Belarus Fintech Sandbox is coming

Just couple of days ago Belarussian President issued a Decree №8 dd. 21.12.2017 “On Development of Digital Economy” to create a Fintech Sandbox in Minsk within the scope of special Hi-Tech Park as analogue of Silicon Valley. The Hi-Tech Park is working from 2005 establishing special tax regime for IT companies, and now consist of around 200 residents. But the new Decree is said to be a breakthrough not only expanding the types of activities from traditional IT, education, cybersport, artificial intelligence and unmanned vehicle management but also to blockchain, mining, crypto exchange activities, exchanges of cryptocurrencies and other utilization of any types of tokens.
The Decree and number of Annexes to it lay day the framework for legal, tax, currency control, accounting and other principles which shall now in 3 months be implemented into legislation and regulations. It is stated to cancel until 2023 the VAT, income tax, property tax, import duty on certain equipment, relax the currency control measures, visa and other requirements for foreign professionals and many other interesting measures for the Park residents. Instead, all the residents of the Hi-Tech Park shall dedicate 1% of its revenue to the administration of the Park.
The Decree is trying to give interpretation and regulate the blockchain, mining, tokens, ICO and apply English legal system and principals thereof. For example, mining, activities of cryptoplatform, points of exchanges and other activities with tokens are not deemed as banking operation, the tokens itself shall be assets and token holders have all the legal rights and obligations over this assets. English types of contracts and regulations are now becoming part of local legal system.
With this move, Belarus is trying to attract new plyers and funds into economy as all the activities in the Hi-Tech Park are allowed to the residents (companies registered in Belarus) or through residents. The operators of cryptoplatform and cryptocurrency exchange points shall keep around 50.000 USD and 10.000 USD on the local bank accounts accordingly.
Knowing very draconic and conservative approaches and legal doctrine of Belarus, this looks like very bold move and experiment to create favorable regulatory sandbox and be the pioneer at least in the east Europe for complete legalization of activities, which are taking more and more advantage over the usual economy and approaches.
While many countries are making careful steps in legalization and more or less manifest their intentions, having months of discussions about drafts of regulations and laws, Belarus is trying to jump into the innovative hub. We will carefully monitor how this experiment develops and keep you posted.