The energy of the participants at the Minsk stage of the Startup Tour is something to behold, said Skolkovo’s senior vice president for innovations Vasily Belov.
Vasily Belov in Minsk. Photo: sk.ru
The tour is calling in on Belarus this week for the tenth stop of the innovations roadshow and only its second outside Russia – the first was in Kazakhstan last month.
“The energy is staggering,” Belov told sk.ru at the venue, the futuristic National Library of Belarus. “There’s a huge quantity of decent projects here that have passed selection for presentation – more than 70. That’s far above the average for the Startup Tour.”
Indeed, it’s a record – the other stages of the tour have had maximums of 40 or 50 projects make the grade. Their innovators gain access to the pitch sessions, where the top startups win through to the Startup Village pitch sessions at the Skolkovo Innovation Center on June 2-3.
Belarus has a thriving IT sector, a fact reflected at the tour in Minsk.
“We see huge potential here,” Belov noted. “I think that not only will be pick some startups to invite to Moscow, but also at the inter-governmental level with our colleagues from Belarus some new collaborative projects with Skolkovo will be developed,” he added.
From left: Skolkovo VP Alexander Chernov, Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Matyushevsky and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, Photo: sk.ru
The opening day of the tour saw Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich cut the ceremonial ribbon to raise the curtain on the event together with Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Matyushevsky.
The latter noted that Belarus outperforms countries like India and the United States when it comes to the amount of IT services exported per capita.
Matyushevsky also commented that the presence of the Startup Tour would create a new wave of IT innovations across the country, and that the connections with Skolkovo could only benefit bilateral trade.
“It is doubly pleasant that the Startup Tour has finally reached Minsk,” he said.
The Minsk stage is being held at the National Library of Belarus with the support of the government’s State Committee for Science and Technology.
The event’s organizational partners are the Minsk City Technopark, Laboratory of Intellect and the Belarusian Fund for Innovation.