On March 1, 2021, a working meeting of the Minister of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus Konstantin Shulgan with the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Doreen Bogdan-Martin took place in a virtual format.

During the meeting, the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau highly appreciated the results of work with the Communications Administration of the Republic of Belarus in the development of information and communication technologies, as well as the leading positions of our country in various international rankings in terms of ICT indicators.

In this regard, the Minister of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus announced the start of the implementation of the new State Program “Digital Development of Belarus for 2021-2025”, which is aimed at further ensuring the implementation of information and communication and advanced manufacturing technologies in the national economy and the spheres of society and will contribute, inter alia, to the achievement at the national level of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the period up to 2030.

During the working meeting, a discussion was held on the preparation for the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021 (November 8-19, 2021, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the CIS Region, which will be held on April 21-22, 2021 in a virtual format.

The current issues on implementation of various international events in the Republic of Belarus through the ITU were also discussed, including the ITU Forum “Smart Sustainable Cities: Organizational and Technical Aspects of Development”, which will be held in our country in a hybrid format on March 16-18, 2021, the ITU seminar on the implementation of 5G, the holding of which was agreed in Minsk from June 1 to June 4, 2021 within the framework of the next international ICT forum “TIBO-2021” and other joint events.

In this regard, possible participation in the events of the TIBO-2021 Forum by the ITU officials, depending on the prevailing epidemiological situation, was discussed.

In addition, during the working meeting, a constructive discussion took place on expanding cooperation with ITU in the field of digital skills, including by providing expert and technical assistance, ensuring the availability of digital technologies for persons with disabilities, including the development of activities of the Training centers, created in the Republic of Belarus on the basis of the educational institution “Belarusian State Academy of Communications” with the support of the ITU, for training persons with hearing impairments in modern infocommunication technologies, the implementation of the pilot project “Smart School” in Polotsk, which can later be used as a ready-made element of the project “Smart City”, development of cooperation with ITU in the field of cybersecurity and in other promising areas.

The working meeting was held in a constructive manner, and made it possible to outline the current directions for the further development of interaction with the International Telecommunication Union in the field of information and communication technologies.