OREANDA-NEWS. April 21, 2008. The development of information and telecommunication technologies is a priority of the social and economic development of Belarus, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky said when he met with Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union Hamadoun Toure, reported the Official website www.government.by.

According to Sergei Sidorsky, the Belarusian government does its best to make the industry cutting-edge. Relevant state programmes, which are necessary for building a people-oriented economy, are implemented in the country.

The computer centre of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has built a supercomputer, which is used for implementing social and economic projects both in Belarus and Russia. A High-Tech Park is operational, with resident companies enjoying unprecedented preferences. In the next three years an investment project worth over \\$500 million will be implemented there with the participation of a South African company. A major information analysis centre will be built to take a decent position in the CIS and Europe.

Belarus has been a member of the International Telecommunication Union since 1947. “In our country all the necessary measures are taken to represent Belarus in the Union in a worthy manner,” underlined the Prime Minister. In his opinion, the visit of the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union to Minsk will further promote Belarus’ cooperation with this organisation.

Sergei Sidorsky also noted, Belarus intends to take an active part in the future African summit on the development of communication technologies. He also said such a summit may be held in Belarus in the future.

On April 21 Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky and Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union Hamadoun Toure signed a joint cooperation statement in Minsk.

According to the Secretary General, the cooperation will develop along three major avenues, with information and communication technologies as one of them. Hamadoun Toure noted Belarus’ positive achievements in this area and said the country’s ambitious plans concerning the development of information technologies will be implemented by 2010. Besides, plans for cooperation in IT security have been shaped. Cyber space should be peaceful and international cooperation should play an important role in it, said Hamadoun Toure. He also highly evaluated the training of Belarusian IT specialists. Apart from that there is potential for collaboration in preventing emergencies and global catastrophes.