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36% for Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, c-commerce now accounts for 8% of sales. In Eastern Europe this figure is 10%. Grocery e-commerce has doubled this year in Ukraine. Maria Milashevich, a Euromonitor consultant, told a webinar last week that 55% of respondents to a company survey said the Covid pandemic has forever changed shopping and e-commerce will continue to grow.
Dozens of Belarusian IT companies and at least 2,000 Belarusian workers have moved to Ukraine in the three months ​since Alexander Lukashenko violently cracked down on post-election protests, according to Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry. The moves include hundreds of workers for Wargaming, developer of such world famous online games as World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Warplanes, Oleksandr Borniakov writes on Facebook. With Lukashenko determined to cling to power, 45% of Belarussian start-ups surveyed by Imaguru say they plan to leave. One year ago, the IT industry in Belarus, employed 55,000 people, accounted for 22% of exports, and six% of GDP. In addition to the police violence since the Aug. 9 presidential election, there have been regular Internet shutoffs, losses of service that cost the industrymns of dollars and several damage its reputation for reliability.
Next year, foreign investors will be able to take advantage of ‘Diya.City’ – “a virtual free economic zone​,” Prime Minister Shmyhal told foreign ambassadors Wednesday. “favourable tax rates, no bureaucracy, a convenient digital platform for doing business and getting all the necessary services online – these are the advantages of the project ‘Diya.City,'” he said of an investment regime the government wants to push through the Rada this fall. In addition, the government plans to open a single investment window – ‘Invest in Ukraine’ – and to win Rada approval of the ‘investment nanny’ project.
First large-scale data center worth $1 billion to be built in Ukraine. ​The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and international technology holding TECHIIA signed a memorandum of cooperation on the development of the Information Technology industry, construction of data centers, development of esports, and STEM education. It also envisages the building of the first large-scale technology project in Ukraine, which solves the global problem of high-speed data processing. This cooperation implies the implementation of the Ecotechnopark project in the Kherson region. In its core lies the construction of a data center with a capacity of up to 500 MW, which will perform the functions of storage, data processing, and 3D-rendering, reads the TECHIIA press release. It’s planned to attract at least $200 million in infrastructure investments for the implementation of the first phase of the project. The data center will maintain the equipment worth about $1 billion. And at least 200 jobs will be created.
TECHIIA is prepared to invest the first $15mn and is looking for investors for the first $200mn phase​. Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last week at the project’s announcement, with TECHIIA Managing Partner Yura Lazebnikov: “The construction of such a powerful data centre will allow Ukraine to provide high-speed data processing services and create new jobs. I am confident that our country is able to become the most powerful IT hub in Central and Eastern Europe.”
All state services will be digital, paperless by 2021, Zelensky says.​President Zelensky told a digital technology summit on Oct. 5 that he is
60​ UKRAINE Country Report​ November 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com