Lukashenko on Belarusian IT and support for this area: large-scale digitalisation still stalling
Large-scale digitalisation, which the Government has been talking about for years, is still stalling – as noted by the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, during his annual Address to the Belarusian People and the National Assembly
“Large-scale digitalisation, which the Government has been talking about for years, is still stalling. The status of an IT country primarily implies the creation of a product for the needs of its own economy. For this, preferences were given. The return is not yet very visible. You remember the difficulties we faced when technological sanctions were imposed against us. We saw how dependent we are on foreign software and what risks it brings. Just imagine what software failures could lead to at large chemical enterprises or, e.g., at a nuclear power plant (what they would like there, abroad) and what problems we would get with calculations in the financial sector. Therefore, the creation of domestic software and its implementation should become an absolute priority for all organisations involved in relevant developments,” the Head of State said.
The President underlined that not only the High-Tech Park residents, but also the Academy of Sciences, production associations, the financial sector, scientific and educational institutions should receive support in terms of creating new information technologies.
“Moreover, thanks to their efforts, chaos was avoided, including at strategically important infrastructure facilities. The HTP needs to be seriously involved in this process, create new competitive products in the interests of its country, leaving intellectual developments here,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The Head of State drew attention that the HTP ‘should be strongly stirred’. They are too fixated on sanctions, saying that it’s hard for them.
“We need a product that will be in demand in foreign markets, and you know how demanding they are in these markets. We need to seriously invest in production; at present, we are not very good at this. We dipped in capital investments by as much as 19 percent, although we completed the implementation of over 150 innovative projects. This year we simply have to reverse the investment trend of recent years. The topic of stimulating conditions for investors is also relevant. It is necessary to involve them in projects where the production of the products we need is established or where they are an indispensable link in national production chains. We need a package of additional guarantees for responsible investors, e.g., the purchase of products by the state, the reimbursement of part of capital investments, the creation of ready-made production sites. The rules for investors are simple: new jobs, decent wages, a solid social package for employees, the launch of innovations and assistance in expanding competencies,” the President noted.