"I don't understand the claims or claims against us." Blitz interview with the deputy chairman of the Transcarpathian ERA on the creation of an IT cluster in the region

At the end of March, Transcarpathia announced the creation of a national IT cluster. The initiative came from the local regional military administration, which offered it residents exemption from mobilization if their companies come under the jurisdiction of the Transcarpathian region.

These decisions were criticized by lawyers and part of the community, and the Kharkiv IT cluster even called it looting and an attempt to take away the business.

DOU spoke with the deputy head of the Transcarpathian region Vasyl Ivancho to hear the official position of representatives of the local authorities.

- A week ago, the information space was stirred up by the news that a national IT cluster is being created in Transcarpathia, and I focus on the word "national". Who exactly made this decision and was it agreed with the central government?

-I am not ready to comment on the creation of a "national" IT cluster with an emphasis on this word. I know about the creation of an IT cluster in the Transcarpathian region.

We discussed this issue with the deputy minister of digital transformation. Why did you decide to pay special attention to it? Since a very large number of IT specialists ended up in our Transcarpathian region, and we saw the need for this.

Last Thursday, we met with the IT community and proposed such an idea to the heads of IT companies located in the Transcarpathian region. The understanding was one hundred percent. We have received their full support on this issue.

- So these IT companies were relocated, you saw the relevant request, gathered them for a meeting, talked it all out there and made a decision?

- Yeah.

- Lawyers talk about gaps and "gray zones" in the issue of your proposed booking of specialists from mobilization. The booking procedure is defined in the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of March 3, and, according to lawyers, no other state institution can change it. How do you respond to this legal point?

-We have specific examples of local IT companies. We are not talking about relocated ones, but about those that have already worked on the market. Of course, there are not many of them when compared with IT communities in certain regions of Ukraine. And we have specific examples of booking their specialists. As a regional military administration, we justify the importance and criticality of a particular company, the need to book a particular specialist. In other words, we must justify that a particular IT specialist is critical for the business. We have already had the practice of approving our booking requests from the Ministry of economy.

There are two main points in this issue. The first is the irreplaceable nature of a particular IT specialist for the activities of a particular company. The second point no longer depends on us or on the IT company-this is one or another military accounting specialty, if a specialist has one. Individual military accounting specialties cannot be booked, regardless of what kind of specialist they are. If their specialty is not included in this list and there is a critical importance of this IT specialist, then the booking process can be implemented, and we have such examples.

- That is, the procedure is as follows: you receive a request from an IT company that is part of the Transcarpathian IT cluster; you see how much this request corresponds to common sense; and if a particular IT specialist really makes a big contribution to the company's work, then you, as the Transcarpathian regional military administration, simply advocate the decision to book this specialist? And isn't it guaranteed that anyone who joined the cluster and contacted you will definitely be booked?

- Of course, there is no guarantee. This is not our decision — the order is issued by the Ministry of economy. Therefore, of course, we cannot guarantee that the decision is not made by us. But we rely on positive experiences.

Transcarpathian IT cluster is a public organization that represents the interests of the IT community. In the issue of booking, we are not necessarily talking about joining the Transcarpathian IT cluster-this is already the will of a particular legal entity or individual.

We cannot make inquiries about entities that are not our residents, primarily tax entities. That is, we cannot do this if a particular business entity is not registered in the Transcarpathian region and is not located there geographically, does not have any business here, except that its specialists are located here. Such requests are the authority of the area where the legal address of a particular IT company is indicated.

- You noted that for booking, a business must be located in the jurisdiction of the region — many IT specialists are outraged because of this, and the Kharkiv IT cluster even called it looting.

- Yes, we did.

- In this matter, it is important for us to get rid of rumors and speculation, to hear you as an official representative of Transcarpathia. How can you respond to this criticism?

- Let's look at this issue from a slightly different angle. What is the offer? We say: we are ready to create conditions for the IT community in the region, and we want to develop it. To do this, we, in my opinion, set an absolutely normal condition: you register your activities in our region — we take appropriate steps that the law allows us. We do not force or force someone to take such actions, and we react absolutely normally if someone does not want to move. This is his right and absolutely Free Choice.

In other words, we have prescribed the conditions that we are ready to create on the territory of our region. As for me, they seem absolutely logical.

What do you or the Kharkiv region suggest we do? What should our actions be? What is your claim, claim, or request to us? I don't understand.

The condition of residency in the region is necessary so that we can take certain legal steps in relation to a specific subject. I think this is absolutely logical and correct. But this is not forced — those who do not want to, do not go and do not apply. It can be located on the territory of the Transcarpathian region, as before. If he has the conditions of stay — please, we do not insist on anything.

We only say that we can implement certain presented and proposed solutions only in relation to those business entities that have our tax and legal address.

We also offer far-sighted steps for the IT community. We have a list of vacant land plots, construction companies, and we are in favor of creating full-fledged conditions for IT parks, hubs in different cities, literally separate small blocks with suitable conditions for work and living. This will probably apply more to large IT companies, and perhaps the Transcarpathian IT cluster will also be able to join this process. That is, we see it not as a temporary phenomenon, but as a plan for many years to come.

- Or maybe we are not talking about a complete relocation of the business, but simply about opening an office in Transcarpathia?

"Of course you can. Any company has the right to open.

- Legally, yes, of course. But if the main office of a company is located, say, in Kiev or Kharkiv, and it wants to open an office in Transcarpathia, taking advantage of the offer to help with finding a place, coworking spaces, can it count on such assistance from the Transcarpathian authorities?

"Of course it can.

- As far as I understand, what is the main complaint of the community: the relocation of business and its transfer to the jurisdiction of another region are not provided for by the government as conditions for booking specialists.

- I've been relocating for about a month now. It takes place through the Ministry of economy, with which our director of the Department of economy of the Transcarpathian region communicates. And this is the algorithm of our actions related to the displaced business as a whole, not only with IT companies: the business entity moves its production facilities to us, becomes tax registered, and for those critical specialists who moved together with this enterprise to the territory of the region, we apply twice a week to the Ministry of economy for booking. Where is the conflict here? Here we already have a well-established practice, not in relation to the IT community, but in relation to the business as a whole.

Transcarpathian era offers specialist booking scheme offered to IT companies

- So there is a constant contact with the Ministry of Economy and a well-developed scheme?

- Regarding relocated enterprises-of course. We apply twice a week with our suggestions for booking certain critical specialists who work at such enterprises.

— Do you have up-to-date statistics on how many IT companies have already relocated their businesses and employees to the Transcarpathian region?

"There's nothing to talk about right now. There are scanty statistics, scanty figures. Only yesterday, the process of processing requests by state registrars has improved to some extent, and we already have the first few requests to change the place of registration.

But the number of state registrars is very small, literally several people in each region.

- So it's too early to talk about statistics?

- It's too early. On April 7, we held a small online production meeting and involved state registrars in this process. I think that on Tuesday and Wednesday we will have more substantive statistics.