The High-Tech Park (HTP) must primarily serve Belarus. This was stated by the Head of State, Alexander Lukashenko, while hearing a report on the HTP's development prospects, as reported by BelTA correspondent.
"Everything will settle down. Business is business. War is war, but business will find its place in the world. Therefore, let's discuss the problems we have and the response measures so that our society understands how we will continue to work with the HTP and use it for the benefit of the country first and foremost. The time has come. There is experience. Good experience. We must still turn this park around so that it works primarily for the country, and works effectively," emphasized the Belarusian leader.
The Head of State noted the decent results of the park's work under the current conditions. "I did not expect it. For three quarters – 9 months of this year, the park's exports have approached $2 billion. I did not expect this. I thought you had already scattered to the corners of the planet. This is slightly less than last year. But, nevertheless, it is a high level. But these are three quarters. A year is four quarters. Let's see how you perform in the fourth quarter," noted Alexander Lukashenko.
He also called it gratifying that those "who rushed beyond the country's borders" after the imposition of sanctions have begun to return. "Many have returned. They tried their luck abroad and realized that in the country where you were born, that's where you should be useful. These are good trends. New residents are registering, creating their own IT products, and mastering new markets," stated the Head of State.
At the beginning of the meeting, Alexander Lukashenko noted that the time has come to return to the issue of the HTP's functioning, not even from an economic point of view, but from a moral and political one. In this regard, the Head of State mentioned the events of 2020 and the mutiny that was imposed on people in Belarus.
"The Hi-Tech Park (HTP) employees, to put it mildly, did not show themselves in the best light. And, of course, society largely harbors a certain wariness in this regard. This is what I mean, that the time has come to remove some unnecessary nuances from the HTP's functioning," the President said. "I must say that we should take into account that neither the HTP employees themselves nor those involved in high technologies are entirely to blame. This is partly our oversight. Or rather, it is an inevitable stage we went through when the HTP and the companies registered there were, frankly speaking, subsidiaries. The owners were far beyond Belarus."
Alexander Lukashenko stated that on the eve of the attempted coup in 2020, information was received that HTP employees were planned to be used as a driving force. However, due attention was not paid to this issue at the time: "I admit that neither I nor the special services paid due attention to this. We simply dismissed it. I thought: well, your own children cannot possibly start a war against you. That's what we paid for. It turns out that such children can also fight against their parents if they are well paid. That is, our people, this must also be frankly admitted, working in the HTP, receiving decent incomes, salaries compared to the average salary in Belarus, preferred big money and followed the commands of their foreign owners. Most often, those from overseas."
"We analyzed this situation from these perspectives and came to this conclusion. Therefore, we must take into account that they were ultimately controlled. And since they are mostly young people, and the HTP management also worked carelessly – they didn't know their people and didn't counteract all these negative trends in time – we got what we got," the Belarusian leader added.
At the same time, the President stressed that it would be wrong to abandon the work of the Hi-Tech Park or to not support it. Despite the fact that this sector has seen significant development in Belarus in recent years, and not only within the park. "Thanks in part to the park's work, we have our own high-tech park at every enterprise. Starting from the National Academy of Sciences and ending with MAZ, BelAZ, and other enterprises. At first, I also didn't believe that every enterprise had very strong IT specialists who weren't just working for some overseas uncle, but were creating a final product. How we fought for product companies. Here they are, created. And when we checked, for example, BelAZ – and there's a whole four- or five-story building – there were guys sitting there, working for BelAZ, creating software and the finished product," the head of state noted.
He believes that the Hi-Tech Park has played a very important role in this regard. Moreover, thanks to the park, specialised education in the country has also been boosted. "I am already concerned that we probably have an excessive imbalance in this IT sphere and the training of specialists in this regard. But that's alright. This is a controllable issue. If there is no demand, there will be no training. And if there is demand, then people are being trained. Young people want to work as IT specialists," said Alexander Lukashenko.
"Therefore, from whatever angle you look at it, the Hi-Tech Park is still a unique feature of our independence, of our young state. It must exist. How it should work, what the situation is there – I would like to hear this information objectively," the President said.
He recalled that in April 2022, a decree "On the state administration body in the field of digital development and informatisation issues" was signed. The Hi-Tech Park was tasked with creating a database of resident competencies and determining the procedure for their involvement in the digitalisation processes of economic sectors. "We need to discuss the results of this work. We have a supervisory board in the Hi-Tech Park. How does it work? To what extent do we control the situation in the Hi-Tech Park, how will we continue to work?" the Belarusian leader outlined the issues.
"You understand that I, as the person responsible for the security of our state and the stable functioning of our society, cannot allow another wave from IT specialists, individual entrepreneurs, and so on, to surge through our country. I want to emphasize again, and I am not hiding this: thanks to the President, such sectors have emerged in our economy and society. Therefore, I bear responsibility for this. We should not only see the positives. We must also see the shortcomings in order to react in a timely manner," the Head of State stressed.
Source: belta.by