Five projects from the Vitebsk region have been selected for inclusion in the State Program for Innovative Development

Five projects from the Vitebsk region have been selected for inclusion in the State Program of Innovative Development of Belarus for 2016-2020. This was announced to journalists by the Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology Alexander Shumilin, who held a reception for citizens and legal entities at the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee today.

According to Alexander Shumilin, the State Program of Innovative Development for 2016-2020 should be finally adopted by the end of the year. Its draft was ready by July 1 this year, but there were comments, including on the quality of some plans - the criteria for inclusion in the state program are quite strict. Each project must involve the creation of not only an innovative but also an export-oriented product with added value not lower than the EU average.

"As a result, we selected 75 such projects, of which we excluded 8 in the last month and replaced them with 9 new ones, better in quality. We got 76 projects, including those from the Vitebsk region, some of which are carried over from the previous program," Alexander Shumilin noted. These include two projects in Miory - the construction of a plant for the production of sheet metal and tinplate and the creation of an aquaculture complex for growing larvae and commercial eel; the second stage of reconstruction of the rural housing construction plant for the production of metal structures (SOOO "Novopolotsk Plant of Technological Metal Structures"); development and creation of an intelligent system for managing the spraying of agricultural crops (OOO NPP "Belama plus", Orsha); construction of an innovative rabbit breeding complex (OOO "Beshenkovichi agroproduct"). Alexander Shumilin added that this will be the third State Program of Innovative Development, and it has important innovations. "The program is open, and if new projects appear, we provide a mechanism by which the government will decide on their inclusion in the program during the year, with subsequent approval by the head of state. In addition, there will be a direct source of funding -centralized innovation fund. And first of all, state resources, which will be accumulated in this fund, will be directed to projects of the state program," - concluded the Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology.

Ekaterina Knyazeva - BELTA.