The digital future is here today

Minsk hosted the 29th edition of the international information and communications technology forum TIBO 2023 — the country’s main technological event. This is a unique platform for the exchange of best practices in the field of information technology, analysis of the best global practices of digital transformation and discussion of the prospects for the effective use of the latest technological trends in traditional sectors of the economy. For four days, state organisations and private companies demonstrated their developments and know-how at the Minsk Arena site.

Ceremonial start

The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, sent a greeting to the participants and guests of the 29th edition of the international information and communications technology forum. 
The Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko addressed the participants with a welcoming speech at the solemn opening ceremony. The Head of Government noted that the task of TIBO 2023 is to provide a comprehensive vision of achievements and opportunities for maximising the innovative potential of the IT sector in the interests of society and the state, as well as partners, primarily within the EAEU.
“We have already achieved significant results in the development of e-government: there is a unified portal of electronic services, unified systems of remote identification and the opportunity to use electronic digital signatures. Businesses can obtain licenses online. Technologies for unmanned transport are being developed, and robotic systems are being introduced in production,” the Prime Minister noted.
He focused on the fact that given the complex geopolitical agenda and increasing external pressure, it is necessary to ensure not only technological independence, but also digital sovereignty, relying on our partners, primarily the Russian Federation and other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Surprise and wonder

More than 260 exhibitors were represented at the exhibition. Including collective stands of ministries and departments. For the first time this year, the Great Stone Industrial Park took part in the exhibition.
The central exposition of the Communications and Informatisation Ministry and government agencies called Cities of the Future — Smart Cities was the highlight of this year. It visually reproduced the urban environment and was a rather interesting exhibition with more than 40 locations. Here  everyone could find something interesting for themselves. Among the novelties are the projects of the Taxes and Duties Ministry and the Social Protection Fund. Social Protection Fund introduced an application that allows one to monitor one’s work activities. It contains all the information from the work book. The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus demonstrated more than 50 developments and technologies. The educational industry was represented by more than 20 educational institutions. Belarusian universities and five educational institutions from the Russian Federation showed their educational services and training opportunities on the ‘educational alley’.
Employees of BELAZ showed a working software solution for demonstrating a virtual exhibition of the company’s developments at the stand of the Industry Ministry.“This is our own development. We are also demonstrating a virtual tour, where you can find how the largest machines in the world are assembled, where they work and the stages of their production. And the third project, which is the largest and large-scale — a virtual workshop,” said engineer for scientific and technical information Yevgeny Prilutsky.
In the virtual workshop, one can thoroughly disassemble specific parts of dump trucks, which are made in detail. Everyone could test the work of all three projects personally by wearing virtual glasses. 

Make life comfortable

At TIBO 2023, the implementation of the unified digital platform Smart City was discussed. Today, about 56 percent of the world’s population, or 4.4 billion people, live in cities. The trend of urban population growth is expected to continue and by 2050, 7 out of 10 people worldwide will live in an urban environment. Experts from different countries discussed the past, present and future of smart cities at the Digital Economy Forum. Elena Shorr, the Deputy Head of the Department for State-run ICT projects and Procurement at the Communications and Informatisation Ministry, spoke about the strategy for implementing smart cities in our country. She noted that Belarus has all the conditions for the successful implementation of this project, “It can be stated that the introduction of technologies for the development of this initiative in Belarus is a priority. This is very important for the successful implementation of the project. This can be clearly seen at the exhibition part of the TIBO 2023 forum, where the central stand is dedicated to our achievements in this direction. Today, the country is carrying out planned and systematic work to promote and introduce smart city technologies.” 




As an example, she cited the My City platform implemented by Beltelecom. This application allows one to access many city services at once on one site. Initially, it was created to work in Polotsk, then 7 cities were connected to it, and today the application provides access to the services of more than 40 settlements. The information technology centre of the Minsk City Executive Committee also presents many solutions: the automated information system ‘Accounting for Operating Costs for a Residential Building’, the information system 115.bel and much more. All this can be implemented on a single digital platform.
Speaking about the introduction of a single digital platform Smart City (Region), the specialist noted that according to the plan, the state platform Smart City will cover 17 regional centres and cities with a population of over 80,000 citizens in 2025.

The digital partnership is growing stronger    

The implementation of joint projects in simulator building and the creation of ‘digital twins’, co-operation in the field of telecommunications equipment, the creation of ‘smart cities’ will be carried out by Belarusian organisations with the support of the State Corporation Rosatom. The relevant agreements were signed on the sidelines of the TIBO 2023 forum. 
According to Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich, such interaction is especially important in the face of external restrictions and sanctions pressure, “By signing the agreement, we made another step towards stronger technological sovereignty of our countries. Belarus’ co-operation with Rosatom advances in a number of areas. Those include the construction and operation of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, management of radioactive waste, and allied industries – manufacturing sector, nuclear medicine, and electric vehicles.”
In turn, the Director for Digitalisation of the State Corporation Rosatom Ekaterina Solntseva expressed her conviction that co-operation between Belarus and Russia represented by Rosatom is a guarantee not only of technological independence here and now, but also of technological independence both in the medium and long term, “Digital technologies are the basis that will determine the competitiveness of industry, energy and the economy as a whole. Therefore, what is happening now is the first and very significant, and I am convinced that it will not be the last, step in our joint movement towards the creation of a new generation of digital technologies.” 


By Vladislav Sychevich, Ilya Kryzhevich, Vera Arteaga

Photos by Yelizaveta Kobetskaya, Aleksandr Kulevsky