Business news

MINSK, 19 October (BelTA) – Belarus offered to set up a venture capital financing fund in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) using the example of the Belarus-Russia Venture Investment Fund. The initiative was brought forward at the 21st session of the Interstate Council for Cooperation in Science, Technology, and Innovations taking place in Yerevan, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian State Science and Technology Committee.

The Interstate Council is meant to discuss more than ten matters, among them the implementation of the CIS interstate innovative cooperation program for the period up to 2020 and ways to attract more non-budgetary sources of financing for joint projects in science and technology. The participants are also set to talk about coordination and interaction in science and technology in the Interstate Council, the Eurasian Economic Commission, and the Belarus-Russia Union State, and review a plan of action to draw up the CIS interstate innovative cooperation program for 2021 and beyond.

The implementation of the program’s pilot projects and second-stage projects involving organizations from three or more CIS member states has turned out to be complicated. The countries failed to synchronize public funding for most projects in terms of schedules and in required volumes, Chairman of the State Science and Technology Committee Alexander Shumilin said at the session. In his words, this happened primarily due to dissimilarities in national procedures regarding public funding in science. In this respect, Belarus also suggested discussing prospects for setting up a CIS venture capital financing fund using the example of the Belarus-Russia Venture Investment Fund. The country is also in favor of discussing the priority ranking for high-readiness second-stage projects to be selected for implementation.

The Interstate Council for Cooperation in Science, Technology, and Innovations was established on 20 November 2009 by the CIS Heads of State Council. It is designed to coordinate policy in science, technology, and innovations in general along with its separate components and form financial and economic mechanisms to support joint programs and projects in this field in the CIS member states. This body is also a supervisory council of the CIS interstate innovative cooperation program for the period up to 2020. The program largely aims at uniting the intellectual, scientific, technological, manufacturing, and financial potentials of the CIS member states.