1. IT Industry
Why Belarus?

5. Belarus
Now Belarus is the #1 country
in Central and Eastern Europe
in software development
• One of the founders of the United Nations in 1945
• Population is 9 500 000
• Minsk is the capital, with population of 2 000 000
• Minsk was the center of IT-industry of the former
Soviet Union
 first Soviet computers
 first Faculty of Informatics
 center of professional development for all the
USSR

6. Numbers and figures
• 2,879 companies with 25,000 employees
• export – 500 million USD per year
• year-on-year rate of increase is 35%
• 120 colleges + 16 universities
• produce 5,000 students per year
• Leading positions export of IT services per capita
together with Czech Republic and India (Forbes)
• USA and Canada account for about 45% in the Belarus
software export.
• For example Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Oracle, Colgate-
Palmolive and IBM

7. First IPO IT outsourcing in Central and
Eastern Europe
On February 8, 2012 EPAM Systems from Minsk (Belarus)
went to the New York Stock Exchange.

8. IAOP ranking
According to the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing
Professionals) ranking four IT companies from Belarus 2012
Global Outsourcing 100:
EPAM Systems
Intetics
itransition
Artezio
The only country in Eastern and Central Europe.

9. If you have a job to do,
go to India.
If you have a difficult job to do,
go to America.
If you have an impossible job to do,
go to Belarus.
Drew Guff,
Managing Director and Founding Partner of Siguler Guff & Company

10. The Skype Killers of Belarus – Viber
“For a talented developer, it would
be $130,000 a year.” For this
amount, Marco and Magazinik
(founders), can pay 7 Belarusian
developers.
One hundred million people have registered as users
on Viber, an application that enables people to talk
and text via mobile phone without paying a fee.

11. Gennady Korotkevich is only 18 years old
• International Olympiad in Informatics
• first place in 2009, 2010 and 2011;
• a gold medal in 2007 (20th), 2008 (7th) and 2012
(2nd);
• a silver medal in 2006 (26th).
• Records
• gold medals (six)
• absolute first places (three).
• Cormen Medal in 2010 and 2011
• Winner Google Code Jam 2012

12. A soldier is at his best at 16
Napoleon Bonaparte

13. A programmer is at his best at 18
Boris Komrakov

14. How do we create software developers
from students?
Scheme of study
Preparatory program Bachelor program Master program
Levels
(3 years) (4 years) (2 years)
school year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
age 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
traditional
grade/year 6 grade 7 grade 8 grade 9 grade 10 grade 11 grade 1 year 2 year 3 year
Total
hours/w – 4 8 20 30 40 40 50 50
study
hours/w – 4 8 20 20 20 10 10 10
working
hours/w
– – – – 10 20 30 40 40
systematic
short-term studying +
forms of testing and training and studying + work + work + work +
training and studying working
occupation selection final work studying studying studying
selection practice
selection

15. Doing Business in Belarus
• According to the World Bank’s Doing Business
rankings, Belarus places 69th out of 183
countries.
• Notably, this is a jump of 22 places compared
with Belarus’s 2011 result.
• The ease of starting a business is rated
particularly well (placing Belarus on a par with
Singapore and Saudi Arabia).

16. Belarus-China
Industrial Park

17. Tax incentives in Belarus
Belarus-China
Tax General
industrial park
Salary tax 12-15 % 9%
VAT 20 % 0%
Profit tax 18% 0%
Dividend tax 12 % 0%

20. Investment opportunities
• investing into education and training of future programmers for
yourself and other companies (up to 10 thousand per year)
• outsourcing IT-projects
• acquiring firms or shares of firms
• opening subsidiaries
• using the tax advantages of the Belarus-China Industrial Park

21. WHY BELARUS?
• Location and stability
• Mentality and culture
• Tax advantages
• Low IT-wages
• Extensive English-speaking
high-level workforce