A draft Presidential Decree “On priority directions of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities for the 2021 – 2025", prepared by the State Committee on Science and Technology of Republic of Belarus (SCST) and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) was discussed at a joint meeting of the NASB Presidium and the SCST Board on 11 September. Deputy Chairman of the SCNT Sergey Shcherbakov and Deputy Chairman of the NASB Presidium Academician Sergey Kilin made reports on this issue. The document is based on a Comprehensive forecast of scientific and technological progress for the Republic of Belarus for 2021-2025 and the period up to 2040, the Strategy "Science and technology: 2018-2040", approved at the 2nd Congress of scientists of Belarus, and the Concept of national security. As it was emphasized at the meeting, the Project ensures the concentration of state resources on the implementation of the most important and significant areas of scientific, technical and innovative activities.
The draft decree was considered by the Republican bodies of state administration, the NAS of Belarus, regional executive committees, Minsk city executive committee, organizations subordinate to the Government of the Republic of Belarus, state bodies and state organizations subordinate to the President of the Republic of Belarus. The project was also considered by the State expert councils, the scientific community and business. Constructive and reasonable proposals are taken into account in this document.
Six priority directions of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities for 2020-2025 are provided:
According to Vladimir Gusakov, Chairman of the NASB Presidium, these priority areas are the agreed position of the NAS of Belarus and the SCNT. “We believe that we have not missed anything on the scientific support of the economy. But this is only the first stage of passing an important question," – he said.
The implementation of tasks and projects established by scientific and technical programs and the State Programme of Innovative Development will provide accomplishment of the following indicators of social and economic development by 2025. The share of innovatively active organizations is 27.5% of the total number of manufacturing organizations. These values correspond to the level of such European countries as Croatia (34%), Spain (27%), and Slovakia (26%). The share of innovative products in the total volume of products shipped by manufacturing organizations is 22%. The share of exports of knowledge-intensive and high-tech products in the total volume of Belarusian exports is 35% (Serbia - 36%, Portugal - 35%, Turkey - 33%).
The priority directions of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities for 2021 – 2025 are planned to be shortly considered at a meeting of the Commission on state scientific and technical policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic.
Photo by newspaper “Navuka”