MINSK, 12 March (BelTA) – In 2020, Belarus' Hi-Tech Park (HTP) demonstrated yet again that it is one of the key driving forces of the Belarusian economy, BelTA learned from the HTP press service.
“In 2020, the Hi-Tech Park posted exports worth $2.735 billion, up by 25% year-on-year. The total output reached Br7.4 billion, up by 43% over 2019. This is a record high in the history of the HTP,” Director of Belarus' Hi-Tech Park Vsevolod Yanchevsky said.
The United States and the EU were the main buyers of IT products and services of the HTP resident companies accounting for about 90% of the total export. The United States, Cyprus, the UK, Ireland, and Russia were the major export markets.
The Hi-Tech Park's share in Belarus' GDP exceeded 4% in 2020. The park employs around 1.5% of the country's workforce. The HTP resident companies paid Br418 million in taxes in 2020, which was up by 38% over 2019. The Hi-Tech Park created more than 10,000 new jobs last year and now employs almost 70,000 specialists.
The Hi-Tech Park continues expanding. It registered 236 new resident companies in 2020 and another 65 in March 2021 bringing their total to 1,021.
In 2020, foreign direct investments in the Hi-Tech Park totaled $331.7 million, up by 26% year-on-year. The HTP is home to 107 R&D centers of foreign corporations, 23 of them joined the park in 2020.
The HTP resident companies made new advances in various international rankings.
The 2021 Global Outsourcing 100 list compiled by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals featured several HTP's resident companies: A1QA (Quality Technologies CJSC), Itransition CJSC and SolbegSoft LLC. The list also incorporates some foreign R&D centers: Ciklum, IBA Group, Intetics and Artezio.
The Belarusian application Flo became the world's most popular in the App Store in 2020 and the most downloaded in the Health & Fitness category. The Flo application was also featured in the Apptopia ranking, becoming the 5th most popular application in the USA and placing among 10 most profitable applications.
Another resident company – SayGames – made it into December rankings of the analytical platform SensorTower, placing 7th in the world in terms of game installations and 6th in terms of downloads in AppStore.
According to the annual Financial Times FT 1000 ranking, the HTP resident company Gismart was Europe's fastest-growing business in the gaming industry. Having posted almost 9,000% revenue growth, the company secured the 6th position in the list of Europe's fastest-growing businesses.
The Belarusian application Easy Bloggers, developed by the HTP resident Bloggers Lab, headed the list of the most popular apps at Product Hunt 2020.
