Republic

HTP, South African Lyons Financial ink investment agreement

The Republic of Belarus represented by the High-Tech Park and South African company Lyons Financial Solutions Holdings (PTY) Ltd have signed an investment agreement for building a real estate area in the HTP, head of the HTP administration Valery Tsepkalo told media on April 18. He said, the company is the strategic investor for designing and building the High-Tech Park. It will finance designing, prospecting and engineering works the construction of HTP facilities involves. The project is expected to require around $3 million at the initial stage this year. Valery Tsepkalo reminded, in December 2007 a contest was held to choose the strategic investor and the South African company, which specialises in real estate, won the contest. The investor is not a resident of the Park yet, specified the official. Apart from manufacturing and residential areas the Park should have all the necessary infrastructure in order to be fully operational. The HTP should have premium business centres for customers, first of all, foreign ones, as well as shopping facilities, hotels, sports facilities and other facilities. This is why the HTP administration had initiated the contest to choose the investor. Another important thing that was discussed with the investor is the rapid output growth of the HTP products and services. At present the HTP is developing ten times faster than the national economy as a whole. Actually there are two factors that impede the development — lack of personnel and office areas in Minsk. Valery Tsepkalo said, if the HTP employed 10% of working Belarusians, the positive surplus would be about $1.3 billion. At present 4.5 thousand people work in the HTP. This is why without waiting for the strategic investor to show up, the HTP signed eight agreements with resident companies and they started financing design and exploration work. The process began in December 2007. At present the HTP is not slowed down by the lack of finance, as it has accumulated $120 million, which is enough to build half of the facilities and all the facilities with the arrival of the foreign investor. The HTP development is hindered by design progress. Main efforts will be channelled to this area now, said the official. With the HTP construction underway, the first building will be commissioned in November 2008. It will house the HTP administration, resident companies, a centre for training and retraining specialists, business incubators. The design of the manufacturing and residential areas will be ready in summer and the construction will begin this year. All major aspects of the area development have been agreed. Valery Tsepkalo also underscored, all funding issues had been virtually resolved. It is impossible to finance more than Belarusian design institutes and contractor organizations can do. In 2008 $40 million will be channelled into building HTP facilities (taking into account investments in the building under construction) out of money allocated by resident companies, noted the official. Valery Tsepkalo also said, in Q1 2008 the HTP output and export amounted to 210% as against the corresponding period of last year. In his words, the growth rate will continue.