MINSK, 28 April (BelTA) - It is impossible to develop Belarusian economy without modern technologies today, Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology Aleksandr Shumilin said at the opening of the international forum #GBC (government, business, citizens) in Minsk on 28 April, BelTA has learned.
“It is great that the forum is taking place despite the current pandemic situation. The forum is held in a hybrid format. We have adopted a new priority of scientific, technological and innovation development for the current five years, and this is not by chance that the forum is dedicated to information and communication technologies. This shows that today it is impossible to develop the Belarusian economy without modern technologies,” the head of the committee said.
According to Aleksandr Shumilin, information and communication technologies have firmly entered modern life. “These are management information systems, e-healthcare, machine design and testing. By the way, thanks to computer modeling, machines can be designed and tested within six months, significantly reducing costs. As for intellectual property, by the end of the year we are going to provide an opportunity to apply and get patents online,” he said. The head of the committee added that the State Examination Committee has already been working through an electronic system. “If we started from 65 days to get the expertise on paper, today it takes 25 days. Its conversion into electronic form lets make this process more transparent, and as a result there is more trust in what is produced. For us, this is one of the priority areas of economic development,” he stressed.
The international forum #GBC (government, business, citizens) is a unique event for the country's telecommunications sector. Its main goal is to present accomplishments and projects in the area of digital government, search for new ways of digitization and interaction between the state and the private sector and citizens by means of information and communication technologies. #GBC is intended to become a platform to discuss the present and the future of the digital sector in Belarus, to transfer interactions at all levels into the digital plane.
The main tasks of the forum include a presentation of accomplishments in the area of digital government, a demonstration of products of IT companies, communications and telecommunications companies, the involvement of interested countries in transboundary interaction in the course of exchanging legal documents, the development of partnership and interagency interaction, the improvement of the IT knowledge of the society.
Photos by Pavel Orlovsky
