Speaker
Hi-tech development in Ukraine is hampered by the lack of innovative infrastructure. At the same time, the country has big chance of making a breakthrough, if it chooses digital economy as one of the main priorities. But Ukraine has problems with all the digital agenda attributes:
• The market of digital services is underdeveloped.
• Digital society lags behind in digital skills, hi-tech usage in healthcare, and overall low level of trust in e-services.
• Lack of broadband Internet access, inchoate 3G penetration level and absence of 4G, no-digital zones.
• Low level of trust in e-government services, total prevalence of paper document flow, lack of transparency.
• Science orientation at a raw material economy, brain drain, low science financing, no venture financing.
All these problems hamper the development of hi-tech product companies. Successful Ukrainian hi-tech companies are focused on IT outsourcing, but not end products.
Issues to be discussed:
• Which tasks should the Government and Parliament accomplish to help develop digital economy?
• How should we change Ukraine's economy for hi-tech to permeate in all areas?
• What are the possible ways of innovative ecosystem development in Ukraine?
• What is the influence of the Digital Agenda on the economy and society?
• What hampers the development of e-market, ICT infrastructure, research centers, e-government?
• What are the global trends in making of innovative products?
• How the country may help to attract strategic investors?
• Can Ukraine replicate experience of creating "Silicon Valleys"?
• How to use the opportunities provided by the EU, in particular, by the Horizon 2020 program?