OREANDA-NEWS. May 13, 2011. In the next five years Belarus is set to increase the export of innovation products more than 2.5 times to about USD 7.9 billion, the Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology of Belarus Igor Voitov told reporters. The draft State innovation development program for 2011-2015 was considered at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of Belarus.

“In the next five years exports are expected to go up to USD 7.9 billion, and that does not include dual-use technologies,” Igor Voitov said.

According to him, partnership with transnational corporations can help Belarus boost export of innovation, high-tech products. This cooperation is given special attention in the new draft state innovation development program. “We need technological expertise in many areas such as engineering, energy, nuclear industry, transport. In these areas we need not only expertise but also the markets of foreign countries, which a transnational company has,” said Igor Voitov.

According to Igor Voitov, the new state program focuses on the development of the innovation infrastructure in Belarus: special technology zones, industrial parks. "We have started creating industrial parks, and they proved effective. For example, Mogilev Technopark is a company with a turnover of tens of billions of rubles," he said. These innovation companies open up new opportunities for development of scientific and technology business in Belarus.

The State innovation development program for 2011-2015 is designed to ensure the continued effort on creating Belarus' innovation economy which has been underway since the state innovation development of Belarus for 2007-2010 was launched. The program comprises 223 major projects to create new businesses and industries that are crucial for innovation development of Belarus.

The State innovation development program is intended to facilitate the goals set out in the Program of social and economic development of Belarus for 2011-2015. They include the increase in the share of innovation products by manufacturing industry to 20-21% of the total output; increase in the proportion of innovation-active organizations in the manufacturing industry to at least 40%. Domestic expenditure on research and development are expected to go up to 2.5-2.9% of GDP and exports of high-tech goods (works, services) to reach USD 7.950 million.

There are also plans to increase industrial output 1.54-1.6 times by 2015 as against 2010, decrease import intensity of production down to 30% (34.5% in 2010), reduce the material intensity of industrial production by 5-7% by 2015 from 2010, slim down the GDP energy intensity by at least 29% in 2015 as compared with 2010.

While developing the new program the experts used the expertise and knowledge of South Korea, Japan, Russia, the USA, Germany and other countries.

To enhance the competitiveness of the national economy and its investment appeal, the experts will address the issues related to the protection of intellectual property rights of domestic companies within the framework of the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. By 2015 the share of applications for patents for invention of the fifth and sixth technological paradigms submitted by economic residents of Belarus should increase to 20%. The period of considering applications to register trademarks and service marks will be reduced to 18 months. The intellectual property infrastructure will be further developed, including intellectual property services, the institute of intellectual property appraisers, patent attorneys and other specialists.

The taxation system will be optimized and tax incentives will be introduced to encourage the development and use of intellectual property products. This is expected to promote high-tech production, ramp up commercialization of intellectual property products, increase demand for them by the real economic sector, create a favorable investment climate in Belarus.