Poland has always been one of Ukraine's friendliest European Union allies. Its ties with Ukrainian technology market have not gotten as much publicity, however.
Michal Boni, a European Parliament member and Poland’s former minister of administration and digitization, says that Ukrainian technology needs better promotion, so that the EU countries see the sector as a strong and reliable partner and wish to invest in it.
Throughout 2014, Boni was involved in communication with the Ukrainian government on adapting the Polish e-governance experience to Ukraine.
Since June, Boni had meetings with Volodymyr Groysman, then deputy prime minister, and provided him with recommendations. With Groysman, he presented a set of principles for successful e-governance.
With Boni’s support, the Ukrainian delegation attended the Digital Europe conference organized by the European Commission in Brussels in September.
Recently, Boni visited Ukrainian startups in Kyiv’s co-working space iHUB to talk about the Ukrainian tech sector development and startup opportunities in Europe.
According to Boni, Poland is interested in cooperation with Ukrainian tech community. However, the two industries could be closer partners.
“Biggest problem within Europe is the fragmentation of business communities between the countries. They are all diverse and disintegrated, while the biggest added value for a digital society is the possibility of convenient cooperation between each other,” Boni says.
In June, he launched an initiative of a startup competition – Hackathon Bridge. It aimed to support creating startups with Polish-Ukrainian teams. In the end, three winners have been granted 10,000 euros each for their further development.
The prize fund of 30,000 euros has been collected by Boni with the support of Polish banks and investment funds. Boni says that managing such projects is not so easy. “I want to spread the word about the importance of such initiatives among all the European Parliament members, just so they also do similar projects necessary for the startup community development.”
Boni emphasized that startups can form a powerful channel for future cooperation between Poland and Ukraine. The economical partnership between the countries should grow out of strong international networks of small and medium enterprises.
“It doesn’t matter if governments of the countries are involved in this less or more. Close ties between any kinds of businesses evolve due to cooperation between businesses themselves,” he believes.
To urge European as well as Polish investors to come to Ukraine, they should be invited more frequently to open events such as hackathons, competitions and conferences. There should also be more startup development and co-working centers built in the region. This would draw more attention to tech initiatives throughout the country, not only in the capital.
According to Boni, well-developed startup ecosystem and healthy conditions for cooperation between stakeholders are the things that will attract investors automatically once they are present in Ukraine.
Boni also believes that a startup visa program will become an essential step for fostering communications between Ukrainian and Polish startup communities. It would include easier application process as well as possibility of long-term stay without the need to re-apply for visa often.
Boni says that it is a matter of several months when startup visa program can be finally launched. “The visa regime should be simplified for the startups, not cancelled though,” he explains.
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at[email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored byAVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
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