On November 16, at 13:30 a round table/panel discussion “Development and Advancement of Science and Innovation Policies – the Role of the State” organized by Washington-based StrategEast Center took place at Hyatt Regency Kyiv (5, Alla Tarasova St.). The Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom and Trade Envoy to Georgia and Armenia Mr. Mark Pritchard, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Mr. Yuriy Brovchenko and the Member of Parliament of Ukraine Mr. Serhiy Taruta took part in the discussion. The moderator of the event was StrategEast CEO, Amb. Michael Brodsky.
StrategEast sees its mission in establishing strong ties between politicians, business leaders, representatives of the scientific community from countries that have proclaimed or restored their independence after the collapse of the USSR and their counterparts from Western countries and the United States. And today’s round table was the best way to promote our goals – UK and Ukrainian officials have discussed a common future – how these countries will coexist in a new economy – the knowledge economy, an economy based on scientific achievements.
We see a huge unrealized potential for innovation development in Ukraine, and therefore we have invited a public official from UK – a country with one of the most innovative economies in the world. Mr Pritchard indicated that “technology is a means of transforming society and its path for the international common good.”
The IT sector, which StrategEast pays particular attention to in its Global Minds Initiative program, is developing dynamically in Ukraine. But the role of the state in this development is insignificant. We can say that so far the Ukrainian state has not prevented this innovative sphere from developing. But we want more – we want to create the best conditions for an innovative economy in Ukraine as well as in other post-Soviet countries. We want to ensure that local IT specialists do not just perform service functions for Western companies while working on outsourcing, but they also create their own advanced products for the whole world. We want Ukraine not only receive the salaries of Ukrainian specialists, we also want the added value created by them to remain in the country. And we want to contribute to stopping highly skilled professionals leaving Ukraine in order to give them the opportunity to realize their potential here.
The question of which steps the state should take for this was the topic of discussion at the round table. Mark Pritchard shared British experience – how the relationship between the state and IT companies is built, which actions the state takes to attract investment in the industry. And Ukrainian politicians – Yuriy Brovchenko on behalf of the executive branch and Serhiy Taruta – from the legislative branch – outlined their vision of which steps should be taken in the near future for Ukraine to transform Ukraine’s “educated people” into an innovation development center. Mr. Taruta, is convinced that Ukraine’s scientific potential is extremely high, but Ukraine has never had a clearly defined development strategy which would enable to fully implement the country’s innovative capacity.
Among the participants of the roundtable were representatives of NGOs and think tanks, who paid attention to the main challenges of the present in the industry discussed, as well as representatives of diplomatic missions and embassies of foreign states in Ukraine.
Photo credit: Alexander Kozachenko
