Yesterday, representatives of Lviv IT industry met with president Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Lviv to discuss the prospects of the IT industry development in Ukraine and establish cooperation between business and government.
During a working trip to Lviv and Lviv region, president Volodymyr Zelenskyi met with representatives of Lviv IT community, including Stepan Veselovskyi, CEO of Lviv IT Cluster, Cluster’s Supervisory Board Members, CEOs of SoftServe, N-iX, GlobalLogic, Vector Software, EduNav, ELEKS, Avenga, Edpro, PLVision, Intellias, and others.
Taras Kytsmey, President of IT Ukraine Association and Board Member, SoftServe, started the meeting with a presentation about the Ukrainian IT industry’s growth potential. Taras also points out the main factors contributing to the development of the IT industry over the past 20 years, including the development of tech education and flexible conditions for cooperation between companies and professionals.
Oleksiy Skrypnyk, a co-founder of ELEKS, supported Taras Kitsmey’s report and stressed the importance of the IT industry supporting IT professionals during quarantine by maintaining existing tax rules.
In response to Mr. Taras’s report, the President stated that he supported the country’s IT industry and advocated maintaining the tax rate for IT specialists at 5%. “IT industry in Ukraine is developed not due to the government’s support, but owing to the intelligence of Ukrainians. One of the steps the government can take is not to increase the tax burden on the IT industry. The government will always support the IT industry, and taxes will not exceed 5%, because we want Ukraine to become a European IT hub,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
Lviv IT Cluster had the opportunity to inform the president, and the delegation about the IT Research 4.0 key findings on the Lviv IT industry – the number of IT companies in Lviv amounts to 461, and the number of IT specialists to 25,000; one IT specialist creates 3 jobs in related industries. “Yesterday, my colleagues from Lviv IT Cluster member companies and I, had an opportunity to personally tell the president about the current situation in the IT industry in Lviv and Ukraine. I believe that there should be more such face-to-face meetings, which are an effective way to exchange views and express both parties’ positions without intermediaries. It’s vital for the business that the government has an understanding of the business’ problems. I hope the government will fulfill their promises and support the IT industry in the future,” says Stepan Veselovskyi, CEO at Lviv IT Cluster.
Cluster’s Supervisory Board members, especially Andriy Pavliv, CEO and co-founder of N-iX, also raised unauthorized inspections by controlling IT companies and seizure of equipment during such actions. It is another risk that is on the list of the IT industry.
The Cluster also discussed changes in education that are being implemented jointly with the city’s IT companies. The average score of entrants to modernized training programs by the Cluster is one of the highest in the country. Also, the Members of the meeting, at the initiative of Andriy Tabachyn, co-founder and CEO of EdPro, addressed the President on the importance of reforming intellectual property protection in the IT industry.