Introduction

Hi-Tech Park was created in 2005 and is considered the leading IT cluster in Central and Eastern Europe with the best conditions for setting up and developing business.

”The Silicon valley of Eastern Europe“, ”The world AI development center“, ”Paradise for programmers“ – these are just some of the evaluations of Belarus by the most prominent foreign mass media, such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Financial Times.

The first stage of the Hi-Tech Park development – HTP 1.0 – lasted till the end of 2016. During that period the main model for IT-companies was outsourcing – software development with further transferring ownership rights to the client.

Already in December 2017 the President signed Decree No 8 “On the development of digital economy”. The business community and foreign experts called it “breakthrough”. This event gave a start to HTP 2.0.

The Decree created favorable conditions for product-based businesses: IT-companies develop their own products and promote them to a vast range of consumers. In this way the IT-sector of Belarus changed not only in quantity but also in quality. Hi-Tech Park gave rise to hundreds of new companies with new products and focus areas. They have established numerous firm footholds for the whole IT-sector of Belarus and created the basis of Hi-Tech Park long-term stability. In just five years, the number of product companies in Hi-Tech Park has grown 14 times. While in 2017 there were about 20 of them, today this figure reaches up to more than 300.

Hi-Tech Park provides its residents with minimal taxes, instruments of English law, transparent regulations for blockchain and cryptocurrency, a lot of other benefits.

Hi-Tech Park resident companies may operate within more than 40 types of activities: from advanced solutions in the sphere of AI to the development of top-level software, engineering solutions, games and mobile applications, IT for healthcare, agriculture, fintech, banking software, laser technologies, optics.

Shortly after the Decree No. 8 was signed in 2017 export growth comprised +25% and exceeded the $1.0 billion barrier for the first time. During the COVID-19 pandemic it continued strong growth. In 2021 Hi-Tech Park export reached the all-time record of $3.2 billion. In 2023 it сame out at $1.8 billion.

The number of new companies in Hi-Tech Park has also grown at an impressive rate. In just five years since the adoption of the digital Decree it increased fivefold. Today Hi-Tech Park unites more than 1000 companies.

Hi-Tech Park creates new job opportunities. Over the period of 2017-2022, it grew by almost 50 thousand people, and today it employs more than 60 thousand. This is almost 2% of those employed in the Belarusian economy. Their contribution to GDP is almost 4%. The foreign trade balance of Hi-Tech Park in 2022 reached $2.4 billion (55% of the country’s joint trade balance).

Hi-Tech Park boosts regional development. Due to its legal regime, applicable nationwide, a resident may be registered and operate anywhere in the country. Presently more than 100 resident companies, i.e. more than 5 thousand people, work outside Minsk.

Hi-Tech Park is a vivid example of an efficient and economically successful model of interaction between the government and the IT community to introduce high technologies into the country’s economy and social sphere. Resident companies are active in the domestic market, promoting their own ready-made solutions.

A large number of residents' products have already been implemented in Belarus, making everyday life more convenient and comfortable. The volume of IT products and services sold by Hi-Tech Park residents in the domestic market of Belarus in 2023 totalled 1.5 billion Belarusian rubles.

More than 35 % of residents are companies with foreign shares. Since 2017, Hi-Tech Park has cumulatively raised nearly $2 billion of foreign investment. Moreover, more than 100 R&D centers of foreign companies are concentrated in HTP.

Annually Hi-Tech Park welcomes dozens of foreign delegations – from high-level country officials to representatives of business and major corporations.