Roundtable at the US Embassy: first results
IT ClusterOn November 17 working group for International Relations of Kharkiv IT Cluster visited the Roundtable on supporting entrepreneurs in Ukraine, organized by the US Embassy and the US-Ukraine Business Council. The meeting was dedicated to the International Day of Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Week in the Americas.
During his meeting, US Ambassador Jeffrey Payette said that Ukraine has a great human capital, which gives the country’s prospects and growth potential. A special contribution to the economy is doing IT-industry, to which he paid special attention at the meeting.
Nadezhda Vasilieva, CEO of Microsoft Ukraine, noted some of the problems, particularly the lack of constructed ecosystems as well as the total prevalence of outsourcing to creating their own product. Ukrainian IT companies and foreign investors need to encourage the development of start-up movement in Ukraine. Nadezhda also talked about the training of a new generation of IT-professionals in cooperation with universities. She also noted the need to develop not only technical but also entrepreneurial skills of IT-specialists. Microsoft will focus on it in the near future. Until 2020, their top priority is to train as much as possible representatives of small and medium-sized businesses to help them create large corporations in Ukraine.
Kharkiv IT Cluster drew attention to the most important issues for us: Removing Security Alert status from Kharkov region. After the talks, the next step will be a joint letter.