A briefing was held on 20 December in the conference hall of the Republican Centre for Technology Transfer (RCTT). It was dedicated to the forthcoming finish of the Project of the Belarusian Government, UNDP and UNIDO “Developing an Infrastructure to Support Innovation Activity in the Republic of Belarus”.

 

The press conference took place after the closing session of the Coordination Council of the project. First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus Mr. Vladimir Nedilko, Assistant to UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus Mr. Alessandro Fracassetti, Project Manager, RCTT’s Director Mr. Alexander Uspenskiy, representatives of RCTT’s regional and branch offices were interviewed by journalists of national press media and TV reporters.

 

The interviewees were unanimous in their high appraisal of the project and its outputs. It was emphasized that the project had become a good example to prove that considerable outputs can be successfully obtained with limited resources, owing to the consolidated activity of the Belarusian Government, UNDP and UNIDO.

 

The project has resulted in establishment of RCTT, its four regional offices and two branch offices. Being linked together by the IT facilities, the newly established agencies virtually represent a unified network specialized in technology transfer. RCTT has developed and launched its electronic portal on the Internet (http://ictt.by), with its data bases designed to service the technology transfer clients on the Web. Within 19 months 48902 visits have been logged on RCTT’s e-portal. The Centre has signed more than 60 client service contracts and 18 agreements on technology transfer with the counterpart entities from Great Britain, Germany, China, South Korea, Poland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia. The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Belarusian State University, Belarusian National Technical University, 19 innovation SMEs are among RCTT’s clients. Six awards of international exhibitions (a gold medal, a silver medal, two bronze medals and two special medals) have been given to the best projects promoted by RCTT and its subsidiaries. Four innovation enterprises in Belarus and a Belarusian-Rusian joint venture have been involved in application and commercialization of several advanced technology products taken from RCTT’s technology portfolio. At present, RCTT is an active participant of a state-run project and a government programme related to development and promotion of the national sci-tech sector. Owing to the project-mediated support, more than 600 Belarusian specialists have been instructed and trained in the vast scope of the innovation activity fields at 38 national and international seminars, workshops, conferences and exhibitions in Austria, Germany, India, China, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech.

 

When addressing the mass media, Assistant to UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus Mr. Alessandro Fracassetti stated, “…UNDP will readily extend its collaboration with the Government of Belarus and UNIDO, by focusing primarily on facilitating the local SMEs’ access to new and high technologies, by further support and promotion of RCTT’s activity and steady development of the infrastructure of innovation activity based on the information and communication technologies. This activity line is regarded by the Belarusian Government, UNDP and UNIDO as a key factor of economic growth, poverty reduction, and steady development of Belarus”.