Business news

MINSK, 16 May (BelTA) – Belarus and China intend to set up a venture fund for commercializing R&D products. The relevant plans were announced after the meeting of Chairman of the State Science and Technology Committee of Belarus Alexander Shumilin and Hu Zheng, member of the China Merchants Group Board of Directors, general representative of China Merchants Group’s representative office in Central Asia and the Baltic states, on 16 May, BelTA has learned.

According to Alexander Shumilin, Belarus and China should step up efforts to attract new resident companies to the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone for the sake of jointly creating hi-tech products and enterprises. The official remarked that the park would have to attract as many companies that dominate hi-tech branches of the economy as possible.

In turn, Hu Zheng underlined the advanced nature of R&D products in Belarus. The press service of the State Science and Technology Committee quoted him as saying that there is a very strong craving for innovations in the country. Besides, Belarusian higher education institutions are often highly rated. The fact testifies to the availability of a sufficiently well-developed education system and high literacy standards among the population.

Yet Hu Zheng pointed out that the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone is primarily a universal platform for bilateral cooperation for the sake of creating and assimilating joint R&D products. In order to support the commercialization of these projects, the Chinese side intends to consider the establishment of a Belarusian-Chinese venture fund. The matter is supposed to be discussed in detail during a Belarusian-Chinese conference in August.

China Merchants Group was founded in 1872 as a shipping company. At present the company’s operations focus on transportation (ports, toll roads, transportation of energy resources, logistics, maritime engineering), finance, and real estate development. The company owns 27 ports in 14 countries across the globe. In 2015 alone it transported about 100 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers. The company’s financial operations include banking, funds and fund management, insurance. China Merchants Group is a leading venture investor that pours money into China’s high technologies.