Republic

Belarus needs to integrate into transnational corporations, Mikhail Myasnikovich says

To improve living standards and encourage highly-qualified professionals to stay in the country, Belarus needs to integrate more actively into transnational corporations, Chairman of the Presidium of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences Mikhail Myasnikovich told BelTA. “When participating in such corporations we turn into partners from competitors. We get access to more sale markets, experience, an opportunity to improve professionalism due to probation courses and specialists exchange,” he said. It concerns all the branches of the industry, science and education. 2008 can become a critical period for rapid economic growth. So, there is a need to implement structural reforms and diversify the economy and promote integration. “If we talk about the leveling of working conditions and wages with those in the neighboring countries, we should create all the prerequisites for efficient work of specialists in the country,” Mikhail Myasnikovich noted. It concerns not only scientists but blue-collar workers. Diversification in Belarus means reduction of the share of energy-and material intensive products. The energy security concept identifies a big set of measures aimed at slimming the GDP energy intensity. However this is not the only decisive factor in forming the prime cost and price of a product. The matter concerns the reduction of material capacity of the products in general. Thus the traditional economy should be reformed seriously to reduce material capacity as the volume of material resources shrinks with every year. “We need to involve more actively intellectual resources and increase the share of high-technology products in the GDP,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said. As an example of such projects he cited the special legal regime of the High-Tech Park (HTP). Even with the privileges given to HTP residents, the state derives high profits from their activity all the same. This year the exports of the Park will amount to $50 million. “This is a net surplus comparable to some branches and export-oriented companies,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said. Speaking about the targets of the 2008 socio-economic development forecast, Mikhail Myasnikovich said that they are very ambitious but the forecast is quite well-balanced. It will be difficult to implement it by using traditional methods. The economic entities need to work hard on implementing structural reforms on the micro-level and on the level of economic branches and the national economy in general. “The potential of traditional approaches has been used. The innovation path is the platform which will help achieve goods results both in 2008 and next years,” Mikhail Myasnikovich said.