The HT Park of Belarus

During the last years the ICT sector in Belarus receives strong governmental support and is one of the top-priority economic sectors to develop. In 2005 the Hi-Tech Park was established with the main goal to support software industry in Belarus. First residents were registered in 2006. Currently 94 companies are registered as the Park's residents. Half of Belarus HTP resident-companies are foreign companies and joint ventures.

Unlike many parks in Europe or Asia, the Belarusian HT Park is a virtual hi-tech park. It means that the legal conditions of the Hi-Tech Park are valid within the whole territory of Belarus. No matter where a company is located within Belarus, if it deals with engineering and software development – it can become a resident of HTP. This principle enables the resident companies to use educational, scientific, professional and infrastructural potential of the whole country.

Belarusian programmers get trained at the training centers of IBM, Lotus, Sun, Novell, Microsoft, and other world IT leaders. Another distinctive feature of Belarusian developers is that besides professional skill, they also have deep knowledge in mathematics, engineering, physics, and other sciences.

The export share in the total production volume is 80 per cent. The resident companies are successful on North American and European hi-tech markets. Today they have customers in 52 countries around the world. Today some leading corporations, such as Peugeot, Mitsubishi, British Petroleum, Gazprom, Reuters, British Telecom, London Stock Exchange, World Bank, Coca-Cola, etc. are among major consumers of Belarusian software developed in the Hi-Tech Park of Belarus.

14. Look at the questions and say how many of them you can answer.

1. What support does ICT sector receive in Belarus?

2. Why is this sector important for our country?

3. When was the HT Park established?

4. What is the main aim of the HT Park?

5. How many companies are registered as the Park's residents?

6. What does the virtual high-tech park mean?

7. What principle enables the resident companies to use scientific and professional potential?

8. What training centers do Belarus programmers get trained at?

9. What is another distinctive feature of Belarusian developers?

10. Do you agree that the resident companies are really successful on European markets? Prove this fact.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-24