from 42 countries, with sci-tech agreements on co-operation signed with 80 states,” explained Piotr Vityaz, the Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences, at the Belarusian Industrial Forum.
Most contracts are with organisations from Russia, the USA, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Switzerland and France. $32.5m worth of goods, works and services, as well as grant payments, were exported.
The scientific institutes of the NAS’ Department for Physical-Engineering Sciences were especially active in international collaboration, ensuring 70 percent of the Academy’s total exports. In 2011, the Tsentr Scientific-Production Association signed 47 export contracts with organisations in Russia, Italy, France and Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Scientific and Production Association of Powder Metallurgy fulfilled over 53 contracts for the supply of produce to Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, China, India, Korea, Turkey and elsewhere.
The establishment of a joint centre has been discussed with Indian partners to organise research in the sphere of new materials and technologies. In addition, the Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer is working with Saudi Arabia, France, the Russian Federation and China. Moreover, the United Institute of Informatics Problems has been co-operating with organisations from the USA, Russia, France, Poland, Ukraine, Armenia and China. Last year, an agreement on sci-tech co-operation in the sphere of supercomputer technologies was signed between the Institute and Chinese INSPUR Company.
