Belarus hit the top 10 global talent

Recently, researchers from Canada have published their analytical report “Global Creativity Index 2015” (GCI – Global Creativity Index-2015). In the report they analyzed data from 139 countries and rank their positions. Belarus was ranked 8th place according to the index of talent. As for the index of tolerance, Belarus was given 97th place.
If to speak about the GCI itself, in general, the experts analyzed the country’s complied indicators such as the “Technology”, “talent” and “Tolerance”, designating them as 3T. Thus, according to the most recent research report, the leading GCI index country became Australia, being ahead of Sweden, which was ranked first in the previous editions of the survey (2004 and 2011). The United States became second, retaining last year’s position. New Zealand was ranked third, and Canada was given the 4th position. Denmark and Finland shared 5th position, followed by Sweden, Finland, Singapore and the Netherlands.
Viktor Shkel, Head of Business Development Department, commented on the report results:
“It seems that despite the fact that “our tail” is considerably stuck according to the third parameter (Belarus appeared on 97th position of 139 possible regarding the tolerance indicator), which means it was considered the weakest point of the Republic of Belarus according to expert estimates, however, in the near future is not even expected that our country will be able to improve this figures significantly.
Let’s note that the issue of creation the Belarusian Department of High and Information Technologies has already been raised several times. The department could greatly contribute to the promotion and development of ICT in our country. Unfortunately, a decision on the matter still rests within the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus competence.
As for the Belarusian talents, both individuals who gave a start in life for their innovative start-ups and individual technology companies, which have acquired worldwide fame and brand recognition, primarily because of its high-tech products, there are also quite a lot of them in Belarus. For example, recently the Belarusian startup Meritale has become one of the winners of the innovation competition “Telecom Idea 2015” in Moscow, organized by the telecommunications company “MTS”. In total, the competition attracted more than 300 teams of CIS countries. And Belarusians were the first in the RETAILTech nomination. Another Belarusian startup R-NOX developed ZIVE, which is a new generation of dosimeter. Besides, this year another Belarusian startup Kino-mo became a Pitch to Rich 2015 finalist; they received about $ 230,000 to conduct a marketing campaign. Moreover, the creators of this startup were also invited to a meeting with British billionaire Richard Branson.
As for the innovative companies in Belarus, due to the limitations of the text, let’s name some of them briefly. These are companies with Belarusian roots Wargaming (JV “Game Stream”) and Viber (instant messaging service). In addition, some words about BelHard Group should also be said. For example, the company has a prototype of geoinformation system GeosForce, which is designed to generate forecast for warning people about possible events of earthquakes, as well as the development of an electromagnetic device “Hidden Wall”, designed for remote stopping of vehicles; anti-drug complex AIPSIN, which has already proven its efficiency in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. So even this short list of successful start-ups and product development of IT companies clearly demonstrates the fact that “there is still a shot in the locker”. Information and communication technologies in Belarus do exist, and this trend will be developing steadily.
Besides, recently on the sidelines of the Belarusian IT community it has become known that until the end of this year in Belarus there will be held a full-scale study of offshore software development, aimed to attract potential foreign customers and investors. The study will be conducted first of all among the residents of the Belarusian High-Tech Park and the members of the scientific and technological association “Infopark”. Such well-known analytical companies as Gartner, Forrester Research, IDC, Market-Visio, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and, possibly, Forbes magazine expressed their interest in participating in such a study on a tender basis.
In conclusion, let us express some hope that Belarusian state authorities got involved directly into solving the abovementioned issues in order to give top priority to ICT. Then over time the GCI index for Belarus will become higher”.

Alice Karpenko, KV
Source: Viktor Shkel, “Belarus hit the top 10 global talent” http://ej.by/blog/shkel/2015/08/10/belarus-popala-v-top-10-mirovyh-talantov.html