Month: May 2017

Roundtable event on “Start-ups in Germany and Belarus: Potential and Trends”

Posted on by marina.veremchuk

18.05.2017 The German-Belarusian Economic Club organized a round table event for its members on the topic “Start-ups in Germany and Belarus: potential and trends”. The event took place in the conference hall of the Club’s member Johannes Rau International Education Centre in Minsk. The round table session was opened by presentations of invited experts from Germany and Belarus, which were followed by a lively discussion between the presenters and the Club members.

The informative part of the meeting started with the presentation of Mr. Denis Friedrich, representative of Innovestment GmbH, dedicated to the development of start-up movement in Germany (the presentation is available in the section for Club members). The Berlin-based company is one of the leading providers of funding for innovative projects and start-ups and provides start-ups with the necessary financial and technical resources via crowdfunding, crowdfunding, and venture capital. The company’s extensive experience is evidenced by more than 2,000 applications reviewed and around 40 successfully financed projects.

This was followed by speeches of Belarusian experts widely known in professional circles and who are the first instances in everything that concerns start-up industry – Sergey Naidovich, Director General of Small Business Incubator UAB “MAP CJSC” and Rima Mechislavovna Yepur, Director General of Youth Social Service KUP. Both incubators belong to the oldest and most successful structures in this area in Belarus and represent two pillars of the business incubator system: private organizations (CJSC “MAP CJSC”) and state organizations (KUP “Youth Social Service”). Hardly any other structure in Belarus can boast of experts with more experience and knowledge of the peculiarities of this area than our roundtable panelists.

While in Germany the favourable conditions for the emergence and further development of start-ups cause the emergence of a considerable number of new companies, especially in IT and among research spin-offs, young companies in Belarus are not systematically supported. The main difference between both countries when it comes to start-up support is that the German approach implies creating a wide range of conditions for promising ideas and their further implementation, while Belarus tries to stimulate problematic areas on a point-by-point basis with material and financial, and technical resources. That was the conclusion we came to during the roundtable on start-ups in Germany and Belarus.

The willingness of our guests to share their knowledge with the Club members and our partners from GET Belarus and to talk openly about the problems was the key to an informative and interesting event, which covered a very special and non-trivial topic.

The large amount of positive feedback was a reason for the Board members and the Club’s representative office to use the Round Table format more intensively for further specialized events.

May – Club evening with Vladimir Avgustinsky and Yulia Burayeva

Posted on by marina.veremchuk

“It is noteworthy that German companies, which have identified the overall economic situation in the country as tense and very difficult, are very positive about the prospects of their enterprises in Belarus.” This unexpected result was revealed in the survey of the business climate in the Republic of Belarus, which is conducted annually by our member and partner German Economic Representation Office among German companies. The annual survey “Business climate in Belarus” contains a number of questions from micro- and macroeconomics and is a timely source of information on the current economic situation and its likely development in relation to German companies in Belarus.

Meanwhile, presentations of the results of the survey made by Vladimir Augustinsky, the Head of the German economic representative office, during the Club’s soiree have become a good tradition which continued this year to the delight of all the Club members. The resonance among the Club members was high as usual, which was proved by a lively discussion between the speaker and the Club members, many of whom, being heads of German companies in Belarus, took part in the survey themselves. At the same time, the discussion covered certain aspects in more detail, such as the assessment of employee qualifications, as well as the assessment of labor law.

Vladimir Lvovich finished his speech with the presentation of current and planned events of the German Economic Mission this year.

Then the presentation of the range of marketing services of the German Economic Information Center was made by Julia Buraeva, its director. The service subsidiary of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce offers services for both existing and those planning to enter the German market, ranging from information gathering to project support – which will definitely help the Club’s individual members to cooperate with each other. The full versions of the presentations by both speakers are available to Club members here.

The evening traditionally ended with an interesting and open discussion between Club members and our guests of honor, the subject matter of which included both topics raised by the speakers and current issues from economics, politics and public life.

We would like to highlight another significant moment of the Club Evening. In connection with the increasingly close cooperation with our partner Free Economic Zone “Minsk” (FEZ “Minsk”), we also had the opportunity to welcome to our evening the Head of Administration of FEZ “Minsk”, Alexander Akhremchik. He warmly thanked the Club for its cooperation, as well as for the support provided, and presented the Head of the Club’s Representative Office, Evgeny Gudi, with a letter of thanks, which in a way shows recognition of our work and that we are on the right track, and we will certainly give him a place of honor.