The number of IT specialists working in Ukraine in 2023 increased by about 2.7% to 346.2 thousand people, according to the research Digital Tiger: the Power of Ukrainian IT, prepared by the IT Association.
Executive Director of IT Ukraine Association Maria Shevchuk specified that such statistical data were provided at the request of IT-Association and the Ministry of Digital Transformation by the State Statistics Service.
“At the same time, the same IT specialist can be an individual entrepreneur (FOP), a salaried employee employed in the staff of an IT company, and a specialist working under a gig contract. This duplication is not reflected in the statistics figures,” Shevchuk specified.
According to the research data, the biggest growth was observed among specialists working in IT on gig-contract. Their number in 2023 increased by 3.9 times – up to 23.2 thousand. At the same time, the number of specialists registered as entrepreneurs (FOP) decreased to 265 thousand against 272.8 thousand in 2022.
The study points out that there are no new data on the number of employees employed in the staff of IT companies for 2023, but in 2022 their number reached 58.1 thousand people.
In general, for five years from 2018 to 2023, the growth in the number of IT-specialists in Ukraine amounted to 78.4%, stated in the study Digital Tiger: the Power of Ukrainian IT.
The number of taxes paid by the IT industry in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion has decreased – according to the data given in the study as of January 1, 2022, $1.018 billion was paid, January 1, 2023 – $996.7 million, January 1, 2024 – $982.6 million.
The number of M&A deals in IT in 2022 decreased from 19 for $146 million to 11 for $161.2 million in 2023.
IT in Ukraine remains an important partner for foreign companies despite the ongoing war, said Stepan Mitish, vice president of EPAM Ukraine, at the presentation of the study.
“When our clients need to do something impossible, they go to Ukraine, against all odds. With all due respect to other countries and nationalities, but Ukrainians are about creativity, about knowledge and technology, result-oriented, indestructible and productive, which the last two years have proven,” Mitish said.
As an example, he cited US-based MedTech, which specializes in healthcare products. According to him, the company, realizing “the uniqueness of Ukrainian talents,” increased the size of its team from 25 to 200 people during the two years of full-scale invasion. Mitish did not specify the name of the company.
Ukraine has fulfilled all obligations for the third revision of the EFF extended financing program and expects a positive decision by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the allocation of the fourth tranche of about $900 million in the near future, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said.
“We are expecting a meeting of the board of the International Monetary Fund in the near future. It seems to me that the date of such a meeting is planned for March 21, at which a decision on Ukraine will be made,” he said on the national telethon.
According to Marchenko, these funds will be received immediately after a successful discussion at the Executive Board.
“So far we are fulfilling all our obligations. And I don’t see any particular problems for us to continue to fulfill these obligations in 2024,” the Minister of Finance emphasized, predicting further cooperation with the IMF under the EFF program.
He also noted that Ukraine still considers the basic option of receiving direct budget support from the United States this year, about which it receives constant assurances from the American side.
“We hope that a solution will be found in the lower house (of the U.S. Congress). There is now every reason for this. We hope that direct budget support will continue, this is important for cooperation with the IMF, for forming a pool of partners,” Marchenko said.
Polling stations in India, the world’s largest democracy, will open on April 19, CNN reported Saturday, citing the election commissioner.
An estimated 960 million people in the country of 1.4 billion are eligible to vote in the widely expected election, which will take a month to complete. Voting will take place in seven phases across the country and will conclude on June 1. Indians will vote for 543 seats in the 545-seat lower house of parliament, called the Lok Sabha, with the other two seats in the chamber appointed by the president.
All votes – from the country’s 28 states and eight union territories – will be counted on June 4, the commission said at a news conference in New Delhi. According to the Election Commission, 968.8 million people have registered to vote in the 2024 elections, up 6 percent from 2019.
Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (People’s Party of India, BJP) party is expected to gain another five years in power, governing an India that has become increasingly polarized along religious lines.
Under Modi’s leadership, India is poised to become a 21st-century power as its economy grows rapidly. But the populist leader, analysts say, has tightened his grip on the country’s democratic institutions, something not seen since the 1970s under Indira Gandhi’s iron-fisted rule. Minorities feel persecuted by the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist policies, and dissent is suppressed.
Modi is opposed by the main opposition Indian National Congress, which has ruled the country for 77 years since independence and last year formed an alliance with other parties. The Indian National Inclusive Development Alliance, or INDIA, was an important step for the opposition as it tries to regain national prominence. But cracks have already appeared in the alliance and it has yet to nominate a candidate for prime minister, lacking anyone with the stardom and appeal of Modi.
The prime minister’s calendar last year included diplomatic trips to Australia and the United States, where he appeared as a statesman cementing the country as a modern world power.
In August, India made history by soft landing a rover on the moon, becoming the fourth country to do so. A few weeks later, it launched its first spacecraft designed to study the Sun.
In September, India hosted the Group of 20 (G20), giving New Delhi an opportunity to extend its leadership beyond the country’s borders at a time of growing political instability.
In January this year, Modi gave an unofficial kick-start to his election campaign by inaugurating the controversial Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, a Hindu temple in the holy city of Ayodhya that was built on the site of the demolished Babri mosque.
Modi’s BJP won 303 seats in Parliament in 2019, crossing the 272-seat threshold required for an absolute majority and dealing a humiliating blow to the Congress party. Earlier, think tank Experts Club presented an analysis on the most important elections in countries around the world in 2024, more video analysis is available here -.
The state cashback program “Buy Ukrainian” is 100% ready, but will be presented after March 28, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma said at KIEF TALKS on Friday.
“I’m not going to tell you the details of this program right now, not because it doesn’t exist. It is 100% complete. I would tell you if today was March 28. If there were a couple of international meetings where questions could arise,” Shurma said.
Outlining the basic principles, he pointed out that people will receive “decent cashback” for buying local goods. At the same time, the methodology by which a product can be classified as a local product has also been developed.
Mr. Shurma clarified that the program provides for mandatory cashless payments with a fiscal check. In addition, the seller must be a taxpayer under the general taxation system.
As reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the launch of the Buy Ukrainian cashback program, under which Ukrainian citizens will be able to receive compensation for part of the payment for Ukrainian goods and services.
“For the purchase of certain types of goods and services made in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens will be able to receive a refund of part of the money on a special card,” the president explained.
In February, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said that it would take about three months to develop the documents necessary to implement the program.
Earlier it was reported that the state budget for 2024 envisages UAH 45 billion for various business support programs, but there is no cashback program among them. In addition, according to media reports, the government’s debt under the largest of the state programs – partial compensation of the 5-7-9 interest rate – is currently about UAH 7 billion.
Ukraine’s trade deficit in 2023 amounted to $37.7 billion, mainly due to a widening of the negative balance of trade in goods: both due to a decrease in exports and an increase in imports.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has included two industrial parks in Lviv and Rivne regions in the Register of Industrial Parks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“Today we are making a decision to create two more industrial parks,” the Prime Minister said at a government meeting on Friday.
According to him, the park in Rivne region is being created with a specialization in industrial processing. It is expected to create 1,400 jobs and invest over UAH 1 billion.
The park in Lviv region will specialize in the processing industry “with a special emphasis on furniture production.” Investments will amount to more than UAH 2 billion. More than 2,000 new jobs are expected to be created.
“Over the past six months, we have seen progress in the creation of new industrial parks. UAH 1 billion has been budgeted for their development this year,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, clarified in Telegram that the Industrial Park Boryslav was included in the Register of Industrial Parks in Lviv region.
In addition, the Ministry of Economy reported on Friday that the Yadro Industri industrial park in Drohobych (Lviv region) has received a management company, which is Drohobych Miskbud LLC.
“The agreement on the establishment and operation of the Yadro Industrial Park was concluded between Facade West LLC and Drohobych Miskbud LLC on March 11, 2024,” the statement said.
As reported, Yadro Industrial Park was included in the Register of Industrial Parks at the end of December 2023, initiated by Facade-Zakhid LLC, which plans to invest over UAH 561 million in its development.
It is planned to create about 500 jobs in the industrial cluster, with window production as one of its key production types.
At a meeting on Friday, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to exclude four industrial parks from the Register of Industrial Parks, Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, said on Telegram.
According to him, the First Ukrainian Industrial Park, BIONIC Hill, AzovAquaInvest, and Energia were excluded from the Register on the grounds of “failure to submit reports on the functioning of the industrial park to the state body for two consecutive reporting periods and failure to conclude an agreement on the creation and operation of the industrial park within two years from the date of the decision to create it.”
As reported, the First Ukrainian Industrial Park (Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv region) and Bionic Hill (Kyiv) were included in the Register of Industrial Parks in 2016, Energia (Mykolaiv) in 2018, and AzovAquaInvest (Mariupol, Donetsk region) in February 2019.
