More than Br40 trillion is planned to be allocated for the innovative development of the Vitebsk region in 2011-2015

April 27, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. More than Br40 trillion is planned to be allocated for the implementation of the regional program for innovative and investment development of the Vitebsk region in 2011-2015. This was announced today by Svyatoslav Zarovsky, Chairman of the Economics Committee of the Regional Executive Committee, at a session of the Regional Council of Deputies, a BELTA correspondent reports. In the current five-year period, investment and innovation activities in the region will be aimed at reducing the import component of production, maximizing the use of the region's resource potential, and reducing imports as a whole. The program developed in the region is aimed at forming an effective innovation economy, creating fundamentally new industries that produce high-tech products with high added value. The program document is based on 19 subprograms in the main areas of socio-economic development. Their implementation will allow by 2015 to ensure a doubling of gross regional product compared to the 2010 level, an increase in exports of goods and services by 2.6 times, and to achieve a positive foreign trade balance in 2015 in the amount of $250 million. In addition, over five years, more than 3.8 million square meters of housing will be built, and more than 31 thousand jobs will be created. Thus, 25 innovative projects based on new and high technologies with high added value and low energy and material intensity are to be implemented in the region. At the same time, an increase in the share of innovation-active organizations to 20% of the total number of industrial producers is envisaged. Petrochemical complex enterprises are aimed at mastering more than 20 new types of products. Export-oriented sectors of activity will receive priority development in the region, which will provide an annual output of import-substituting products in the amount of at least $8-10 million. It is also planned to build at least three transport and logistics centers, three hypermarkets, and modernize and reconstruct 9 markets. Significant attention will be paid to the development of agricultural production and the woodworking industry, the improvement of infrastructure in small and medium-sized urban settlements, the formation of conditions for strengthening the economic base of the region's districts and ensuring their sustainable development. Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee Alexander Kosinets, speaking at the session, noted that the Vitebsk region does not intend to abandon any program, "despite all sorts of crises and post-crisis periods." The regional innovation program actually defines the strategic directions of the region for many years to come, which will only need to be filled with specific content in the future. "In essence, the document outlines a clear plan of measures and actions for each of the 19 directions, which will ensure the development of the economic complex of the entire Vitebsk region," the head of the region emphasized. At the same time, the program document is open to new ideas and reasonable initiatives. "If there is an idea, let's include it and implement it, but not a single point from the already developed program should be excluded; these moments will be strictly controlled," Alexander Kosinets warned. -0-