Nearly 40 Belarusian IT companies relocate to Ukraine – Fedorov

"So far, almost 40 Belarusian companies have relocated to Ukraine. That's about 2,000 employees. In my opinion, in order to attract tens of times more IT professionals, we need to launch the Diia City project, which creates the best conditions for IT business," Fedorov said.

He noted that convenient tax conditions can attract professionals from around the world. "Why has their IT project in Belarus become so successful? Because there was maximum liberalization of tax relations, it was the same with Silicon Valley, and now it's the same in Dubai. We need to radically change our tax system to become more attractive," he said.

Fedorov recalled that Diia City is a virtual zone, a certain register. If an IT company meets its criteria (certain activities, the average salary, and the minimum number of employees), it becomes a resident of Diia City and pays 5% of personal income tax plus military duty. All criteria are checked automatically by registers without the participation of officials, i.e. without a regulator. In this way, employees of these companies legalize their salaries, companies can get in on IPOs, and they become more understandable to investors. Fedorov noted that participation in the Diia City project would be completely voluntary.

According to him, the bill on Diia City is currently being finalized in accordance with the comments of the industry and will be put to the first vote in March. "We really hear the IT market, and therefore, 70% of the recommendations for the bill will be taken into account," Fedorov said.

The IT Relocate Belarus project is being implemented by a team of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine with the support of President Volodymyr Zelensky and Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov. It offers 90 days of continuous stay for 180 days without obtaining a visa, an average salary of $2,000, 4G in all major cities, more than 5,600 service and technology companies, affordable housing and office rent.

In early June 2020, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine announced the launch of the Diia City project - the world's first virtual business country.

The purpose of the project is to create favorable conditions for the development of innovative and technological business.

It is expected that by 2025 the project will help create an additional 450,000 jobs in the country. The project will attract more than $11.8 billion to the IT industry. It is planned that the project will be of interest to Ukrainian and international IT companies, investment funds, startups, and educational organizations.

The project will cover such technological areas as AgroTech, Fintech, and Blockchain, AI and cloud computing technologies, medical neural networks and biotechnology, etc.

Bill No. 4303 "On Stimulating the Development of the Digital Economy in Ukraine" was registered in the Verkhovna Rada in November 2020.

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