Ukraines information technology industry is the worlds fifth largest and the fastest growing IT outsourcing services market.

The Ukrainian government actively supports industry growth through tax exemptions, and provides public financing for development of IT and innovation parks. The development of IT-industry is an important priority for the modernization of the national economy, Ukraines Vice Prime Minister Gryshchenko says.

also in this issue:

PACE Welcomes Ukraines Efforts on Path to Association with EU

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EuroBasket 2015: Countdown Has Begun

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Zlata Ognevich to host 2013 Junior Eurovision Song Contest

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Ukraine Digest, Thursday, October 3, 2013

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european integration

PACE welcomes Ukraines efforts on path to association with EU

group of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) welcomed the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to carry out reforms and create preconditions for the signing of an Association Agreement with the European Union, according to PACEs written declaration No. 554, signed by European lawmakers on October 1. We welcome the continuing efforts of the Ukrainian authorities towards the implementation of reforms undertaken to meet its obligations and commitments within the membership of the Council of Europe and the creation of preconditions for the signing the Association Agreement with the European Union, the document reads. The group of the PACE members said they were pleased to note that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted by a Constitutional majority a number of decisions on this way. Also, the PACE members mentioned the progress in the reform of the Prosecutors Office and the execution of court decisions. Particularly, they consider as a positive sign that the draft Law of Ukraine On amending the Constitution of Ukraine on Strengthening the Independence of Judges, which had received a positive opinion of the Venice Commission, was successfully included in the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada and submitted for the consideration of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. Reaffirming our full support for the signature of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in November 2013, we would like to urge all the Ukrainian authorities, political forces and the civil society to make maximum efforts to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union, the document said. The declaration was signed by parliamentarians from Moldova, the United Kingdom, Georgia, Spain, Romania, Latvia, Croatia, Armenia, Lithuania, Ireland, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria.

EU commissioner: Association Ukraine will face economic with Ukraine profitable for growth after signing European Union Association Agreement
our goods need expansion of sales, and your goods also will benefit from access to our vast market. After all, its capacity is about 10 times higher than that of Ukrainian, the Commissioner said. He added that the Association Agreement with Kyiv, the signing of which is scheduled for November, is also profitable for Russia. The agreement does not prevent Ukraine from developing constructive relations with the Customs Union and supporting free trade with the CIS countries, as well as deepening and expanding them to the extent that it meets the WTO rules and is not contrary to the mutual obligations with Brussels, Piebalgs said. UKRAINE should expect economic recovery after the signing of the Association Agreement and free trade area agreement with the EU. Such statement was released by one of the worlds leading specialists on Ukrainian economy, senior fellow of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, Anders Aslund. The number of foreign direct investments into Ukraine will increase and transform its economy, he stressed. It will be a complete transformation of Ukrainian economy, like the one we saw in Poland, said the economic transition expert. He compared the economy of both countries and noted that these were not

THE ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT with Ukraine is profitable for the European Union, as it will open the mutual access to commodity markets, European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs said at the economic conference in Essen (Germany). According to him, signing is profitable both for Kyiv and Brussels. The economic benefits are clear: EU has just begun to emerge from the crisis. In this situation,

just neighbouring states but their economies were also similar. The analyst believes that European investments will go into priority sectors of Ukrainian economy including the increase of production of goods and services while Ukrainian companies become subcontractors to the European ones. According to Aslund, Ukrainian IT sector will increase tremendously, while agricultural sector would experience the continuous development.
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Ukraine Digest, Thursday, October 3, 2013

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technology

IT is one of the most important sectors of economy, which Ukraine can compete in the world

kraines information technology (IT) industry is the worlds fifth largest and the fastest growing IT outsourcing services market. Since the year 2000 Ukraine has been a leading player in the software development space, and has been ranked at the top of IT outsourcing service providers in the global market. More and more companies come to Ukraine selecting it as a preferred destination for

financing for development of IT and innovation parks. Governmental support promotes industry growth and further expansion of the software development and IT outsourcing service ecosystem in 20122013. During the last decade Ukraine has been the leading provider of software development and IT outsourcing services in the Central and Eastern European region. Ukraine is ranked first in the volume of IT outsourcing and soft-

kraine pays special attention to the development of information technology and technologic business development. This was stated by Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko at the meeting with representatives of the leading IT companies Singularity University Labs, EMC, Intel, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Bosch, Apple, Infopulse Ukraine, Bionic Hills and others on September 27. An important priority for the modernization of the national economy is the development of innovation infrastructure of IT-industry in Ukraine, including educational component, as well as establishing strong tax preferences for high-tech companies and their experts, Vice Prime Minister said. Kostyantyn Gryshchenko convinced of the need to improve the quality of education in the IT sector and harmonization of the educational process to the needs of IT businesses. The number of experts in the field of information technologies in Ukraine at the beginning of 2013 was about 250 thousand, including 45 thousand are certified highly qualified specialists. We should create such opportunities for the development of IT industry, so that our experts can work in Ukraine Gryshchenko said. Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine urged leading IT-companies develop training programs in cooperation with Ukrainian universities actively.

Ukraine ranked at the top of IT outsourcing service providers in the global market their R&D offices. Strong engineering education, popularity of engineering professions among the youth, and rich history of the software development industry make Ukraine one of the most attractive Europe destinations for the IT outsourcing and software development businesses. The history of Ukraines software development industry is deeply rooted. Officially, December 25, 1951 is considered as the beginning of the computer science era when the Ukrainian academician from Kyiv, Sergey Lebedev, introduced the first computer in the entire Continental Europe. A rapid growth of the industry was recorded in the middle of 1990s, when a large number of independent software development companies emerged. Based on a 60 plus year history of the extensive network of educational and scientific constitutions, the Ukrainian software development and IT outsourcing services industry is rapidly developing into one of the most important sectors of the Ukrainian economy. The Ukrainian government actively supports industry growth through tax exemptions, and provides public

ware development services provided, in the number of IT specialists working in the industry, and in the number of IT graduates. The post crisis effects have been overcome, the industry is developing at a rapid pace of 20% - 25% growth a year while new companies are opening their R&D offices in Ukraine. After the recent tax exemption legislation for software development companies has been accepted, such global vendors as Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Huawei expressed interest in establishing R&D centres in Ukraine. The industry actively penetrates into different regions. All leading companies are extending their office networks to the main regional centres. A range of new companies appeared in so-called unpopular regions. These are large industrial and cultural centres such as Chernigiv, Kirovograd, IvanoFrankivsk, Sumy, Ternopil, Zhitomyr, Luhansk, Lutsk, Poltava, Khmelnitskiy, where there were no appreciable companies until recently. Ukraine still boasts the most impressive gap in Europe between GDP per capita in the country and GDP per capita in the software development industry. This could be an important economic incentive for specialists and businessmen to enter the profitable and well-paid market of software development and IT outsourcing services.
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Ukraine Digest, Thursday, October 3, 2013

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EuroBasket 2015:
countdown has begun

sport

he countdown for EuroBasket 2015 officially started for Ukraine after the FIBA Europe leadership made public the Ukrainian logo and visual identity of EuroBasket 2015 on Sunday, at a special ceremony and press conference at Stozice Arena in Ljubljana, a few hours before the EuroBasket 2013 medal games. It was a colorful transformer basketball. When assembled, it reminds one of a Cossack dancing the national hopak. EuroBasket 2015 qualifiers will be held in six Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa. There will be teams from 24 European countries that will have to play 90 games within 20 days. Ukraines male team appears to have started the big holiday by placing sixth in the current European championships, contrary to all basketball moguls and even team coaches expectations, receiving the entrance ticket to the Big League, EuroBasket 2014 in Spain, for the first time in 21 years of independent national basketball. Now it is up to the Ukrainian government to keep up the good job. Oleksandr Vilkul, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, said during the launch ceremony that

every effort would be exerted to make it the most spectacular European basketball championships. We are building state-of-theart sports arenas that will create a new cluster in Ukraines economy after EuroBasket 2015. These facilities will accommodate more than 100 kinds of sport, said Vilkul, adding that nine training grounds will be built with central budget money, including three such fully equipped facilities for the Ukrainian national team training in all kinds of sport, and six ones for junior sports schools. Slovenia says EuroBasket 2013 has cost it 26 million euros. Ukraine is up for considerably larger expenditures. Cabinet estimates point to 7.5 billion hryvnias including some 3.4 billions worth of construction of modern runways at Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk air terminals; 1.4 billions worth of development of infrastructures in the EuroBasket host cities. Four private investors have signed up for the project. The Cabinet expects some one million fans to attend EuroBasket 2015. The finals will be held in Kyiv, with two prestigious companies United Basketball Investments and DeVision competing for the construction of sports fa-

Ukraines government expects some one million fans to attend EuroBasket 2015

EuroBasket 2015 qualifiers will be held in six Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa.

cilities. Vilkul says it has been agreed with the FIBA Europe leadership that the finals will be held in Kyiv, using the sports facility that will have been built by UBI, and that the second one will accommodate the semifinals. There is no secret about Ukraine being under the obligation to build sports arenas in six cities. Thats a lot, but it can be done Well closely watch what is being done You can rest assured that we will let no risks passed unnoticed, FIBA Europe Secretary General Kamil Novak told The Day newspaper. He is sure that Ukraine will organize the best tournament in the history of basketball, in 2015. In August this year, Ukraine hosted the U16 European Championship Men, demonstrating the highest level of organization. Now the national team of Ukraine has become a major sensation at EuroBasket 2013 and jumped into elite ranks of European basketball. Ukraine made everybody in Europe talk about its success. In two years, our national team will be even stronger for the EuroBasket hosted in our Ukrainian cities. I am convinced that EuroBasket 2015 will be the best in history, Olympic champion and FBU President Oleksandr Volkov told The Day newspaper, adding that there are some 100,000 children playing basketball in Ukraine.
www.UkraineDigest.co.uk

history

o mark the 160th anniversary since the start of the Crimean War, nearly 150 history enthusiasts from Belarus, France, Great Britain, Russia and Ukraine gathered in Vilino village for the International Military and Historical Festival The Battle of the Alma. Participants reenacted what is considered to be the first battle of the Crimean War took place just south of the Alma River in the Crimea. Previously Ukraine Digest reported on the Balaklava Battle of 1854 reconstruction, which was held in Sebastopol. On July 6 Prince Michael of Kent, who was visiting
culture

Ukraine this summer, witnessed such military and historical festival with more than 150 volunteers in uniform of XIX century. These reconstructions are parts of a series of events held in Ukraine and the UK to celebrate the common historic

heritage, which is the Crimean War (1853-1856). Another vivid project in this field is the monument to the nurse of creole origin Mary Seacole, which will be erected in London in 2015 to reflect the link between this brave woman and our

country. On September 9-13 Martin Jennings, famous British sculptor, traced the historic places in Crimea associated with the nurse Mary Seacole, the first woman who entered the city of Sebastopol to treat troops from both sides.

Zlata to host 2013 Junior Eurovision

The wait is over: Host broadcaster NTU of Ukraine have finally revealed the hosts of the 2013 Junior Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Ukraine: Timur Miroshnychenko and Zlata Ognevich. Junior Eurovision Song Contest host Timur Miroshnychenko is a familiar name in the world of Eurovision as he is a Eurovision Song Contest commentator and also hosted the international final of JESC in Kyiv with Ani Lorak in 2009. Stunning co-host Zlata Ognevich is well known for her performance of the memorable song Gravity on the big stage of Malmo Arena for the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2013. It was an immediate favourite that saw her triumphantly bring third prize home to Ukraine. Host nation Ukraine have not only declared 2013 the Year of Childrens Creativity in their country but are now applying it to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest as Be Creative! Zlata: Ukraine has so many gifted children and people who are always willing to show the beauty and richness of Ukrainian culture through their dances, songs, paintings. What we can show our guests is our big heart, our hospitality and our talent. Be creative! perfectly reflects us. The 2013 JESC will be held on November 30 at the National Palace of Arts Ukraina in Kyiv. It is the 2nd time that Kyiv and Ukraine will be hosting the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

For more information, please, contact Oksana Kyzyma, Press Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine to the UK Issue #23, October 3, 2013

Tel.: 020 7727 6312 E-mail: press@ukremb.org.uk Address: 60 Holland Park, London W11 3SJ

In the preparation of this issue materials of UKRINFORM, WNU, The Day newspaper were used

ukrinform.ua

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Battle of Alma erupts again in Crimea