Credits for IT education: Belarus is preparing a new decree for the High-Tech Park

The leadership of the Belarusian High-Tech Park (HTP) is developing a Decree on HTP 3.0. The document passed the first discussion with the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko. This was announced on his Facebook page by IT-businessman, founder of VP Capital, Viktor Prokopenya.

The main task of the new document, according to him, will be to increase educational programs for the training of IT-personnel throughout the country.

"The world is changing. More and more sectors of the economy are becoming IT. We believe that in the future there will be no companies without IT and it is necessary to take measures to retrain people to work in the new knowledge economy, ” Viktor Prokopenya said in a comment to BlockchainJournal.

It is planned to finance educational projects from the HTP fund. To replenish it, it is proposed to increase the contributions of resident companies from 1% to 1.25% of revenue.

In particular, at the expense of these funds, citizens of Belarus will be able to get interest-free loans of up to 6,000 Belarusian rubles for training in IT specialties. The loan is planned to be issued for five years with a delay of the first payment for 2 years.

“A set of courses and organizations participating in the project will be published, plus loan terms. Candidates apply to the pool of courses, undergo selection and apply to the bank with a training agreement. After approval of the amount, banks apply for reimbursement of the loan to the HTP fund and issue it to the candidates, ”wrote Prokopenya.

The businessman plans to lend over 30 thousand people a year. Note that now in the HTP there are more than 160 courses in 20 areas.

Also at the meeting with the President of Belarus, the idea of creating a new IT university with experimental approaches to learning, and the possibility of testing innovative school programs based on HTP were discussed.

According to Viktor Prokopeni, the IT industry, including thanks to the previously adopted Decree 2.0, will bring the country's economy more than $ 2 billion, $ 350 million of direct and indirect taxes, which is 3% of the republican budget, by the end of 2019. In addition, IT leads the creation of new jobs – 14.5% of the total. The share of IT in the country's GDP is 5.5%. By 2022, this indicator is expected to grow to 10%.

“The project is at the final stage – in the near future, coordination with government bodies will begin. When it will be received, it is still difficult to say. I think it can be fast enough, given that there is also a consensus among officials about the importance of the project, ”said Viktor Prokopenya.

The press service of the HTP has so far refused to comment on this initiative.

Recall, the Decree on the Development of the Digital Economy, which established the framework conditions for the use of cryptocurrency and tokens, as well as introduced tax incentives for cryptocurrency operations, entered into force on March 28, 2018 .

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