Advances in Ukraine’s information technologies could help bootstrap the country’s entire economy, IT experts, economists and entrepreneurs agreed during discussions at the Kyiv International Economic Forum on Oct. 6.
The heavy industry Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union has never undergone a much-needed upgrade, said U.S. company Microsoft’s national technology officer Mykhaylo Shmyelov during the forum. He said that while the country’s industries have always developed capacity, they have failed to improve their technical processes. But now, with the information technology boom in the country, other industries have every chance of boosting their productivity through the use of IT.
“IT is an enabler,” Shmyelov said. “But there must be a synergy with industrialists.”
Cisco’s regional business development manager Valeriy Fischuk agreed, saying that every sphere of Ukraine’s economy has to become smarter.
“The level of nitrates in Ukrainian fruits and vegetables exceeds the norms by seven times,” said Fischuk, holding a nitrate tester for food in his hands. “Imagine if our agriculture were digital. If it were, our people would be healthier, and field owners in turn would save money (by not using fertilizer excessively).”
But neither investors nor foreign equipment will come to Ukraine until the country improves its tax code, according to Fischuk. He said that when machinery comes to Ukraine, its price rises by three times due to the VAT and customs clearance procedures.
“Ukraine has the main component (for further development) – brains, but the government lacks a strong character,” Fischuk said.
Meanwhile, KM Core СEO Evgeni Utkin said that while Ukraine is famous for software outsourcing, it should stop just exporting it, and put it to use for the domestic economy.
“We boast about our outsourcing, but we don’t use (what we’ve created) ourselves,” Utkin said. “We need to stop being a colonial republic and stop just serving others.”
Foreign viewpoint
Nobel Prize Winner Dan Shechtman said that despite Ukraine having plenty of engineers and mathematicians, it lacks talented businesspeople.
“You need entrepreneurs to take innovations and make products out of them,” he said.
Asked about Ukraine’s brain drain, Shechtman said this was quite a common phenomenon for almost all countries, but warned that retaining people within the country’s borders was still vital.
“The most important natural resource of Ukraine is human resources,” he said. “To retain your people, you must raise GDP per capita and invest more into (people).”
However, investing just in HR isn’t enough, according to World Bank Innovation Policy Advisor Peter Lindholm.
“You should first of all invest in innovation infrastructure,” Lindholm said.
“The appetite for innovation in Ukraine isn’t very high for various reasons. Hence, you need to create success stories. If you have infrastructure, people will succeed very quickly. That will allow you to go to the community and show examples, which in turn will attract the world’s money and attention to Ukraine.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
