BREST, 31 August (BelTA) – Forty small and medium-sized IT companies operate in Brest Oblast, the region's governor Anatoly Lis said as he met with students and the staff of Brest State University on 31 August, BelTA has learned.
Brest Oblast is one of the country's leaders in terms of IT solutions, including in the financial sector, medicine, trade, and mechanical engineering. Now more than 5,000 people work in 40 small and medium-sized IT companies in the region. They work both for the domestic market and for Russia, Europe, North America,” Anatoly Lis said.
He went on saying that there are almost 10,000 small and medium-sized companies and more than 35,000 individual entrepreneurs in the region. In particular, over Br3 million from the regional budget was earmarked to promote entrepreneurship this year. More than Br2.3 million in financial aid has already been provided since the beginning of the year.
Anatoly Lis also spoke about agriculture. “This year has been tough for us. Despite all the difficulties, we have gathered a good harvest of grain crops. We still need to harvest millet and buckwheat. I think we will be able to harvest 1.340 million tonnes, 130,000 up over the last year. The average yield is 40 centners per hectare, which is also higher than last year,” said the governor. He added that the regional festival of agricultural workers is scheduled to take place in the agricultural town of Divin, Kobrin District, on 12 September.
According to Anatoly Lis, the region is paying serious attention to the processing industry. “We have invested a lot of effort in the upgrade, which enabled us to increase food production by almost 20%. Foreign trade is increasing on the back of high competitiveness of our products. Since the beginning of the five-year period, the export of goods has grown more than 1.5 times, the export of services - by almost 1.7,” he said.