ITU International Newsletter 08-14.07.2024

Hello! More good news… sort of. Our people, in particular, the IT industry came together for the symbolic-yet-impactful reconstruction effort in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Government celebrates several milestones hit by the digitised—a key word—public services, and ITU names people that are to lead the industry committees, as voted in by the respective companies in each vertical. Perhaps, not much news, but significant nonetheless. Lean in!

Spotlight

IT Industry Chips In for Over ?120m for ‘Ohmatdyt’ Reconstruction

Last Monday’s targeted attack at the National Children’s Specialised Hospital of Ukraine made for a grim start to the week. Ukrainians came together, having fundraised over ?360m in a matter of days to rebuild the hospital, with IT Industry contributing a third of the sum and ITU Members and partners a third of that. The Government has allocated another ?100m from the Reserve Funds. See the complete list of industry donations here and the still-being-expanded final overview here.

On the day of the attack, Ukraine’s MFA gathered 33 accredited Diplomatic Mission Heads—representing? EU, NATO, UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF, Azerbaijan, Austria, Argentina, Armenia, Vietnam, Greece, India, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Poland, the Holy See, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sudan, Türkiye, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan—on the scene.

We’re grateful for all the countless personal donations from those of you abroad. Let the occupier never forget our resilience and readiness to respond. Ukraine will win. Protect our children!

Ukraine—a Digital State

Diia Milestones Weekly: 40m+ Diia.Signatures, 4 Years of eConstruction

Launched in 2021, the eSignature service revolutionised the document application process in Ukraine. Now, scaled and further simplified, Diia.Signature also allows Ukrainians to sign petitions, avoid banking fees, protect themselves from fraudsters, authorise access, and streamline document flow. Last week, the service hit a milestone: 40 million uses (roughly the population of Ukraine). Mind that the documents signed with Diia have the same legal weight as those signed on paper by hand.

Furthermore, this week passes the 4-year mark of the eConstruction service, a unified system for building permits with 13 services already live. To date, over half a million permits have been issued with 130k construction passports and 65.5k city plans.

ITU Newsline

IT Ukraine Association Names Industry Committee Leaders

Industry Committees are a new format for expanded cooperation between the Association and Ukrainian companies with unique expertise in selected verticals (see the newsletter’s previous edition for more). Leaders were selected by the committee votes last week based on the vision presented and the tactical steps up until the year’s end outlined by the candidates.?

Thus, the Committee Leaders (click to read all the details) are as follows:

?? AgriTech—Stanislav Shum (Top Lead CEO)

?? CyberTech—Sergii Prynov (Seeton Acting CEO)

?? FinTech—Julia Fedosiuk (UAPAY CEO)

?? EdTech—Kateryna Borovska (Promova CMO)

See the full list of member companies for each committee.

“The committees will become the centrepiece of the Association's initiatives across the AgriTech, CyberTech, FinTech and EdTech verticals. Our congratulations to the selected committee leaders! We are truly excited to start the active phase of work in each area,”

said Maria Shevchuk, Executive Director of IT Ukraine Association.

Soon, Committees will hold strategic sessions based on the Association's platform and with our moderation and will propose a series of initiatives per each vertical. The final roadmap from each committee will be integrated into the Association's mainstream events.

UKRSIBBANK BNP Paribas Group is the General Partner and donor of the project.

Furthermore

Ukraine to Collaborate with the U.S. in Education, Science, and Linguistic Studies

During the presidential visit last week to Washington, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska took part in the U.S.-Ukraine Partnership in Education and Science Conference, which focused on Ukrainian studies in the United States and ways to expand them. Ms Zelenska praised the longstanding tradition of studying the history and culture of Ukraine in the higher educational institutions of the United States and expressed hope that Crimean Tatar studies would also be added to Ukrainian studies.?

The Conference resulted in the launch of the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies, which will bring together centres, academic programs, and research institutes focused on Ukrainian studies from around the world. The Coalition members will promote the opening of new Ukrainian studies, launch scholarship programs, and develop cooperation between higher educational institutions in the United States and Ukraine.?

The Conference also featured exhibits that demonstrated the consequences of Russian attacks on Ukrainian educational, cultural, and scientific institutions, e.g., burnt books from the Kharkiv printing house hit by a Russian missile attack this May.

Ukrainians Received ?8.5b in eRobota Funding since July 2022

More than 18k entrepreneurs have received grants to start or develop their businesses from the Ukrainian government over the span of two years. The programme allows currently active entrepreneurs, as well as to-be entrepreneurs, to apply for a grant, with everything—including the business plan and several jobs creation herein required—handed over via the Diia app and portal. Read more in the newsletter’s previous edition.?

According to Forbes Ukraine, since the start of this year, registrations of sole proprietorships in Ukraine have jumped 11%, mostly in retail trade (over 40k), tech (19.6k) and other sectors (18.8k).