Business news

MINSK, 25 June (BelTA) – The growth of the Belarusian IT industry is expected to reach 7-10% per annum. Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Krutoi made the relevant statement on the air of the TV channel Belarus One, BelTA has learned.

The official said: “We intend to secure growth above the world’s, which makes up some 3.9% per annum but in 2021-2025 we need growth as high as 6-7% so that we could hit the GDP of at least $100 billion by the end of 2025. This is why if our conventional economy manages to grow taking into account the massive retooling campaign we’ve carried out, we expect the traditional sectors to demonstrate growth as high as roughly 3-4%.” Dmitry Krutoi reminded that about $40 billion had been invested in the production sector and agriculture alone. Meanwhile, the Economy Ministry expects the IT industry, transport industry, and logistics industry to demonstrate growth as high as 7-8% or even 10% per annum.

Dmitry Krutoi remarked that the medium-term development program for the period till 2020 expects the GDP and the real monetary income of the population to grow by a total of about 12-15% within five years. “I’d like to mention a number of factors, which will have an effect on the combined growth of labor productivity in Belarus. Low inflation is the first one. We should be able to keep inflation at 5%, which we aim for as the main basic development condition. Then there is the real effective exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble against the key currencies of the partner countries. The third factor is to keep the gold and foreign exchange reserves at 2.5-3 months’ worth of import at least,” stressed the first deputy economy minister. In his opinion, it is necessary to keep the volume of the gold and foreign exchange reserves at $7-8 billion every year as Belarus’ safety cushion.

Speaking about the investment policy, Dmitry Krutoi said: “We have compiled a portfolio for the next 5-7 years. The number includes a biotechnology corporation project for building several amino acid factories, the project to retool Grodno Azot (over $1.5 billion). The reconstruction of the M7, M10, and M3 motorways to upgrade their class will continue. We will continue supporting this segment in order to preserve the basic infrastructure as the foundation for the development of the entire country.”

Meanwhile, the investment policy will focus on innovative projects. “We’ve selected about 100 of them. Their key goal is to secure a value added level on par with the European Union’s, about $60,000 and more per employee, and create some 10,000 high-performance jobs,” concluded the first deputy economy minister.