{"id":11560,"date":"2023-04-27T16:10:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/belarus-it-industry-to-struggle-despite-recent-government-measures\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"belarus-it-industry-to-struggle-despite-recent-government-measures","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11560\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus&#8217; IT industry to struggle despite recent government measures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Volha Tama\u0161e\u016dskaja<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <span><b>Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka has issued an edict, instructing the government to establish a management company and a board of directors for the High-Tech Park. The centralization is designed to tighten the government\u2019s grip on the IT industry, said Anastasija \u0141uzhina, a research associate with the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center.<\/b><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<h2>IT businesses\u2019 relocation amid crackdown<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Belarusian IT companies have relocated a substantial part of their operations abroad since 2020 for fear that their businesses and employees might be affected by the government\u2019s extensive crackdown on dissent.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The IT and communications sector\u2019s contribution to GDP growth declined from 0.7 percent in 2021 to -0.2 percent in 2022 and -1 percent in January through February.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The sector\u2019s share of GDP fell from 7.4 percent in 2021 to 6.6 percent in 2022 and 5.9 percent in January through February. More than 17,000 IT professionals relocated abroad last year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Office space rented by IT companies decreased by half from more than 430,000 square meters in 2020 to around 220,000 at the end of 2022, dev.by reported citing Colliers International.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The IT industry\u2019s share of the office space shrank to 20 percent from 40 percent in that period.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Markets<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The government hopes that IT companies will sell their services mainly in Belarus and Russia. These markets may not be enough for the industry to bounce back, \u0141uzhina said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cThe domestic market is too small and not quite profitable,\u201d she told <span>The Viewer<\/span>. \u201cIf all companies are told to sell their services in the Belarusian market, it will be instantly saturated.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Companies may redirect their sales to Russia which needs additional labor force to offset resources diverted to its military campaign in Ukraine. \u201cSome Belarusian companies may gradually step up cooperation with Russian partners, but they may have to revise their financial expectations downward,\u201d \u0141uzhina said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The outlook for Asian markets is cloudy. \u201cIt is a big question whether Asian countries will be willing to cooperate with Belarusian IT companies taking into account sanctions, reputation risks, competition from Indian companies, as well as the downturn in the global IT industry as a result of bankruptcies of US banks, which, among other things, specialized in lending to IT companies,\u201d she noted.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Recovery may take long<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t If the IT industry fails to recover soon, can other sectors, like agriculture, drive economic growth? \u0141uzhina has serious doubts about it.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cAgriculture has laid the groundwork for recovery, and some other industries may begin to recover soon. However, agriculture would not have posted growth without massive support from the government,\u201d she told The Viewer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cIt took the IT industry ten years to become the economy\u2019s leading sector without substantial support from the government. It has generated cash, innovations and technologies. It is a growth driver that we\u2019ve lost, unfortunately,\u201d \u0141uzhina said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Volha Tama\u0161e\u016dskaja Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka has issued an edict, instructing the government to establish a management company and a board of directors for the High-Tech Park. The centralization is designed to tighten the government\u2019s grip on the IT industry, said Anastasija \u0141uzhina, a research associate with the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center. IT businesses\u2019 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11560","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belarus&#039; IT industry to struggle despite recent government measures | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Volha Tama\u0161e\u016dskaja Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka has issued an edict, instructing the government to establish a management company and a board of directors for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11560\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belarus&#039; 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