Director General of RUE Beltelecom Yury Petruchenya took part in the opening of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Forum “Smart Sustainable Cities: Social, Economic and Governance perspectives”, which takes place in Minsk from February 15 to 17.

For the fourth time, the Forum has brought together a wide range of experts to discuss the most successful cases and strategies for implementing smart cities. Minister of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus Konstantin Shulgan, Program Coordinator of the ITU Regional Office for the CIS Farid Nakhli, Director General of RUE Beltelecom Yury Petruchenya, and Director of OJSC Giprosvyaz Anton Alekseev addressed the audience with a welcoming speech. Natalia Mochu, Director of the ITU Regional Office for the CIS countries, also joined the forum via videoconferencing.

Addressing the forum participants, Yury Petruchenya noted that today the attention of Beltelecom specialists is focused on promising projects for the digital economy, and, first of all, on creating a modern infrastructure for the widespread implementation of smart city technological solutions.

In recent years, tens of thousands of kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines have been built. All urban multi-apartment buildings, all settlements with 100 or more households, as well as more than 65% of settlements with 50 to 100 households are provided with modern lines. Large-scale modernization of networks has made it possible to significantly reduce the "digital divide" and provide residents of the republic with almost equal access to information resources.

The event is also attended by representatives of the ITU, government bodies, regional executive committees, leading organizations of science and education. Practical experience and ways to build a smart sustainable city at the Forum are presented by speakers from Russia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, specialists from international and leading domestic companies.

Experts will present thematic reports on the social, economic and governance aspects of smart sustainable cities in several sessions. On February 16, within the framework of the session “Development of smart sustainable cities: improving the quality of life of the urban population”, Sergey Turomsha, Deputy General Director for Economics and Commercial Issues of RUE Beltelecom, will make a presentation “My City Project”. Digital Ecosystem of the Modern City”.

Exactly one year ago, in February 2021, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization, together with RUE Beltelecom, launched the My City project. This is a mobile application that has digitized the main city services for the population and business. The new platform has become a tool for comfortable interaction between residents and urban infrastructure. To date, the mobile application is already working in five cities of Belarus: Polotsk, Glubokoe, Pinsk, Orsha and Baranovichi.

The forum will provide an opportunity to get acquainted with the latest global achievements in the field of “smart sustainable cities”, which are being implemented under the auspices of the ITU, to exchange experiences, ideas and find new areas of growth and cooperation.