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9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1.7 TMT sector news
In 2018 the export of the Hi-Tech Park was estimated at $1.414bn, up 38% over 2017 , BelTA reported on March 4. According to forecasts of international auditors, the HTP was to approach this target only by 2020. The biggest consumers of the HTP products are the European Union member states and the United States (over 90%). “The export growth surpassed all our expectations. The projections made by leading agencies were also beaten. Naturally, this is a direct consequence and an obvious success of the ordinance passed by our head of state. This success belongs not only to the Hi-Tech Park, but also the entire country. Belarus is indeed turning into one of the most powerful IT clusters of entire Eastern Europe,” Vsevolod Yanchevsky, Director of the state institution Hi-Tech Park Administration, said. According to his estimates, the HTP has everything in place to maintain momentum. The HTP's total output was estimated at BYR3.202bn, up 47% over 2017. The HTP resident companies developed and introduced IT solutions worth BYR297mn on the domestic market, up 59% over 2017. The average salary of an IT specialist last year made up BYR4,487. “The average IT specialist pays 3.2 times more income taxes than the average Belarusian, however the contribution to the Social Security Fund is the same,” the HTP noted. After the Digital Economy Development Ordinance came into force, the HTP welcomed 267 new companies, more than over the HTP's 12-year history. The companies that had joined the HTP earlier expanded their operations and created 5,000 new jobs in 2018. All in all, the HTP got 13,000 new employees last year. As of late 2018, resident companies of the Hi-Tech Park employed 45,700 people.
9.1.10 Utilities sector news
Electricity generation by installations working on renewable energy was estimated at 435.8mn kWh in 2018, up 17.5% over 2017, according to the Energy Ministry. 96.9% or 422.1mn kWh of such electric energy was sold to the Belarusian power grid at multiplying and stimulating rates. “Intensive development of renewable energy is attributed to guaranteed purchase of all the energy generated using renewable resources at high rates. This contributes to the investment appeal of such projects because of the short payback period,” the press service noted. As of 1 January 2019, installations generating energy from renewable resources accounted for 3.9% of Belarus' installed electricity generating capacity and 2.2% of the country's electricity consumption.
30 BELARUS Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com