The Government plans to expand the Diia.City space to include science parks, which will be an important step in the development of knowledge-intensive industries. This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during the Diia.City Anniversary 3.0 on 7 February.

According to him, Diia.City is constantly being improved and recently this space has become available for small start-ups. In particular, bionic prosthesis manufacturers have also been given the opportunity to become its residents.

“I am convinced that our future, the future of our country, is directly linked to IT technologies. That is why the Government is doing everything possible to ensure that Ukrainian IT companies operate stably and that new technology businesses emerge in the country,” said Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister noted that the purpose of opening the space three years ago was to increase the activity of technology companies in Ukraine, to create attractive working conditions for both technology giants and start-ups.

“Immediately after the russian invasion, we allowed defence-tech companies to enter Diia.City. By 2022, there were about twenty such companies in Ukraine. And today there are more than 240 of them in Diia.City alone. In a short time, we have created a fundamentally new technology market in Ukraine. And this decision has become one of the factors of our defence capability,” he stressed, adding that the IT sector was the largest exporter of services in Ukraine and ranked second in the overall structure of Ukrainian exports after agricultural products.

“Last year, the export revenue of IT services totalled USD 6.4 billion. This is the strengthening of our economic stability,” the Prime Minister said.

According to him, the Government is creating an effective ecosystem for the development of innovative companies. Thus, the Defence Tech platform for the development and support of military innovations is successfully operating, where companies are working on the development of smart drones, new solutions for drone automation, robotic systems, etc. The Ukrainian medtech segment is working on new opportunities for the rehabilitation of defenders, which opens up prospects for scaling up the production of bionic prostheses and improving their functionality. EdTech is a modern digital solution for Ukrainian education, while BioTech and AgrоTech are new opportunities in biopharmaceuticals, accelerating soil restoration after demining, and biofuel production.

“Artificial intelligence is what will give Ukraine a boost. We are striving to implement this technology in all key areas: governance, education, medicine, and business. A special emphasis is placed on AI weapons: from the formation of so-called drone swarms to new information systems for high-quality battlefield analytics. The use of artificial intelligence in the fight against cyber threats and russian propaganda is also relevant,” the Prime Minister said.

He stressed that by 2030, Ukraine intended to become one of the top three countries in the world in terms of integration and implementation of AI-based solutions.