Kharkiv IT cluster has published its position on the actions of the Transcarpathian ERA and interaction between clusters

The team of the Kharkiv IT cluster officially commented on the actions of the Transcarpathian ERA and published its position.

Recall that in Transcarpathia, they decided to create a national IT cluster, where IT specialists were offered a postponement from military service. But to do this, enterprises would have to re-register their business in the Transcarpathian region. One of the founders of Kharkiv it Cluster then said that this is manipulation and looting. Now the organization has prepared an official comment, where it spoke about its vision of interaction between clusters. Below is the text of this statement.

The Kharkiv it Cluster community is currently implementing large-scale programs to help Kharkiv, Ukraine and IT businesses. Since the beginning of a large-scale war, the Kharkiv IT cluster has been operating in a decentralized manner, implementing projects together with IT companies participating in the cluster located throughout the country.

"In our projects, we have always shared our experience and collaborated with IT clusters in other regions. We have even formed a whole cluster all — Ukrainian community, whose goal is to exchange experience and partnership in various initiatives. The community includes more than 15 IT clusters from different regions and cities-Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Odessa, Mariupol, Ternopil, Ivano — Frankivsk, Rivne and others," says Olga Shapoval, executive director of Kharkiv it Cluster.

The basis of such partnerships is to restore transparent relations, create value for the participants of our clusters in the interregional space, as well as resolve controversial issues and overcome common challenges.

Therefore, when the Transcarpathian ERA at the end of March issued a statement about the creation of an IT cluster with a call for mandatory re-registration of business and guaranteed booking, we immediately communicated with the local administration. We support community initiatives to merge, but we consider it incorrect to" exchange " reservations (if there are certain legal restrictions) for taxes from front-line regions. Now we consider this misunderstanding to be over. We hope that there will no longer be such initiatives with the "redistribution" of taxes between regions.

In addition, the issues of the IT business ecosystem are much broader than booking. We conducted a survey among IT companies in our cluster and identified the key needs of businesses and specialists who moved to other regions, in particular, Transcarpathia. Therefore, when the IT business decided to create a local IT cluster in Transcarpathia in early April, we joined the Coordination Council of this community. The founders of the cluster do not require people or companies to re-register, which is a red line, so at the meetings of the Coordination Council, we discussed specific issues that concern our participants and can be resolved in partnership.

"Since the beginning of the full-scale war, more than 25 new members-IT companies-have already joined the Kharkiv IT cluster, and right now we are considering several more requests from potential participating companies. Therefore, our strength was and is in unity. The community now has more than 180 members and partners. Some of these companies have people who are temporarily located in Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv region, Rivne region and other regions. Therefore, the task of the Kharkiv IT cluster is to continue to develop transparent relations with local communities to meet the needs of the Kharkiv IT business, IT specialists of our community and their families," says Alexander Medovoy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Kharkiv it Cluster.

We support the fact that the business IT cluster of Transcarpathia, like other IT clusters of Ukraine, declares openness to cooperation, in particular in matters of infrastructure, education and interaction with the authorities. Now we have reached clear agreements with the team of the local business IT cluster to create a maximum assistance space in Transcarpathia for IT companies-members of Kharkiv it Cluster. Kharkiv it Cluster membrane companies need help not only in booking issues, but also in comfortable conditions — accommodation for people, coworking spaces, stable communication, as well as infrastructure for children. All these points and many other important issues will be included in the memorandum of cooperation between IT communities.

Kharkiv IT cluster aims to continue cooperation with IT clusters and industrial associations that are interested in transparent partnership. Such synergy is the key to the sustainable development of the Ukrainian IT industry and the opportunity to jointly overcome the challenges that the IT community faces.