Business news

MINSK, 16 May (BelTA) - Belarus’ export of telecommunication services have doubled over the past five years, Chairman of the Belarusian Stat Science and Technology Committee Alexander Shumilin said at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Belarusian ICT Summit on 16 May, BelTA has learned.

Alexander Shumilin noted that the level of development of information and communication technologies is one of the most important indicators of economic and social development of a state. “Every year the contribution of ICTs to the economic growth increases. From 2013 to 2017 Belarus doubled its export of telecommunication services. Today it reaches nearly $1.5 billion. It is a measure of the level of our development skills and knowledge and demand for them in the world. Export grows by approximately 18-20% every year,” Alexander Shumilin noted.

He stressed that digitalization changes people's habits, make today's consumers more demanding to the quality of services. This encourages society to change the paradigm of doing business where the customer is at the heart of the strategy of its further development and where digital technology is the main driver.

“Digital transformation of the economy is one of the priorities of state development. To fully meet the needs of the society in information, the State Science and Technology Committee has been working, for more than 10 years already, on the development of the state system of scientific and technical information. About 30 projects have been implemented in scientific and technical fields to set up automated information systems and resources, develop telecommunications infrastructure, and to provide legal and methodological support of the state system of scientific and technical information,” Alexander Shumilin noted.

The 2nd Belarusian ICT Summit includes a plenary session and panel sessions dedicated to various technological trends. These include broadband access technologies, Internet of Things, cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality, blockchain technology, 3D modelling and visualization technologies, information security. The information and communication technology summit is part of the 25th international forum on information and communication technologies TIBO 2018, which will last through 18 May.