ITU International Newsletter 06-18.08.2024

Oh, hi! Missed us? As everyone is out on their late summer holidays, the IT Ukraine Association (never) rests, nor do Ukraine’s economy or Fearless defenders (you’ve seen the news, right?) Change: Newly-released Army+ digitises the document flow, our ‘Digital Tiger’ 2023 IT Market Research gets a CMA recognition and the Resposible-Use AI Guidelines for wider marketing application were released with ITU as one of the key experts. There’s more: Ukraine Facility Plan dashboard, #ITUMember Companies taking up half of the TOP-50 rating… Ready For It?

Spotlight

3,000 Companies Founded by Foreigners in Ukraine since February 2022

According to Forbes Ukraine and as a powerful indicator of the unwavering belief of the global business community in Ukraine’s market, entrepreneurs from over 100 countries (Turkey 12.9%, Uzbekistan 10.1%, Poland 7.3%) have established 3,075 wholesale trade (30.7%), real estate (6.7%), IT (5.8%), and other-category companies since the full-scale war broke out. Over the same period, according to OpenDataBot (image credit), over 621 companies have lost their russian owners. Additionally, we preivously referenced the 11% jump in sole proprietor (FOP) registrations just since the start of this year, mostly in retail (40k+) and IT (19.6k).

Enticing more foreign investments, Ukraine’s Government has also simplified the construction permits application process, including for the critical infrastructure facilities, writes UkraineInvest. eConstruction public service has been digitised over 4 years ago: as we mentioned in July, 13 types of permit applications have been filled over 500,000 times.

Ukraine—a Digital State

Army+, a Second MoD Application, Unveiled

Last Thursday, another civilian-military use application was presented. Reserve+, an application for the conscription-age population to update their records, was released in May with close to 4m Ukrainians having already updated their аdministrative and registration data and companies booked over 160k specialists. Army+ release—40k+ active users in the first week—marks the start of digitalisation of military document flow within the Ukraine’s Defense Forces with 11 types of reports are available since day 1, as well as ‘Army ID’—a unique service(wo)man’s identifier of a serviceman, acting as one’s digital signature for report submissions.

ITU Newsline

Join Ukraine’s Meetup at the OIW 2024

Oslo Innovation Week attendees, join us (for free) at the From Ukraine to Norway: IT Innovations and Partnership’ MeetUp: September 24, 2024. Up to 100 participants will dive into the collaboration opportunities between the two countries’ ecosystems, basically getting a gateway pass into the Norwegian tech market. For 2 hours, discover cutting-edge innovations, connect with experts, learn from success stories, and get exclusive networking opportunities! 

Click here to register, follow our 𝕏 Thread and mark your attendance in our Facebook and LinkedIn events.

From Ukraine to Norway: IT Innovations and Partnership at Oslo Innovation Week 2024 is organised by the Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce together with the IT Ukraine Association. 
Partners: Devlight, Nova Digital. 
Supported by: Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of Norway, Innovation Norway, ICT Norway.        

ITU Members Make Up 24 out of TOP-50 Largest IT Companies

With a semi-annual DOU rating (image credit) released last Monday, we learned that the IT Ukraine Association Member Companies EPAM Ukraine, SoftServe, GlobalLogic Ukraine, Ajax Systems, Luxoft Ukraine take up all of the TOP-5 spots—measured by the number of company employed specialists—and 12 out of 15 spots, an overall figure of 48%: Intellias (8), DataArt (9), Ciklum (11), Sigma Software Group (12), Infopulse (13), N-iX (14), Eleks (15), Capgemini Engineering (16), Avenga (19), Grid Dynamics  (24), SQUAD (29), Trinetix (30), ROOM 8 GROUP (31), Netcracker (33), Uklon (37), Ubisoft (38), Plarium (39), Playtika (40), SPD Ukraine (41 ), Innovecs (42), Nova Digital (43), MODUS X (45), and Viseven (50).

The Association, expanding further (in July we welcomed 32 new members, now over 190 companies). These industry leading companies have a significant influence not only on the Association’s activities and projects implementation, but also on the Ukraine’s IT market development as a whole. See more in the latest semi-annual ITU report.

‘Digital Tiger: the Power of Ukrainian IT’ 2023 Research—a CMA Finalist

Submitted by the Association & the Research’s partner Top Lead, the IT market study presented on March 14th became a finalist in the ‘Best Infographic Series’ Category of the Content Marketing Institute . This study became a continuation of the annual cycle, this time having added a comparative analysis of Ukraine’s IT Ecosystem with those of Poland and the Czech Republic, Brazil and India.

Over the last 5 months, we’ve seen over 800 downloads of the paper with hundreds of direct shares as Ukrainian IT companies utilise the research that highlights the value proposition of Ukraine’s IT to promote their businesses and establish international partnerships. Click here to download the PDF. 

Furthermore

Use AI Responsibly, We Got the Guide for You

Complimenting the AI White Paper released by Mintsyfra in June, the ‘Responsible Use of AI in Advertising and Marketing’ Recommendations were presented on August 7 with governmental agencies and business representatives as experts — the IT Ukraine Association key among them. The guidelines (click to view) were special-crafted for wider-than-marketing use, covering AI tools, content compliance, data privacy, and maintaining human oversight, so that a wide range of content development specialists have a handy package to apply in their work, being able to avoid critical AI-use mistakes.

The recommendations were developed thanks to the support provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID Ukraine) as part of the USAID Cybersecurity Activity Project and the  ‘Digital Transformation Activity’ Project supported by USAID and UK Dev.         

See more details and links in our Facebook, LinkedIn and 𝕏 post(s).

Ukraine Facility Plan Dashboard Shows Real-Time Progress

If you’re a regular reader of the newsletter, you see our frequent mentions of the Ukraine Facility Plan — that’s because the updates come almost semi-weekly. In July, we mentioned the positive assessment which came in at €4.2 billion for which Ukraine has now received the last of the (non-repayable) tranche(s), now focusing on the further reforms and steps. On Friday, Ukraine’s Government unveiled the dashboard to monitor the implementation of the plan — the site has filters by areas, implementers, and deadlines — that complements the Reforms Matrix Tracking Site (see our June edition).

Come Back and Create Ukraine, says MoE

Expanding the incentives for the young population to become more involved in the country’s life, as well as return from abroad (see our previous edition), The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine presented a ‘Create Ukraine’ Programme that streamlines the GR certification for the youth, allowing to work with the Ukrainian government as part of the advisory team at the Ministry, propose and implement their own ideas and projects. Another Ministry of Economy of Ukraine programme is Skills4Recovery with 1,200 professionals already certified in 23 professions — the goal is 2,000 by the year’s end.