Goods worth $10bn manufactured in Belarus as part of science programs

Since 2011 Belarus has manufactured goods worth $10 billion as part of science programs, Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology Alexander Shumilin told a press conference, dedicated to the Day of Belarusian Science, BelTA has learned.

"Science has increased its contribution to the development of the economy. In 2011-2015 the volume of production of new goods as part of the state and regional science and technology programs amounted to about $10 billion. More than $590 million worth of these goods was exported,” Alexander Shumilin said.

The state programs helped design and manufacture new products across 305 assignments of the science and technology programs, commission 993 objects, including more than 130 enterprises, organize more than 350 new manufactures at the existing enterprises, upgrade more than 500 production facilities and create and upgrade more than 34,000 jobs.

Now more than 400 organizations are involved in research and development in Belarus. The total number of research workers exceeds 27,000, of whom 3,500 are doctors and candidates of sciences. "Our scientists are involved in the world-class projects which are well-known far outside the country. For example, as part of the Atlas collaboration Belarusian scientists made a significant contribution to the discovery of a new elementary particle — the Higgs boson. A mathematical design of chemical compounds which potentially have neutralization activity towards HIV-1 has been developed,” Alexander Shumilin said.

Speaking about other important achievements of the Belarusian science, Alexander Shumilin said that the country has developed a technology to sterilize bakery products. The technology is based on a principle of conservation through heat sterilization without using chemical preservatives. “We have also developed a lineup of unmanned aircraft systems with the range of 50km to 250km. They provide high-quality photo, video and infrared recording at daytime and night hours even in obscured conditions. A control system has also been developed for legality of the production and import of consumer goods on the basis of RFID technologies,” he noted.

According to Alexander Shumilin, the scientific breakthrough helped Belarus significantly improve its positions in the main international rankings of sci-tech, education and innovative development.   “The ICT sector has been evolving really fast. Thus, in 2015 Belarus made it into the top ten countries that made highest improvements on the ICT Development Index of the International Telecommunication Union,” said Alexander Shumilin.