The IT-Hybrid

Back in the Stalin-times USSR, an exotic institution called “sharashka” existed.

At the background of the endless selector meetings dedicated to the harvesting campaigns and “Dazhynki” fests, the ruler talking about the IT-economy, innovative technologies looked pretty exotic. Nevertheless, ambitious goals were set. How real are them?

Last week was dedicated to pompous declarations on the innovative economy at the highest level. On December 11, the draft decree “On the development of digital economy” was discussed at the session with Lukashenka. On December 12-13, the II Congress of Scientists of Belarus was held, where Lukashenka made a big speech.

As for the Congress of scientists, there was nothing interesting of unusual there. The situation in the Belarusian science remains approximatelyy the same as in the economy in general. The share of the state expenses for the scientific field is decreasing. In 2007, 0,96% of the GDP was allocated for science, while in the years 2015-2015 this figure was only 0,5%. What can we talk about if a salary of a professor is lower than the average salary in Minsk?

The science intensity of the GDP is 0,5%. The concept of national security determines the threshold of this indicator at the level of 1%. That is, everything below is a threat to national security. In developed countries, this figure is 2,5-3% of the GDP. The share of really innovative, new for the world market Belarusian products is insignificant — up to 2%.

It could not be any other way. For the old form of the organization of scientific activity that remained from the Soviet past was preserved within the same old socio-economic model. For example, the National Academy of Sciences in its present form is a rudiment of another era. Hence come all diseases, which are to a great extent the legacy of the Soviet science: bureaucratization, additions, etc.

For example, the problem of implementation of the scientists’ inventions into production, which was impossible to solve in the USSR and simply does not exist in the Western counties, moved to the current Belarus fully. There have been so many meetings, threatening instructions in this regard, but all in vain. The point is, the scientific institutions today exist in not exactly market, but the non-competitive environment. For today’s Belarusian economic system, just like the Soviet one, seems immune to the scientific progress, to any innovations. In such system, it’s not the market which provides assessment to a scientific product, but a bureaucrat.

The politicized society got all agog about the draft decree “On the development of digital economy”, which provides for benefits and liberal norms for the development of this sphere. Lukashenka promised there would be a real IT-explosion in Belarus, that “our country has all the chances to become at least a regional leader in the development of the most innovative areas — the artificial intelligence, the big data, the blockchain technology.” There was a talk about the possibility of the “authoritarian modernization” of Belarus, about its transformation either into the new Hong Kong, or Singapore.

We are facing a systematic problem here straightaway. Is the development of science, of IT possible in the country which is not free? Historical experience proves that, at a certain stage, under certain conditions, in certain spheres — yes, it is possible. This is confirmed by the example of the USSR, which managed to create an atomic bomb, the powerful defensive industry, to launch space programs. The latest case is the DPRK, the most totalitarian country in the world, which created both its own missiles and a nuclear bomb. But it is no coincidence that the USSR lost the economic competition to the West, because it could not fit into the scientific and technological revolution.

CEO of the High Technologies park Usevalad Yancheuski noted that, in the modern world, the countires most often compete not with territories, industries or raw materials, and even not so much with technologies, but with the quality of legal systems: “People, technologies, and capitals tend to go to places which are most comfortable for them from the legal point of view.” He noted that the decree provides for the permission to use separate elements of the English law when conducting bargains in the IT-sphere.

Still, one of the important problems of doing business in Belarus is that there are no uniform norms for the functioning of the entire economy. For different regions, sectors and even individual companies there are their own exclusive rules. There are the HTP, the “Great Stone” industrial park , free economic zones, and in each case we have a different legal regime. And there are also benefits for the leading state enterprises, for agricultural organizations, etc.

Getting back to this draft decree, it is important to state that the authorities are ready to set up liberal conditions, but only in the one sector of the economy, or even more precisely — in one place, the HTP. And here we need to pay attention to the key point in Lukashenka’s speech at the meeting on December 11. He suddenly started speaking about “order and stability”. What does it have to do with IT, one may ask. However, every heart knows its own bitterness. “The state needs strength. So it needs to be maintained,” — he convinced the present representatives of the IT sphere. The quintessence of his understanding of the digital economy is the following phrase: “Well, if you create here such a beautiful harbor, where everyone will come and work for themselves and earn without thinking about others ... Frankly, I do not need such a harbor.” I will translate this into an understandable language. If you earn, grow rich, be wealthy apart from the state, and be independent of the state, then we do not need such a digital economy.

And here, some parallels occur. In the Stalin-times USSR, there was such an exotic institution as “sharashka”. These were the scientific-research structures in the GULAG, in which the imprisoned scientists, engineers and technicians worked, and received beneficial conditions of life, nutrition etc. In return. Such outstanding engineers as Sergey Kovaliov, Andrei Tupolev went through “sharashkas”.

So, I cannot get rid of the feeling that the HTP is some conditional “sharashka”, with certain amendments due to the epoch. Here we can recall the case of Viktar Prakapenia.

The CEO of the company VP Capital, the biggest tax-payer in Belarus in 2016, he was arrested in 2015, spent over 10 months in custody and was released after he had paid a concrete sum, demanded by the investigation. And now Viktar Prakapenia makes constant speeches on the Belarusian TV, praising the policy of the authorities. Aliaksandr Lukashenka visited his office in March this year, during the visit to the HTP, and invited him to the meeting on December 11. The most famous IT-businessman is very excited about the new presidential draft decree. Such a peculiar Stockholm syndrom.

Speaking about the permission to apply elements of English law in the IT business, we should not forget that it will be interpreted by the Belarusian court, the most independent court in the world. There are no guarantees of property, inviolability of the person, no legal state, no independent court in the country. If they can come to you any moment, seize your business, arrest you and throw in jail, then everything else loses value.

In addition, the creation of an IT-country requires a cardinal reform of the education system, other spheres. And, probably, the best illustration to the topic of building a digital economy was the blocking of the website Belarusian Partisan. IT-economy in the conditions of political censorship is an exotic hybrid that the world has never seen.

Valer Karbalevich, SN Plus