Belarus to go up in International Telecommunication Union ranking

The Information Technologies and Communications Ministry expects Belarus to go up in the year 2013 ranking of the International Telecommunication Union. The statement was made by Dmitry Shedko, First Deputy Information Technologies and Communications Minister, at the roundtable session held in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus on 25 June to discuss the development of the national telecommunication market, BelTA has learned.

Belarus occupied the 41st position among 190 countries covered by the ITU’s ranking for the year 2012. “In comparison with the previous report we moved up by five positions. We have reasons to believe that our position will become better this year once the regular report is published,” said Dmitry Shedko.

The official reminded that the national program for the accelerated development of information and communication technology services in 2011-2015 is in progress in Belarus. The program outlines an ambitious task of advancing Belarus into the top 30 countries by the end of 2015. “The indicators we have reached already inspire hope that the task will be accomplished,” said Dmitry Shedko.

He cited data of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, which testifies that at present over 54% of Belarusian households have a personal computer while nearly 52% of the households have Internet access. Apart from that, there are 2.8 million broadband Internet access subscribers or nearly 30 subscribers per 100 residents of Belarus.

Dmitry Shedko said he believes that Belarus should aim for ambitious goals as far as the development of information and communication technologies is concerned. He remarked that Kazakhstan, a partner of Belarus in the Customs Union, slightly underappreciates the industry and believes it will be able to get the information and communication technology industry to contribute as much as 4% of the GDP by 2020. Meanwhile, Russia has much more ambitious plans — 7% of the GDP. It would be quite fair for Belarus to aim for 5% of the GDP, believes the First Deputy Information Technologies and Communications Minister.

In turn, Dmitry Kharitonchik, Chairman of the Industry, Fuel and Energy Complex, Transport, and Communications Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, remarked that close attention is paid to the development of information and communication technologies in Belarus. Regulations for the industry bear in mind interests of the state, consumers, and market participants. This is why it is necessary to create the relevant legal field, believes the MP. A short time ago both chambers of the parliament passed amendments to the law on electric communications, yet some matters concerning information and communication technologies require further discussion.

Dmitry Kharitonchik added that private providers of information and communication technology services have the right to expect returns on investments, profits, and their own development in the future. The parliamentarian said he believes that members of the parliament and representatives of relevant government agencies should meet regularly with representatives of the private sector to try to find compromises for the most difficult issues.