In the article we will talk about the High-Tech Park. Few people know what it is, so we will talk in detail about this economic zone, which is located in the Republic of Belarus.
What is it about?
The high-tech park in Belarus is a special economic zone in which there is a special tax and legal system that contributes to the correct and successful development of IT business in the country and is the prototype of Silicon Valley in the United States. The high-tech park operates on the basis of extraterritoriality. All registered companies can enjoy the declared benefits, regardless of where their office is located. The key figure is Yanchevsky Vsevolod Vyacheslavovich, Director of the High-Tech Park. The zone was founded in 2005 by Valery Tsepkalo and Mikhail Myasnikovich.
Detailed review
The initial goal of the project was to create in Belarus all the necessary conditions for the proper development of programming focused on the export industry. They also spoke about the development of export industries, which would take place on the basis of high technologies. An important goal of creating the project was to concentrate the scientific, production, investment, financial and human potential of the whole country to significantly increase the level of the national economy and the country's competitiveness.
Employee Benefits
Belarus High-Tech Park is the only organization of its kind in the republic that has the right to provide tax benefits on an ongoing basis. All residents of the Park are exempted from corporate taxes. This also includes value added tax and income tax. The fixed individual income tax rate for all employees and residents of the High-Tech Park is 9%. In addition, total annual income is not included here. Residents have a special right to pay compulsory insurance premiums in a smaller amount.
Activity regulation
In order for the High-Tech Park in Minsk to be able to provide all the conditions that would facilitate the influx of foreign investment, the opening of foreign representative offices, industries, development centers, in the summer of 2017, experts developed a draft Decree that will regulate the activities of this economic zone. The idea of creating a revolutionary Decree belongs to Vsevolod Yanchevsky, who, as we already know, is the director of the HTP administration. Since 2013, this person has been responsible for the implementation of the main provisions of state policy in the field of high technology and informatization. Possible prospects for the development of the Decree were tested and voiced by Vsevolod and Viktor Prokopeni himself in the spring of 2017 at a meeting with the Head of State. A whole group of the best professionals in the country was involved in the creation of this project in close collaboration with government agencies. The task and goal setter was the administration of the High-Tech Park, which tried to reflect the general opinion of the entire industry.
Decree
The provision of this Decree allows HTP residents to collaborate with investment funds, foreign and food companies that monetize IT products through the use of paid subscriptions and advertising. By personal decision of Vsevolod, the Decree places a special emphasis on the issues of regulation and development of cryptocurrency and blockchain at the state level. Comprehensive legal regulation, backed by state authority, will allow company employees to provide crypto exchanges, crypto exchanges, attract additional financing, use tokens and cryptocurrencies not only in local but also in international circulation.
In the future, this will allow creating legal and profitable mining cryptocenters in Belarus, which will greatly contribute to lowering the cost of local electricity and putting NPPs into operation. It should be noted that the National Bank officially agreed to use blockchain technology and even created a whole information network that would help solve a wide range of banking and non-banking tasks. The practical use of this network in the banking system in Belarus is manifested in the fact that it is possible to transmit information about a bank guarantee. According to the Decree, the institutions of English law will be introduced, which will create the basic legal basis for unmanned vehicle technology to come into the country. It will also allow to remove possible restrictions that are now imposed on residents of the High-Tech Park in the field of capital flows. Moreover, this will stimulate the breakthrough of IT education and create the necessary prerequisites for its development, and also, importantly, increase the growth of tax revenues to the country's budget.
Field of activity
In today's world, IT professionals are very in demand. However, a professional must have many skills. Thus, the high competitiveness of the High-Tech Park is ensured by the fact that real specialists work here. They take part in projects of varying complexity, ranging from simple analysis, selection of solutions, consulting, to the development of huge complex systems. Belarusian IT specialists study and receive certification in world-class training centers: Microsoft, SAP, Lotus, Sun, Novell. It is worth noting another important advantage of programmers - they not only gain good knowledge in a specialized field, but also have a good knowledge base in mathematics, physics and other exact sciences.
High Tech Park Education Center
Much attention is paid to the development of education in the country. To date, residents help approximately 80 laboratories at technical universities in the country. The HTP Education Center was created in order to train specialists who have technical education. Extensive work has been launched on the education of children and adolescents. In 2016, a business incubator of the High-Tech Park was launched in Minsk, thanks to which more than 50 events have already been held, in which over 8,000 people took part. Young start-up companies are provided with office space at reduced rental prices, and they are also provided with support from HTP residents who help in finding potential partners and investors.
Infrastructure
To begin with, we note that there is also a High-Tech Park in Grodno. The infrastructure of this unit includes four buildings, on the areas of which the companies of residents of the main OEM are located. There is an educational center, administrations and a coworking center. The unit occupies a small territory, but there is a large influx of people who wish.
The territory of the main High-Tech Park is located near the main transport routes in Minsk. Despite the extraterritorial principle of registering companies, they selected about 50 parts from the earth. According to the development plan, the high-tech park should become a high-tech city in which residents not only work, but also relax in good conditions. The scientific zone includes industrial buildings and a large research complex. The residential area consists of multi-storey buildings, a kindergarten and an elementary school also function. Business and educational areas are occupied by offices, business centers, hotels, student dormitories. In the social and sports one can find swimming pools, gyms, fitness centers, saunas, restaurants, cafes and health centers. Today, the High-Tech Park in Belarus is engaged in attracting investments to create its branches in other cities of the country.
History of creation
As we already know, the supervisory board of the High-Tech Park consists of V. Tsepkalo and M. Myasnikovich. It was they who in 2005 put forward the idea of creating a Belarusian analogue of Silicon Valley. In 2012, a Belarusian-Indian training center was opened, the main focus of which was the training of specialists in the field of IT technology. In the winter of 2013, the HTP educational center began to operate. In the fall of 2014, the Supervisory Board issued Decree No. 4, which was signed by Alexander Lukashenko. There were changes in it regarding the fact that residents of the company could expand their activities in order to work with knowledge-intensive areas. In the spring of 2015, a business incubator was opened, the purpose of which was to help young start-ups. In 2016, with the support of the Ministry of Education, an educational project was launched to teach primary school students programming skills.
Summing up the article, I would like to say that the HTP Supervisory Board works at its best. Indeed, the modern indicators of the High-Tech Park in the field of IT are leading in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Currently, 187 companies are registered here and more than 30,000 people are involved. In 2016 alone, more than 3,000 jobs were created. In the same year, more than $ 169 million of investments were attracted.