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Belarusian-Chinese high-tech business forum to be held in province of Guangdong this fall

A Belarusian-Chinese high-tech business forum will be held in the Chinese province of Guangdong this fall, Ihar Voytaw, head of Belarus' State Committee on Science and Technologies (SCST), said Monday, speaking at the first meeting of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Cooperation between Belarus and the Province of Guangdong.

The forum will create a basis for joint research projects and the establishment of joint enterprises, according to the press office of the SCST.

"We will soon devise and submit to our partners a number of joint projects for implementation in Guangdong," Mr. Voytaw said. "These are subjects that we are interested in and that we could jointly work on in both our countries and the markets of other countries."

Mr. Voytaw noted that cooperation with China in the research and innovation spheres was carried out both at the level of the Chinese science and technology ministry and the governments of Chinese provinces.

According to the press office, partnership relations between organizations in Belarus and Guangdong were established in 2008. Cooperation agreements have been signed between the Guangdong Science and Technology Department, Belarus' National Academy of Sciences and Belarusian National Technical University’s Palitekhnik Scientific and Technological Park, the press office said.

A 2013-2014 program of scientific and technical cooperation between Belarus and China was adopted at the 10th session of the Belarusian-Chinese Interstate Commission for Cooperation in the Field of High Technologies. The program provides for carrying out 17 projects.

"Belarus is building an economy focused on knowledge and innovation," Mr. Voytaw stressed. "The government's 2011-2015 innovation development program, which is aimed at the creation of a competitive, high-technology and energy saving economy is currently implemented in our country. This means that Belarus is going along the same path as Guangdong. We have what to offer our partners in Guangdong not only in the research sphere but also in the sphere of high technologies and high-tech products."

An agreement providing for the establishment of a center for scientific and technical cooperation between Belarus and Guangdong during the meeting, the press office said.

The Belarusian subsidiary of the center will function within the Palitekhnik Scientific and Technological Park, while the Chinese subsidiary will function under the aegis of the Guangdong secretariat of international science and technology cooperation with member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled to be held in Guangdong in 2015, the press office said. //BelaPAN