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Fourth industrial revolution has become the leitmotiv of Davos Economic Forum in 2016. Its main feature is combining computer technologies with achievements in biological research, as well as emerging new commercially profitable energy sources. G20, economically and technologically advanced countries, have become the basis of the new stage of global development.

Over the last 25 years, Ukraine has been overwhelmed with deindustrialization, whereas, revival of industrial potential is necessary to boost the level of GDP, as well as to create a foundation for new technologies. Policy of keeping of with technologically advanced countries is positive and keeps from sliding back to the status of a third world country, but it doesn’t ensure the prospect of becoming a member of the 4th industrial revolution. The panel discussion will focus around necessary changes in Ukraine’s further development in order to turn Ukraine’s industrial policy into industrial policy 4.0. 

By its territory, Ukraine is the largest country in Europe; it’s the fifth largest by the number of population. Agriculture and ore export make up the biggest part of Ukraine’s GDP under conditions of deindustrialization. Despite constant growth in the field of IT and other sectors of economy, its structure largely remains unchanged. An inside view on a country’s role in global politics and economy is often critical and impartial, or, on the contrary - overly positive, oriented at an uninformed person.

The panel discussion between foreign ambassadors will be around finding the role of Ukraine in global labor distribution.

This panel discussion will be represented by Ambassadors of USA, Canada, Israel, Turkey.

Innovation system and its connection to education is one of priority issues for panel discussion. Previous Forums, KIEF-2014 and KIEF-2015 discussed education as an element of economy, improvement of education system and its integration into the system of fundamental and applied science. Despite the fact that innovation system, which is effectively operating in the world’s developed countries, is not flawless in Ukraine, global development already puts forward the following tasks – integration of education, science and business in one closed, developing and improving process.

A challenge and the issue Number 1 is how to turn universities into real business units, where entire innovation development process would involve teaching a student, launching a start-up, creating a prototype, and selling a technology for batch production. In other words, the question is how to make combination of venture business and search for new start-ups in universities a permanent practice? Another issue is education amid fourth industrial revolution. ‘Economics of art’ has already found its place in the world’s top universities. So, what universities should remain in Ukraine and how will they change after reforms?

The world has changed rather dramatically over the past 100 years, having gone a long way from constitutional restrictions on women’s voting rights to a legal requirement to have at least 40% of women in parliaments and governments of the EU. The decisions made by women have long had a significant impact on practically all professional spheres. Their self-organization is often an example of the most advanced social leadership. Active role of women in the Ukrainian modern social life brings them to the forefront of solving the most crucial issues connected with further development of Ukraine. 

Bright and successful women will discuss the tasks and challenges associated with gender equality aspirations in Ukraine.

David Emtestam, First secretary at the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine will be a special guest of this discussion 

Discussions around ways to launch perspective economy sectors and special zones have brought light to the fact that creating a countrywide legislation is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to put the country on track of fast development. Export credit agency is an institution that is an obligatory element of different instruments to increase non-raw material export in any developed country. Ukraine has been creating such an institution for almost 20 years. The same could be said about a bank for development.

The state of affairs is a little better when it comes to industrial parks and other special zones on separately allocated territories. Changes to legislation introduced back in 2014-2015 made it possible to come to real actions, but establishment of zones with special business conditions and investment attraction has turned out to be a very slow process.

Thus, during the discussion, importance will be put on establishment of special institutions and mechanisms in Ukraine, which would help support the development of separate territories and sectors. 

The history of our society is inextricably linked with the passion of a person to avoid the rules of the game. Violators engage in corruption, dishonesty and outright bribery to get things done or for the sake of getting a high-ranking position.

In, corruption is one of the most significant factors that slow down the economic development of governments. First of all, corruption is the first proof of the poor management systems in public institutions, because bribery tends to flourish when institutions are weak. Bribes within the government decrease  resources that go into making a product or providing a service and  increase the cost of production for the end consumer. This means that the price of someone not living by the law is paid by the whole society and affects each citizen hurting economic development.

The experts will share their knowledge, best practices and methods of effective and civilized ways for overcoming corruption in Ukraine by refering to cases in EU, North America and Asia. The anti-corruption initiative leaders will try to find the successful institutional innovations that can rid Ukraine of unfair enrichment and economic stagnation.

Industrial potential is a precondition for shaping a postindustrial economy. Ukraine inherited a highly developed industry from the USSR. Many enterprises ended up with degradation of technologies, some of them were outstripped by foreign companies. However, there are enterprises and design offices in Ukraine with technologies competitive at international level.

How to advance technologies and boost competitiveness of economy sectors by upgrading the ‘old’ industry system? What should be done for the enterprises to incorporate into global labor distribution, preserving their technological advantage?

Pension costs to Ukrainians reach by 16% of GDP for today. As a result, there is a need to reform the social security system and to correlate working population to the three-level pension system. This should provide a balance in socially pension system, increase an active working age and reduce inappropriate expenses of public finances.

How can be useful for Ukraine a learning experience in pension reform of Chile and other countries? How to use pension funds for the economic development? What is the experience of leading countries in raising pension funds into the real economy sector? What is the link between pension reform and capital market reform? How can pension funds investment in the construction influence on the GDP growth and the economy in general?

One of the most burning issues for discussions in Ukraine is the country’s competitiveness and dependence of reforms success on the personality of a Head of executive and legislative branches of power.

Recent experience of other countries suggests that a leader plays the key role. He’s the one, who builds a team of adherents, finds a super idea, convinces a nation in its productivity and leads a country to success. Among symbols of successful reforms are Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Erhard in Germany, Ataturk in Turkey, Park Chung Hee in South Korea, Pinochet in Chile, Havel in the Czech Republic.

How much is foreign experience relevant for implementation of reforms in Ukraine? What kind of cooperation needs to be established between authorities and society, so that reforms are supported and their implementation is controlled by this society?

Devaluation of the national currency and other economic challenges slow down greatly development of the Ukrainian industry, affecting the competitive ability of the national producers in EU. The most effective way to recover the Ukrainian goods competitiveness in the global markets might be cooperation between IT-sector offers and industrial needs. Innovative manufacturing should be a main driver of the economic revival of the country.

Still national producers and IT-companies are unable to effectively cooperate because of the lack of the proper government attention to the industrial sector. Furthermore, they are not able either to search for and implement innovations through their own resources since the significant financial risks associated with such kind of projects. Although for the last two years Ukraine has been making attempts to develop innovation policy, however, the outcomes are minimal. Industrial startups funding remains still an open issue because of the absence of the venture investors and funds in Ukraine.

In view of this, it is crucial to discuss practice of corporate innovations, which would allow even the average Ukrainian company to access the innovative market.

One of National Bank’s major functions is to ensure stability of Ukraine’s national currency for the sake of price stability, inflation control and solvency. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, this is the only instrument stimulating economic growth. Collapse of Ukraine’s national currency back in 2014 demonstrated the Bank’s inefficiency to keep the national currency stable. Unwillingness to cooperate with the government and to resort to other initiatives to restore the real sector has caused further slide into the crisis, higher inflation and as a result – complete inability to use traditional mechanisms to influence the economy exclusively through regulation of money supply. Another function of Ukraine’s National Bank is supervision over the banking system, which is currently experiencing a profound transformation – 180 banks, operating at the beginning of 2014, have been reduced to 100. Although, it’s an unprecedented process, further liquidation and consolidation of banks is inevitable. The prospect of 50 banks remaining by the end of 2017 seems completely plausible.

How to turn the National Bank of Ukraine into an efficient mechanism of economic development from a dogmatic adherent of monetarism?

Нonorary guests and speakers, politicians and businessmen are invited to the  National Sanctuary Complex "Sophia of Kiev" at 7 PM, October 6.

*Participation is possible for only VIP package purchasers

Numerous political discussions on Ukraine's European integration determine a required and professional conversation with European partners on the one hand and prominent Ukrainian economists and business representatives on the other. What are the fastest ways for Ukraine to integrate into the European economic area? What is a European standard? What is competitiveness of the domestic economy and where are prospects for its further development? Where are the main gaps of the Ukrainian legislation? What are expectations of our Western partners?

Downturn of Ukraine’s economy can be perceived positively when it comes to a possibility of getting cheap assets prices. Ukraine’s industrial infrastructure is mostly outdated. However, investment into it can bring high capitalization, considering skillful and cheap labor force, Ukraine’s developed transportation channels, bordering on 4 EU member states and sea access to Turkey and Middle East.

Ukraine is on its turning point from deindustrialization to economy modernization. Ukraine’s fully open and globally integrated economy with valid Free Trade Agreement with the EU, Canada, Turkey and Israel is highly attractive to foreign investors, who are mostly interested in agriculture and infrastructure sectors. Despite military conflict in Donbas, foreign businesses are not going to leave Ukraine and increase their presence instead. Ukraine successfully uses its potential in information technologies, where outsourcing share amounts to billions of dollars and constantly rises. What are the ways of attracting investment in other sectors?

The Asian vector of development of Ukraine is close to us as never before. It does not exclude but rather amplify the Western direction of our global cooperation. To build a partnership with the East is the most current chance for modern Ukraine. It means, first of all, to promote domestic technologies, to struggle for Ukraine’s agricultural and industrial market, to promote Ukrainian education. Ukrainian specialists are interested in the experience of innovative development of Asian countries. How they did it? These issues will be discussed during our "Asian" panel.

Investments in Agribusiness. Profitable Growth Through Innovation

Ukrainian business needs investment, but, furthermore, foreign investment funds need more investment objects, since profitability in Ukrainian environment by far exceeds same figures for developed countries. The war and property protection issues are not an obstacle – there is a huge number of foreign institutions capable of operating in harsh environments of developing markets. However, currently the main problem is the inability of Ukrainian entrepreneurs to represent their companies and business ideas together with the inability of regional authorities to provide information and conditions on foreign investment penetration into local projects. Although, willingness of both parties to create new businesses removes these obstacles.  

International investment funds practice will give practical recommendations on how to get fast funding for your business, and will also offer to look at the activity of their institutions. Representatives of non-state reform institutions will clarify on weak points in regulation that still exist between an investor and Ukrainian companies, and explain how to fix it.

Ukraine is becoming less energy dependent; output in raw materials sectors is decreasing due to reduction in the import of energy resources. Meanwhile, energy generation sector doesn’t look very attractive to investors. Investment potential reaches USD 100 billion. However, having national monopolies in this sector, it is useless to expect considerable investment to come. Considering, that owners simply have no money, handing over the sector to strategic foreign investors would improve the situation.

Investment in renewable energy sources should be encouraged only if it stimulates the creation of new industry in Ukraine. Support and benefits prove to stimulate businesses much more than compulsion. An assumption, that market can boost industry or energy efficiency all by itself is a myth. Funds invested in energy efficiency of buildings must correlate with households’ income over a particular period of time. More importantly, active implementation of the law on energy servicing companies would cause an investment break-through. These are potential issues for the panel discussion.

Dallas Ballroom 1

Round Table №1: Metal industry and metalworking

Round Table №2: Agriculture and food production

Round Table №3: Agricultural engineering

Round Table №4: Education - Science - Business

Round Table №5: Energy efficiency, energy management and energy efficient equipment

Dallas Ballroom 2

Round Table №1: Construction and building materials

Round Table №2: IT and hi tech production

Round Table №3: Banking system, investment funds and financial services

Round Table №4: Export development and new markets

Round Table №5: Women in business 

While the program of the Kiev International Economic Forum is devoted mainly to strategic issues that will have medium- and long-term impact, we should also consider the prospects for the Ukrainian business in the nearest future. Having this in mind we arrange a separate panel discussion in a talk show format. Forum speakers will discuss hot issues. Is it possible at all to think about Industry 4.0 in Ukraine? What are our chances of becoming technologically developed country? What strategy should we choose? And what awaits Ukrainian business in the next five years?