OREANDA-NEWS  On 17 February was announced, that Belorussian president Alexander Lukashenko met with Valery Tsepkalo, Director of the Administration of the High Technologies Park, who reported to the President on the main results of the activity of the High-Tech Park (HTP), which is one of Belarus’ major innovation projects.

Today, there are sixty-one residents registered at the High-Tech Park; five projects are currently underway in the field of high technologies.

As for the various types of investments attracted to the Belarusian IT sector, fifty-two per cent of the resident companies at the High-Tech Park were set up by Belarusian investors, twenty-six by foreign investors (100 per cent foreign capital) and twenty-two per cent were established as joint ventures.

A total of goods produced (works performed, services provided, intellectual property created) at the High-Tech Park in the year 2008 amounted to Br260.5 thousand million, up 1.8 times from the year 2007.

The resident companies of the High-Tech Park provided services related to development of software bound for export to the amount of \\$102.5 million. The share of export in the total amount of production was 85 per cent.

Each year in between 2005 to 2008 the exports of HTP residents grew twofold.

The President was informed on the progress in the construction of the Park and related design work. Mr Valery Tsepkalo informed the Head of State on the completion of the construction of the first main building which would house the Administration of the High-Tech Park, education centre, business incubator and offices of two resident companies who acted as co-investors.

The meeting also touched upon personnel-related issues, and, first of all, what the relations between the Park’s residents and the system of higher learning should be. The Park’s residents have already opened their laboratories at virtually all institutions of higher education across Belarus. The majority of the people working at the Park are young men under 30.