Attractive prospects for investors

Changes are expected in the work of the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park, which is located near Minsk, which, according to experts, will make the Great Stone even more attractive

Time To updaTe The rules

First of all, it should be noted that the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko was first presented with a draft decree aimed at improvement of the investment climate in the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park Great Stone. As the head of the park administration Alexander Yaroshenko told reporters, the President approved the proposed changes. Moreover, the decree itself was signed soon.

Among the key changes are the simplification of administrative procedures, provision of more independence to the management bodies of the park, expansion of its types of activities, and support of start-ups. "They are aimed at simplification, de-bureaucratization of doing business, attraction of investors to the Great Stone project," — noted Alexander Yaroshenko.

So, the administration of the Great Stone will first of all be transferred additional powers of local authorities. Nearly 60 new administrative procedures will be overseen by the park's one-station service center. This will increase the speed and efficiency of the decisions taken. — The use of existing standards allowed us to reduce the construction term several times, — said Alexander Yaroshenko. — For example, MAZ-Weichai joint project was built in record time, in eight months, and is now actively producing products. The situation is similar for many other enterprises, which allows us to move quickly in decision-making.

In total, the administration will have about 90 procedures of an administrative and licensing nature. This is almost half of the procedures that are required for doing business anywhere in Belarus. In addition, in the Great Stone all administrative procedures are carried out in electronic form and they strive to ensure that the maximum number of them are carried out without paper carriers, that is, they try to introduce literally a digital regime.

It must be said that the composition of the subjects served in the "one station" is also expanding. Not only residents will be able to use its services, but also all companies operating in the park, as well as individuals who live or work here.

In accordance with the new decree, it is planned to expand the main activities of the industrial park Great Stone in order to increase the circle of attracted investors. Among new directions are the production of medical products, medical services, laboratory diagnostics, and biopharmaceuticals. One of the residents of the park has already planned a project on creation of a center for traditional Chinese medicine. Also, Alexander Yaroshenko considers the use of 5G technologies a promising area. "We already had such a pilot project. With the adoption of the new decree, a legal basis for the implementation of 5G and artificial intelligence will appear," – explained he.

Green liGhT for innovaTion

It is worth recalling that at the end of 2020, a center for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements was opened in the Great Stone. This is a joint BelarusianChinese project. In accordance with it, during the first two years, various startups will be able to enjoy all the main benefits of park residents, while they themselves will not be residents of the Great Stone. "On a competitive basis, having selected the appropriate project, six months after the incubation, we will look at the intermediate results. If they are positive, then we let this project grow from an idea into a commercial project and the opportunity to become a resident of the park," – said the head of the park administration. Alexander Yaroshenko noted that the sphere of innovations is very risky. If startups are not supported, then, as a rule, only one in ten projects survives. If the state and investors help young companies, then the survival rate reaches 70-80 percent.

Yes, now projects with investments of at least $50 million will be able to receive additional benefits. Among them are preferential prices for land plots, simplifications in the field of customs administration, and others. The Great Stone is confident that attraction of large investors will expand the cluster principle of activity. In the future, according to individual decisions of the government, enterprises outside the park will also be able to use preferences, but only those that participate in the capital and production process of residents. Besides, in order to stimulate the creation of sub-parks, first of all, large Chinese regions, in particular, the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Tianjin, under the new decree, the companies that create the sub-parks will be able to obtain resident status.

new bonuses for invesTors

The head of the park administration explained that work on the document had been going on for a long time, many factors were taken into account, including the modern business environment, the situation in the economy as a whole. Many proposals came from the residents themselves, taking into account their experience in the park. The preparation of proposals was also carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce of China. "Life itself requires such innovations, because one cannot stand still, even in terms of legislation," – said Alexander Yaroshenko.

In opinion of the head of the park administration, the results that the Great Stone is demonstrating at the present time confirm the effectiveness of its work. "I want with proud to say that more than 80 percent of the employed in the park are Belarusians and they have a decent salary – about Br2,700," – Alexander Yaroshenko gave an example. According to him, for 1 ruble of tax incentives provided to residents of the park, Belarus receives about 10 additional rubles in the country's economy, speaking of investments, the ratio is 1 to 60, infrastructure investments – 1 to 9. That is, the effect is quite good, positive.

bold sTarT, confidenT conTinuaTion

If we turn to the origins of the emergence of an industrial park near Minsk, it is worth recalling that at one time Belarus became one of the first European states to respond to China's call to take part in the implementation of the global initiative "One Belt One Road". And today the Great Stone is rightly called the pearl of the new Silk Road. Because the park is attractive due to its special financial conditions, developed infrastructure and logistics.

By the way, this is evidenced by the stable and progressive growth in the number of residents of the park and the industries they create.

According to Alexander Yaroshenko, head of the Great Stone administration, about $ 295 million has been invested in the park's infrastructure, of which $31 million is from the budget. Yes, experts have counted: for one ruble of state money, nine rubles of investment have been attracted to the infrastructure. And, of course, the main thing now, including after the adoption of a new legislative act, is to scale up and build on our common success. By the way, today projects of 69 residents are being implemented in the park with founders from 13 countries, including China, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA. Capital investments — about one and a half billion dollars. In the prepared draft decree, it is proposed to adjust the working conditions of residents. This applies, for example, to the formation of industrial clusters and support of innovative activities. In general, the park is focused on several basic clusters: automotive components, electric vehicles and electrical equipment, medical products and equipment, pharmaceuticals, integrated logistics.

According to Alexander Yaroshenko, world experience shows that about 10 percent of projects succeed without support, and with the active participation of the state and investors, the percentage of implementation, as already emphasized, can increase to 70-80. Attraction of large investors will expand the cluster principle of activity. According to separate decisions of the Government, enterprises outside the park will also be able to use preferences, but only those that participate in the capital and production process of residents. The arrival of Geely corporation with a project for the production of engines may become a pilot.

Alexander Lukashenko generally approved the key innovations of the project. The main requirement of the President when considering this project was what effect, what results, primarily economic and financial, the Great Stone can get from the adoption of the new legal framework. "We set our goal to achieve serious economic results," – the head of the park administration said about the plans, stressing that the point is not in pursuit of the number of residents or secondary indicators. It is important that the project works for the economy of Belarus and in interaction with it. And, of course, brings certain benefits to investors.

In total, 69 residents from 13 countries with a declared investment volume of more than $1.25 billion are registered in the park. About half of the residents have already launched production, which made it possible to create over 1,660 jobs.

Alexey Fedosov

Zhang Xiaogang, machine tool and locksmith works inspection engineer, and timofey Makarenko, a locksmith of Fast-MAZ, llC

china's media trends

Where is the information space of the largest country moving?

tThe Celestial Empire is the undisputed world leader of the "digital era". This, incidentally, is evidenced by data published by the Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Research. According to experts, the volume of the PRC's digital economy has already crossed the historic milestone of $5 trillion in 2019. The "numbers" accounted for 35.8 trillion yuan ($5.45 trillion) — 36.2 percent of the country's GDP. The coronavirus pandemic has become one of the factors that stimulated the rapid development of this area. Of course, the corresponding transformation also affected the information space. In this most important area, the Celestial Empire has become the legislator of a number of world media trends. Where will the infospace of the largest country in the world move?

"Zoomers" and pensioners

The audience of the Celestial Empire is the largest in the world. As you know, according to the latest census, the population of mainland China has reached 1 billion 411.78 million people. This was reported in the State Statistical Office (DSU) of the PRC with reference to the data of the Seventh National Population Census.

At the IV Summit "Digital China", which was organized by the State Chancellery of Internet Information, the "Digital China Development Report (2020)" was presented. According to the document, over the past five years, the PRC has been a leader in the scale of construction of information infrastructure. China has created the world's largest fiber optic and 4G network. By the end of last year, the number of Internet users had increased to 989 million, and the Internet penetration rate had reached 70.4 percent. Such data, based on the results of a special study of People's Daily newspaper, was mentioned by Ni Tao, editor of the Center for New Media of the People's Daily Online portal. The trends were outlined during a largescale international networking seminar held by the Chinese SCO Committee on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation in conjunction with the Huanquang portal of the People's Daily. "Zviazda" also took part in the event.

Mainly, the connection to the "World Wide Web" in China occurs through smartphones – 99.7 percent of users connect to the global network in this way. The Chinese now spend on average almost four hours on the Internet every day. This is less than a year ago. This trend is explained by the fact that in the past year people had more free time due to the pandemic. The largest number of users – 20.5 percent – are people aged 3039. The audience of 40-49 year olds – 18.8 percent, 20-29 year olds – 17.8 percent. In China, the requests of various categories of users are very carefully studied. It is interesting that in addition to the world rate for "zoomers", a lot of attention is paid to pensioners. And this is justified: as you know, the population in China at the age of 60 and older exceeds a quarter of a billion people.

China is running a three-year campaign to help older citizens overcome the digital divide so that they can fully benefit from smart technology and information services that are constantly evolving.

from pc To arTificial inTelliGence

As Ni Tao noted, the development of the Internet in China can be roughly divided into three "decades". 1996-2006: the era of personal computers, access through browsers to the PC. 2006-2016: mobile internet, widespread adoption of applications. 2016-2026: artificial intelligence, augmented reality, the socalled spectacle Internet. The information space has changed accordingly. As noted by Zhang Yanqiu, a professor at the Chinese University of Communications, traditional media is undergoing a rapid transformation.

One of the distinctive examples of such changes is the experience of the development of the Huanquang portal. It is one of the most visited in China: its daily audience reaches over 100 million people. This large-scale project began with the relevant department of the influential Chinese newspaper Huanqiu Shibao (a division of People's Daily), which mainly deals with international topics.

The corresponding thematic field is also at huanqіu.com. As editor-in-chief of Huanquang Shi Ding remarked, "We are one of the main providers of international news." This online publication is among the most authoritative in the Celestial Empire. "Huanquan" promptly responds to the challenges of the time, in particular in terms of content visualization, active work on different platforms, social networks. As the editor-in-chief of the portal notes, now competition is increasing not only among the media — bloggers are also actively involved. Now these are not only celebrities, but also ordinary people who "caught the wave." Even pets can be successful bloggers.

The portal has been actively reformatted to give priority video news, uses drones and virtual reality technology. It is noteworthy that, according to the editor-in-chief of the portal, messages from Belarus occupy

logo for a joint project with People's Daily

an important place in the news feed of "Huanquan". "We promptly respond to important events in your countries," — Shi Din said.

"sTars" from The province

Commercial platforms, mobile applications, and social networks are actively developing in China. But there are some peculiarities here. Everyone has heard of the multifunctional platforms Weibo, WeChat, the largely revolutionary TikTok service (in China, known as Douyin, by the way, runs on a separate server). But the information flow of the Celestial Empire is not limited to this.

Kuaishou, a service that allows ordinary people to post short videos, went to IPO in Hong Kong and raised HK $41.3 billion ($5.4 billion). It is the largest tech IPO since Uber went public. Kuaіshou can repeat the success of its competitor — TikTok, experts say.

Kuaishou was founded by former Google employee Su Hua and programmer Chen Yixiao. Su Hua was born in Hunan province, in the highlands of southern China. There was no electricity in his home village until 1998. He received degree of Bachelor of Arts at Tsinghua University, one of the best educational institutions in the PRC. After that he worked as a programmer in the Beijing office of Google. Yisiaa is also a programmer: he first studied at Northeastern University in Liaoning Province, and then worked for the American Hewlett-Packard and the Chinese social network Renren.

As Vice President of Kuaishou Liu Zhen noted, on the platform, ordinary people talk about their lives and at the same time become popular. This allows one to increase own well-being. For example, Yuan Guihua, from a small mountain village in Guizhou province, has attracted three million subscribers talking about fishing, cooking, and farming. This social network is attractive to advertisers because potential buyers trust the videos of people like them and are more willing to buy the products they advertise. According to Liu Zhen, Kuaishou has users from Belarus as well.

one way

The diversity of China's information products satisfies not only the domestic needs of the 1.4 billion audience, but is also in great demand among foreign users. According to Zhang Yanqiu, China strives to develop and support constructive journalism in every possible way, which is in great demand during fake news. The PRC is actively developing information cooperation with a number of countries, including Belarus. Professor Zhang Yanqiu noted that in this regard, Belt and Road transnational project, which is being developed by China on the initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping, can act as a unifying platform for the media.

China is a strategic partner of Belarus. Cooperation is developing in many areas, a number of important projects are being implemented. Belarus, according to experts, has become one of the important participants in the global Belt and Road. At the same time, the development of the Great Stone industrial park in the Celestial Empire is considered an exemplary project of fruitful bilateral cooperation. On August 31, 2015, the key Directive of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 5 "On the development of bilateral relations between the Republic of Belarus and the People's Republic of China" was signed.

Of course, we could not stand aside. In September 2015, within the framework of the Belt and Road Media Cooperation Forum, which was attended by 170 media representatives from 60 countries of all continents, Zviazda signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with one of the world's leading media outlets and the most influential publication in China — People's Daily newspaper. The global project "News from China" was launched on zvіazda.by portal in October 2015, the content of which is predominantly formed by materials from influential Chinese publications and news agencies, first of all, People's Daily. In turn, the publications of "Zviazda" were actively used in the formation of a news feed on the Internet portal People's Daily online, which made it possible to present the socio-economic and socio-cultural potential of Belarus to a multi-million audience of daily visits to the portal people.com.cn. In turn, in September 2016, a thematic banner "News from Belarus. Zviazda" appeared on the website russіan.people.com.cn. It is interesting that "Zviazda" project is given a place of honor in People's Daily Museum. We are for constructive journalism.

Nikolay Litvinov