SDF 5.0: leaders of Ukrainian IT discussed main challenges

“Today, the Ukrainian IT-industry has entered a completely new, global level: Ukraine is a world-renowned provider of IT-services. Of course, the successes achieved in international markets have a positive effect on the country’s economic situation. For example, there are already three IT-companies which has entered the list of TOP-20 taxpayers in Ukraine. Our main task by now is to ensure a stable growth of the IT-industry through the creation of a synergy between the state and business, taking care of the development of the human capital and developing the external market”, – said Yuri Antoniuk. After the welcome ceremony began the first panel of the Forum, devoted to the perception of the domestic IT-industry in the world. The first speaker of the panel was Chirag Ravat, Deputy Director of International Consulting Company Avasant, with a presentation of research results on a topic “Role and Perception of Ukraine in the Global IT-Services Market. Recommendations for Further Development.” “Now more than 100 R&D centers of large international companies operate in Ukraine, and the very experience of research and development is a very strong part of Ukraine, which it is absolutely necessary to use. In addition, Ukrainian IT-companies can fill the niches in such areas of today’s demand as Blockchain, Business Automation, GameDev and Visual Effects Development and creation of E-government systems for developing countries”, – noted Chirag Rawat. Stanislav Shelyakin, Senior Consultant in PwC Ukraine, during the first panel presented a survey on the impact of the IT-industry on the country’s economy. According to the forecasts provided in the study, by 2025 the industry could grow up to $ 8.4 billion, and the number of working places will increase almost 2.5 times – to over 240 thousand. Of course, all this is possible if favorable conditions for the industry would remain the same. Three main barriers to the development of the IT-industry and the creative industry in general: the lack of a stability and predictable system of taxation, the lack of consistent changes in the education system, low level of protection of intellectual property rights. The panel continued with a discussion with Yuri Antoniuk, Managing Director of Eram Ukraine, President of the IT Ukraine Association; Valery Kutsyi, General Director of Miratech; Andriy Yavorsky, Vice President of GlobalLogic; Olga Panteleimonova, General Director of Star Media; Natalia Mykolska, Sales Representative – Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine; Oleksander Danchenko, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Information and Communication. Moderator of the discussion was Valery Pekar, a well-known public figure and an entrepreneur. The participants discussed panel speakers’ reports and identified an action plan to promote the IT-industry in the global arena. Among the first steps they have noted: creating synergies between business, government, educational institutions and international organizations; changing the labor code, migration and tax policy, upgrading the education system; promoting the brand of Ukraine; developing of the domestic market and grocery Ukrainian companies. The second major theme of the Forum was the issue of global competition, economic trends and transformations in the labor market. Kostyantyn Lezhnin, Deputy Chairman of the Board of UkrSibbank, spoke about key global trends in the economy and their impact on the state of the Ukrainian economy. The global director of external communications at Luxoft, Patrick Corcoran, shared the latest data on which IT-businesses are focusing on the largest amount of spending and made his forecast of how it will affect the IT-labor market. The results of the reports were discussed within the panel discussion which have been expanded by Taras Kitsmey, Co-founder of SoftServe; Dmitry Kushnir, Luxoft Vice President; Elena Tchaikovska, Chairman of the STEM-coalition in Ukraine. Moderator of the discussion was Andriy Suslenko, Head of Communication, Civil and Political School. The problem of human resource development and the shortage of specialists is one of the acute issues for the Ukrainian IT-industry, and the Forum’s organizers paid special attention to this topic. Within the “IT Education: Fundamentals of the Future” panel, Mike Hinchey, President of the International Federation for Data Processing and former Director of Software Development at NASA, shared his experience of engaging the young generation in IT on an example project that he successfully implemented in Ireland. Within the  the technical education panel, the results of the research of the IT Ukraine Association were presented, which gave answers to the questions that have long been of interest to the industry. During the study, 2,581 IT-specialists aged 18 to 36+ were interviewed from all over the country. Main results of the study:

• 50% of specialists work in Kyiv. The second place goes to Dnipro (14.7%), followed by Lviv (14.3%);
• Almost 60% of the specialists working in the field are from smll cities;
• Women account is just over a quarter of the total number of industry professionals;
• 54% of respondents began to work while studying in high schools;
• Almost 46% of Ukrainian IT-specialists have assessed their English skills at the Upper Intermediate level (above average);
• 36% of specialists do not have a diploma in higher technical education;
• The National Technical University Kyiv Polytechnic Institute prepares the largest number of IT-specialists – 19% of respondents come from this university;
• 40.2% of the polled specialists did not graduate from the leading Ukrainian higher educational institutions.

Representatives of business, educational institutions and government, including Yaroslav Prytula, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the Ukrainian Catholic University; Mike Hinchey, president of the International Federation for Data Processing; Eran Lasser, Co-founder of DAN.IT education; Tetyana Khryapina, Head of Development and Education at the GlobalLogic Ukraine; Yaroslav Lubinets, Chairman of Board in SoftServe; Volodymyr Kovtunets, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine; Yuriy Rashkevich, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine; Mykhailo Gryshchenko, Advisor to the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine on Digital Competence discussed the possibilities of developing human capital and the need for changes in the education system. “Today, many IT-companies have their own base for the development of their specialists. But if we want to grow a truly high-quality recruitment, business must clearly open the doors of its training centers for students and students interested in information technologies”, – commented Tetyana Khryapina, Head of Development and Education at GlobalLogic.  The forum also discussed the theme of ecosystems for the development of the IT-industry. How to combine the efforts of existing industrial associations in Ukraine and form a single goal? The participants in the panel discussion “Development of IT Ecosystems in Ukraine”, the moderator of which was Maryna Vyshehorodskikh, Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors of Ciklum Holdings, were looking for the answer.  Representatives of almost all major industrial associations of the country participated in the discussion: Oleksander Kubrakov, Executive Director of the IT Ukraine Association; Konstantin Vasyuk, Executive Director of the European Business Association IT-Committee; Andriy Biryukov, Executive Director of Hi-Tech Office Ukraine; Olha Afanasyeva, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Association of Venture and Private Capital; Natalia Vereemeyeva, Member of the Board of Kyiv IT-Cluster; Sofia Belenkova, Executive Director of Kharkiv IT-Cluster.  “One of the main tasks for all of the specialized IT-associations today is to coordinate efforts to promote the Ukrainian IT-industry on the international arena and to develop technical education”, summed up the moderator of the discussion, Marina Vyschehorodskikh.  “How do big customers look for their partners? The first criterion is the geographical position. The second is a country itself, its image. And then, if the first two positions are satisfying, they choose the company for cooperation. Therefore, the brand of the country is extremely important for the development of international trade, and therefore, the economy of this country. The main steps to be taken to build a strong brand of the Ukrainian IT-industry are uniting companies and forming a common position, developing industrial associations within the country, and establishing close contacts with foreign communities, forming a common portfolio of successful cases”, – said Carrie Hallard, President and CEO of the British Global Sourcing Association.  In addition, Mrs. Hallard moderated the panel discussion of successful case studies of domestic companies in dealing with international customers. Yaroslav Herman, Software Development Director at EPAM Systems, and Pavlo Tkachev, Information Technology Leader, British American Tobacco, were sharing their personal experience. The results of the Forum were summed up by Taras Kitsmey, Co-founder of SoftServe.  “Today, we talked a lot about Ukraine’s achievements in the field of information technology, the country’s success at the international level. It should be remembered that we only begin our great path to world recognition. Now we need to take care of the foundations for sustainable development of the industry: human capital, our most valuable resource; development of own opportunities, relations with those who are already our clients; to ensure the development of the internal market of IT-services; to establish good relations with the government”, – said Mr. Kitsmey.  At the end of the event, guests were invited to a buffet and easy conversation with the like-minded company.  We are grateful to all the partners, participants, speakers, media representatives for their contribution to the creation and organization of the Software Development Forum 5.0.  Speakers’ presentations can be downloaded by the link: https://goo.gl/e1C5sZ Photo storage for publication: https://goo.gl/oi1XoM  Organizer of Software Development Forum 5.0: IT Ukraine Association  Exclusive Partner: Miratech  Bank partner: UkrSibBank  Golden partners: EPAM Україна, GlobalLogic, SoftServe  Silver partners: Svitla Systems, Ciklum  Media partners: FOCUS, Ukraine Business Journal, Brain TV, Mind.UA, Hromadske, Liga.net  HR-partner: WORK.ua  The event was held thanks to Trading-industrial chamber of Ukraine, КParliamental Committee of informatization and telecommunication of Ukraine  Info partners: Kyiv IT Cluster, Dnipro IT Community, Kharkiv IT Community, Ivano-Frankivsk IT Cluster, Mykolaiv IT Cluster, Lviv IT Cluster, Vinnytsia IT Cluster, Cherkasy IT Cluster, Konotop IT Cluster, JBS, Lutsk IT Cluster, Bukovyna Innovative Technology Cluster, European Business Association, American Chamber of Commerce, Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, Export Promotion Office, Lawyer association of Ukraine, Association “Innovative growth of Ukraine”, Association of the open cities, Association of IT-enterprises of Ukraine, ITEM Conference, UNIT Factory, iHUB, Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, Lviv Business School, Hi-Tech Office Ukraine, Smart Agro Forum.