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24 May 2017, 14:37

Belarus in talks with Israel, USA over plans to set up venture capital funds

MINSK, 24 May (BelTA) – Belarus is negotiating the establishment of venture capital funds with Israel and the United States, Chairman of the Belarusian State Science and Technology Committee Alexander Shumilin told the media on the sidelines of the high-level plenary meeting “Innovation and Investment Development of the Machine-Building Sector of Belarus” on 24 May, BelTA has learned.

“Today, the negotiations are underway on the establishment of venture capital funds with Israel, the United States and other countries. For us venture capital is a new market. But this is something that our innovation infrastructure is lacking. We are 45th in the world in terms of the generation of new knowledge. We have lots of startups, many talented people and ideas, but we need certain funds to help them to make way to the international market. In Belarus, which is not a big country, such amounts are not available,” Alexander Shumilin said. According to him, it is another matter when Belarus partners up, for example, with China where there is a huge market and knowledge of how to set up a production in a very prompt way. “We can generate ideas, make good things in one copy while the Chinese know how to produce them on mass scale. We need to combine our efforts,” Alexander Shumilin said.

In his view, the cooperation with the Russian Venture Company is important for Belarus as well. “It is important for us to establish a joint venture fund with Russia because Belarusians do not know yet how to offer shares of start-ups on the international financial markets or stock exchanges. We will be learning these skills from Russian colleagues,” Alexander Shumilin said.

As was reported, in December 2016 the Belarusian Innovation Fund and the Russian Venture Company signed an investment partnership agreement “Russian-Belarusian Venture Investment Fund” to finance promising projects in Belarus and Russia. The fund is RUB1.4 billion ($24.5 million as of May), with contributions on a 50%-50% parity basis.

In addition, Belarus is going to team up with China to set up a joint venture fund by the autumn of 2017. The founders of the fund will be the Belarusian Innovation Fund (45%), the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Investment Fund (45%) and the industrial park development company (10%). The size of the fund will be no less than $20 million. It is expected that the investments will be injected into high technology (high-tech innovative products, innovations in traditional sectors of the economy).

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