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The information technology sector is the largest donor to the Belarusian economy and generates more net profits than agriculture.
Ukraine’s Ambassador Igor Kizim was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry in connection with the adoption of a decree by President Volodymyr Zelensky to attract Belarusian IT specialists to Ukraine. Minsk declares about “a hostile and discriminatory step by Kiev.
Highly qualified specialists began to leave Belarus in connection with the continuous protests since August after the presidential elections. Ukraine joined the fight for Belarusian programmers, who are also of interest in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Correspondent.net says the details.
Lukashenko’s painful reaction
On October 14 it became known that the Ukrainian ambassador to Minsk, Igor Kizim, was summoned to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the adoption by President Volodymyr Zelensky of a decree on attracting “highly qualified businessmen and specialists “Belarusians.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said the Ukrainian diplomat “received a note from the Foreign Ministry.”
“This legal act cannot be interpreted otherwise, as an obviously hostile and discriminatory step by the Ukrainian side, bordering on interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Belarus,” the ministry said.
Zelensky’s resolution “in violation of generally accepted legal norms applies exclusively to citizens of a neighboring state,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In this regard, Minsk considered that Ukraine’s document undermined confidence in bilateral relations.
Kiev rejects Minsk’s accusations. As stated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukraine “is traditionally open and friendly to the citizens of Belarus.
“Even before the onset of the crisis in Belarus, the movement between our countries was as free as possible and interpersonal and business contacts were strengthening,” the comment says.
Ambassador Igor Kizim himself believes that the statements listed in the Belarusian note “are difficult to understand.”
“The decree was adopted in connection with the appeals of the same Belarusian specialists who expressed their desire to work in Ukraine and their requests to create more acceptable conditions for it … In my opinion, it is rather an act of aid to people who are now having a difficult time in Belarus. ” – He wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, the Ukrainian ambassador recalled the 2014 decree of the Belarusian president, which “referred to the provision of assistance to Ukrainians forced to flee due to the war unleashed by Russia in the Donbass, including Belarus.”
Due to the relocation of the IT business, Belarus will lose more than five percent of its GDP and billions of dollars, writes Belorusskie Novosti. This industry is a “gold booster”, a major source of foreign exchange, the loss of which will hurt the economy.
The Belarusian government is betting on the development of the information technology sector and plans to double the share of the digital economy by 2025 (up to 15 percent of GDP), according to another Belarusian News article.
“Belarus intends to build an IT country, which provides for the introduction of advanced production and information and communication technologies in all spheres of life,” says the draft program for the socio-economic development of Belarus.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reacted very painfully to the Ukrainian side’s initiative, despite the fact that he himself unleashed harsh crackdowns on IT companies, said Belarusian opposition Coordinating Council member Andrei Kureichik.
“The fact is that the information technology sector is the largest donor to the Belarusian economy, bringing more net benefits than agriculture and any other industrial sector. Its loss will spell the end of the Belarusian economic miracle. Lukashenka therefore reacted very painfully at this initiative of the Ukrainian side “, – said in the air Ukraine 24.
How Ukraine attracts IT specialists
We are talking about the Zelensky decree of October 4, according to the decree, the government should extend the period of temporary stay of Belarusian citizens in Ukraine to 180 days a year.
This applies to entrepreneurs, highly qualified specialists, in particular specialists in the field of information technology and innovation, “whose immigration is in the interest of Ukraine and their families.”
As the press service of the Office of the President said, the document is designed to attract highly qualified IT specialists and innovators to Ukraine.
The Cabinet of Ministers was also ordered to introduce a pilot project on the simplified registration of a residence permit for these specialists. At the same time, the time to obtain the relevant documents can be reduced to three days, without the need to travel outside Ukraine.
On October 13, the government simplified the procedure for issuing temporary residence permits for IT specialists from Belarus.
Before that, in early September, the Ministry of Digital Transformation created a special portal designed to help employees of Belarusian IT companies to relocate to work in Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov spoke about his desire to help Belarusian IT specialists in mid-August.
Since the beginning of the protests in Belarus, about 1,2 thousand Belarusian IT specialists have already moved to Ukraine, said Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Alexander Bornyakov.
“We have a direct line, and we register that around a thousand IT specialists have crossed the border, while in August it was about two hundred. The flow is growing because the situation is not calming down,” the official said in a comment to DW.
Not only individual specialists, but also entire companies are thinking of moving to Ukraine. Today Kiev is negotiating with 15 Belarusian companies, Bornyakov said.
The well-known company PandaDoc, which develops software for document flow automation, has already made such a decision amid the arrest of four of its senior managers by the security forces in Belarus.
Belarusian IT specialists are interested in the project of the Ministry of Digital Transformation Diya Siti, writes Belarusian journalist Denis Lavnikevich in an article for Office Life.
This center will have one of the most attractive tax systems in the world, where the tax burden on employees will be almost half that of the Belarusian High-Tech Park, the author writes.
It should be noted that a Belarusian lawyer Denis Oleinikov is involved in the project of the city of Diya, who participated in the creation of the Belarusian Park, which became profitable for the state. In 2019, the IT sector provided half of the GDP growth in Belarus.
“The most interesting and new thing for the Ukrainian economy is that a form of employment called GIG will be developed within the framework of the city of Diya. This is when employees are not hired, but invited to implement specific projects (as freelance)”, the author analyzes.
According to Lavnikevich, Ukraine is ready to introduce tools of the English law for the residents of the city of Diya, which will allow investors to feel more secure.
Why does Ukraine need IT specialists from Belarus?
An IT specialist produces an average of about $ 100,000 a year in value added, Ilya Neskhodovsky, director of the Institute for Social and Economic Transformation, told DW.
“If 1,200 specialists come, then roughly it will be 120 million dollars a year of additional monetary income in Ukraine,” the expert emphasized.
He noted that IT specialists earn from $ 2 to $ 7,000 a month, some of which will be spent in Ukraine.
Also, the relocation of Belarusian IT specialists to Ukraine will be helpful for the country’s reputation, says Vladimir Dubrovsky, senior economist at CASE Ukraine’s Center for Social and Economic Research.
“We had such a situation in 2014, when the war and mobilization started, and the SBU intensified the raids on IT companies. Afterwards, several companies moved to Poland. It was a great loss of reputation and the development of the industry slowed down. “the expert recalled.
According to the IT Association of Ukraine, the recovery started in 2015 and, since 2017, growth in the export of services to the Ukrainian IT industry has been around 30 percent annually.
“If Belarusian IT specialists feel at home and talk about it, we can expect more investment in Ukraine,” Dubrovsky hopes.
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