Belarus needs to revive IT industry – Łukašenka

April 11, BPN. Authorities should create the most favorable working conditions for all IT companies, Alaksandr Łukašenka has told officials at the meeting discussing draft legislation on the Hi-Tech Park (HTP).

The HTP is under economic pressure and needs second breath to open up “previously inaccessible horizons,” he added.

In November 2022, Łukašenka said that HTP employees “did not show themselves, to put it mildly, in the best way” during the 2020 protests. The authorities cannot allow another wave of protests to come from IT professionals or entrepreneurs, he stressed.

The economy and social welfare would continue functioning even if “something happened” to the HTP he said a month later and ordered officials to consider tax benefits for IT companies outside the HTP.

Over 20,000 IT professionals left Belarus in 2020 alone fearing politically-motivated persecution, according to Imaguru startup hub. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked a new wave of relocation as some 12,000 IT workers left Belarus, official statistics show.