Business news

MINSK, 28 December (BelTA) – Belarus and China are going to set up a venture investment fund. The step is laid down by the agreement on cooperation between the State Science and Technology Committee of Belarus, the investment company China Merchants Capital, and the Belarusian-Chinese joint venture SZAO Industrial Park Development Company. The agreement was signed in Minsk on 28 December, BelTA has learned.

The venture fund founders are the Belarusian Innovative Foundation, China Merchants Capital, and SZAO Industrial Park Development Company.

The operation of the venture investment fund will be focused on assisting the innovation-driven development of the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone by offering venture funding to the innovative projects to be implemented inside the industrial park. The investment strategy of the venture investment fund will be focused on forming a portfolio of innovative projects, primarily those relating to high technologies, R&D and production of innovative goods and services.

The initial capital investment in the Chinese-Belarusian venture investment fund will be $20 million. The venture investment fund is expected to start working in 2017.

Taking part in the ceremony were Chairman of the State Science and Technology Committee of Belarus Alexander Shumilin, First Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Sergei Chizhik, and Chief Executive Officer of SZAO Industrial Park Development Company Hu Zheng.

Alexander Shumilin told media that Belarus could use more venture financing. The official described the establishment of the Belarusian-Chinese venture foundation fund as a timely move. The fund will finance initial stages of projects inside the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone. “Those may include projects relating to unmanned aerial vehicles (projects of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus), food industry projects (for instance, the Belarusian State University has developed edible film for packaging) and other ones. We have many projects in various areas that are interesting for the Chinese market,” stressed Alexander Shumilin.

Chief Executive Officer of SZAO Industrial Park Development Company Hu Zheng noted that the operation of the venture investment fund will primarily cater to the scientific organizations that will reside in the park. “The venture investment fund will allow them to commercialize their R&D products and make concrete products inside the industrial park,” said Hu Zheng. In the future international venture funds may be invited to support enterprises inside the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone.