Visit to OOO Banuba Development and OOO EXP Capital

The state will continue supporting the development of the IT industry in Belarus, President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during the visit to IT companies in Minsk on 13 March.

Aleksandr Lukashenko assured that the state will continue providing assistance, including by passing necessary legal acts regulating the operation of organizations in this segment of the economy. At the same time, he emphasized that the transparency and legitimacy of doing business processes and taxation regulations are among the main requirements. “Living in Belarus, it is essential to build a beautiful country of the future,” the head of state said. “Yes, the future is good. But there should the honest and fair present. And you will get everything we will agree on in accordance with the legislation.”

“I am ready to support you if something needs to be simplified. But this process should be transparent,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

In particular, the President visited the offices of OOO Banuba Development and OOO EXP Capital in Minsk. Investors Viktor Prokopenya and Mikhail Gutseriyev briefed the head of state on the performance of these companies and promising projects. These are the projects in augmented reality and artificial intellect.

Viktor Prokopenya expressed confidence that the absolute majority of companies working in various fields will be inseparably connected with IT technologies in the future. This also pertains to industrial giants.

“We would like to say that Belarus should become an IT country. It is needed to make products here to make Belarus one the world’s IT centers. We can do it. It is just needed to amend the legislation a bit. Our objective is to turn Belarus into the source of production of new technologies,” Mikhail Gutseriyev remarked.

He explained that Belarusian IT specialists are currently using the outsourcing scheme fulfilling the orders of foreign companies and getting just a small part of revenues in comparison with the returns on the product model of business and commercialization of the finished product. Therefore, it is essential to develop new promising industries on a par with the existing model. The development of these fields will help raise the inflow of investment to the country and create highly efficient jobs.

As for the abovementioned legislative amendments, the experts suggested advertizing IT products at world-famous foreign platforms. At present Belarus needs to observe a big number of bureaucratic procedures which often impede the process.

The head of state promised to find solutions to this and other issues. “No problem. It will even benefit us. Thanks to you, we will make others abandon this paperwork. It is very good, and we will be grateful to you. The government and the National Bank should simplify the regulations, and they are doing it now.”

The President also spoke about the training of IT specialists. Foreign experience, including courses and internships, can be useful here. However, all that should benefit the Belarusian IT school. “You should tell me what you need. And I should tell you yes or no. I will say yes because education is the main thing. If you say that the students of BSUIR, BSU or other Belarusian universities should visit Silicon Valley, Skolkovo, IT companies in India and China in the process of education, I will organize it. But the main thing is to get education here,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

He urged the IT specialists to move forward and not to stop in their development, mentioned a big synergy effect as it will eventually bring revenues to the budget. “You live here, spend money, rent premises,” the head of state remarked.

In this context, the President mentioned the recently discussed topic of preventing social dependency. “We are not going to punish social parasites, the main objective is to bring people out of the shadow. The shadow economy is the future criminal economy,” he said.