Digital economy in the Republic of Belarus: Current trends, challenges and prospects

Abstract

In recent years, particular interest has been risen by digital economy as well as information and communication technologies which have given it unprecedented acceleration in the last decade. Among other things, this is due to the high export potential of the ICT sector. Currently Belarus is standing steadily in the global labour division among the countries which develop excellent software. The analysis of literary sources on the problems of the development of the Belarusian segment of digital economy confirms that, despite a certain clarification of this issue, a lot of points in this area require further research in accordance with the demands of the modern economy. The theoretical and practical significance of revealing the features of the development of the digital economy in the Republic of Belarus, as well as the incomplete study and incompleteness of a comprehensive analysis of its functioning and immediate prospects in modern international economic relations make the subject of the research topical. The article reveals the features of the functioning of digital economy in the Republic of Belarus, analyzes ICT services export volume dynamics, traces the history of the creation and evolution of the High Technology Park, reviews the results of monitoring separate industrial enterprises, and determines the immediate prospects for the development of the Belarusian digital economy. The methodological basis of the study is the use of general scientific approaches - systematic and integrated, analysis and synthesis methods, as well as comparative and economic-statistical analysis methods, the method of graphic images. The information base of the study consists of statistical materials of the National Statistical Committee and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus as well as the High Technologies Park data.