OREANDA-NEWS. November 18, 2013. Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Vilkul together with Marina Zhunich, GR Director, Google Russia and CIS, Dmytro Sholomko, Country Manager of Google in Ukraine, William Fitzgerald, Google's Director of Strategic Planning in Public Policy and Government Affairs for Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Russia presented the results of the study "Impact of the Internet on the economy of Ukraine." Research aimed at promoting the Internet in Ukrainian business environment.

"We are creating the conditions for the development of the country supporting the IT-industry in Ukraine," O. Vilkul said.

"Government’s understanding of modern trends in management and Government’s support of high technology are key components of the development of economy and society as a whole. It is therefore very important that Olexandr Vilkul supported this study," Dmytro Sholomko, Country Manager of Google in Ukraine said.

In accordance with studies, the technologic opportunities of Internet access are created in Ukraine at a high level; about 90% of companies have high speed Internet. Therefore, the reserve development is hidden in the intensity of use of modern information technology. This includes e-document management; use the cloud databases, providing remote access to the workplace, e-commerce and more.

Tetyana Sytnyk, Head of B2B Department and strategic research of GfK Ukraine noted that 62% of Ukrainian companies have their own website, 49% place personal information on online directories. However, only 22% use pages in social networks and 12% of companies use online trading through online stores.

Besides economy and business, the Internet should also be used in public and civic projects. Vice Prime Minister announced one such project - the online vote on a logo of Lviv’s Bid for Winter Olympics 2022 in. "On the lunch of the voting will be announced next week. I'll write about this on Facebook," Olexandr Vilkul said.

"IT is an area in which Ukraine can compete with the leading countries of the world. Therefore, the Government provided incentives for IT-companies. The new rules provide for exemption from VAT on services provided in the field of information, the payment of income tax for IT companies at 5%, paying income tax at the level of 5% and more," O. Vilkul said.

There have been formed a powerful IT-centers in Ukraine: Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Odesa and others; it has been already established a large number of jobs in industries with high wages. And thanks to this powerful projects are being implemented.

"IT-world knows and respects the Ukrainians. In particular, millions of people play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and "Kozak", created by Serhiy Grygorovych from Kyiv. Developments of Ukrainian professionals are used by the leading companies in the world. By the way, I would like to talk about the industry development with Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple), which also has Ukrainian roots - his parents from Bukovyna," Olexandr Vilkul said.

Vice Prime Minister said that the Government supports the development of public-private partnerships in innovation. An example is the BIONIC Hill in Kyiv - the first Ukrainian Innovation Park, - in the creation of which the state invested UAH 50 million.