By 2021, the first Ukrainian innovation park, UNIT.City (a project of UFuture), will be built at 20%, and the amount of investment in it will reach 245 million euros.
“UNIT.City must integrate into the international innovation ecosystem. To do this, we are ready to actively invest in the project, attract global technological leaders, and interact with global financial institutions. The park has reached a new level and is an understandable partner for key industry players,” Vasyl Khmelnytsky, Founder of UFuture, said.
Today, about EUR50 million have been invested in the innovation park and 36 thousand square meters of infrastructure have been built. Three campuses, an IT-school for gifted youth, UNIT Factory, coworking Chasopys.UNIT, a free sports complex and several cafes have been opened. By the end of this year, EUR70 million will be invested in the construction of two business campuses and the first phase of UNIT.Home with a total area of 60 thousand square meters. The construction of five new business campuses, the second phase of UNIT.Home, and a school (with a total area of 110 thousand square meters) is planned to start next year with EUR125 million of investments. Thus, a fifth part of the territory of the innovation park will be built.
According to UNIT.City’s CEO Dominique Piotet, in 2020, comfortable conditions for 150 resident companies as well as for education of more than 1,200 students will be created in the innovation park. Partnership with two of the world’s leading universities is planned. Five venture capital funds, eight laboratories, and ten accelerators are expected to operate in UNIT.City next year. The top manager hopes that international events such as Web Summit, IT Arena, CES, and Davos will be held at UNIT.City in 2020.
“My goal is to ensure that in 2025, when 90% of UNIT.City is built, the world appreciates Ukraine no longer for outsourcing, but for the high quality of innovations, startups. I would like the world to perceive our ecosystem as a place where ideas grow into world-famous companies. Where billion-dollar unicorn startups appear. I would like the next Tesla or iPhone to be born here in UNIT.City,” Dominique Piotet said.
The symbol of the “New Era” of the innovation park’s development is the opening of the unique “Beacon” art object at UNIT.City square. With the onset of darkness, light gradually rises along the two sides of a 60-meter factory pipe lighting a bright beam at the top. The diameter of its base is 3.5 m, and the length can reach 100 meters.
Inside the art object, a dome screen and a projection system were installed by a Ukrainian company, developer of visual solutions and technologies for planetariums and museums, Front Pictures. The image on the screen is being created by four projectors under the control of the Screenberry media server. The planetarium can be controlled remotely through the application on the tablet. “Beacon” was designed by a British artist, Sebastian Kite. The concept of the project was implemented by UDP development company.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
UFuture is a holding company of Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky that integrates his business and impact-investment projects. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets in real estate, industry, infrastructure, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and IT. As of today, UFuture’s assets are estimated at $550 million with total capitalization of the businesses invested in exceeding $1 billion.
UNIT.City is Ukraine’s first innovation park. It is the location where matchless infrastructure and all-inclusive ecosystem enable high technology, innovative and creative businesses to happen and flourish. The goal is to become the center of innovations and a one-point entry into Ukraine for investors, partners and new technology from all over the world. The mission of UNIT.City is to create a unique innovation platform where advanced companies, start-ups and mavens get an opportunity to cross paths and work together ramping up their growth.
Number of unemployed in Ukraine in 2018-2019
Investment of human capital in national wealth in Ukraine is much lower than in European countries, according to a report of the World Bank.
According to the World Bank’s study of the sphere of education in Ukraine, investment of human capital into national wealth in Ukraine is 34% of total national wealth. For comparison, in low-income countries this indicator is 41%, in Europe and Central Asia – 62%, and on average around the world – 64%.
The World Bank said that in Ukraine the percentage of people with higher education is more than 80%, which exceeds the figures of the EU (68%) and countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (74%), but the level of functional literacy among adults is behind indicators of these countries.
In addition, it is said that in Ukraine, there is a gap between education and employment, especially among young university graduates.
Other areas of concern include: unequal access to schooling, a gap in education among students in urban and rural schools, and less likely that graduates from rural schools will go to higher education (40% of graduates from rural schools compared to 70% of graduates in cities).
The World Bank said that about 50% of Ukrainians do not believe that secondary education provides everyone with the same opportunity of studying for free, and 70% believe that corruption in higher education is very common.
At the same time, according to the World Bank, Ukraine spends 6% of GDP on education, which is significantly more than in OECD countries (4.4%).
Among other things, the World Bank said that Ukraine has a too wide network of schools and universities, which is one of the reasons for the high level of expenses. There are 11 students per teacher in Ukraine, and in the OECD countries this indicator averages 13.1.
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, HUMAN CAPITAL, INVESTMENT, NATIONAL WEALTH
The number of employed IT specialists in line with the Labor Code of Ukraine is 2-3%, and the rest of IT specialist work as private entrepreneurs or under a contract, Vice President for Strategy and Technologies at GlobalLogic Ukraine Andriy Yavorsky has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, this situation has arisen due to high taxes in official employment – more than 40%.
“In the current international market, this kind of tax burden is greater than in Poland, and in fact comparable to Germany. It is clear why Poland sets such prices. It is in the same legislative field with Europe, in the same legal field. There are requirements to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there are no borders, good infrastructure, while Ukraine is perceived in this respect as a country that should be “cheaper.” So what’s the point of paying such money in Ukraine when it can be spent without risks on specialists in America or Europe? And this forces companies to collaborate with specialists working as private entrepreneurs,” he said.
Yavorsky said that in order to accelerate the process of transition from an outsourcing model to a product model in Ukraine, the country needs reforms in economic policy and legislative acts.
“We need engineers, capital and entrepreneurs. At least we have good engineers. In order for capital to appear, we need reforms in economic policy and legislative acts,” the top manager said.
According to Yavorsky, for entrepreneurs to appear, it is necessary to create conditions that will allow them to stop their outflow abroad. “When Ukraine has a stable economic policy and the possibility of raising capital, our entrepreneurs will return and will be able to build a lot, already within and for the benefit of their own country,” he said.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group, which on September 17 announced an offer to buy back $440 million eurobonds from the $944.515 million issue with maturity in 2023 and a 7.75% coupon and issue new bonds, has received bids for buyback from eurobond holders for $639.391 million. “The estimated scaling factor is approximately 71.265%,” Metinvest reported on the Irish Stock Exchange. According to the terms of the offer, other eurobond holders can still apply for redemption until October 15, inclusive, but they will no longer receive a 3% premium for early applications.
“The purpose of the offer is the proactive management of debt repayment, extending the maturity of the debt and reducing refinancing risks,” Metinvest said.
The buyback price for those who agree to sell before September 30 is 106% of the face value plus accrued interest.
The pricing of new eurobonds is preliminarily scheduled for October 1, the results of the offer are summarized on around October 16 in order to carry out all settlements on October 17.
A source in banking circles told Interfax-Ukraine that Metinvest had held meetings with investors in the United States, Great Britain and continental Europe from September 18 to September 27. The organizers are Deutsche Bank, Natixis and UniCredit. The company intends to place dollar-denominated eurobonds with a maturity of eight to ten years, and will also consider the possibility of a tranche in euros for five to seven years.
Ukraine’s GDP growth will reach 3.2% in 2020 with a further acceleration to 3.6% in 2021, Morgan Stanley predicts.
Since the prospect of land reform is becoming more defined, the bank is raising its forecast for the economic growth of Ukraine and the hryvnia exchange rate. Now it expects GDP growth by 3.2% in 2020 with a further acceleration to 3.6% of GDP in 2021. The bankers also forecast the hryvnia exchange rate of UAH 26.5/$1 at the end of 2019 and UAH 27.5/$1 by the end of 2020.
According to the report, Morgan Stanley also expects the first tranche from the International Monetary Fund for Ukraine before the end of this year, which could follow the adoption of the law on the national budget of Ukraine for 2020.
