Ukraine and World Bank to Cooperate According To Rigid Schedule
World Bank President James Wolfensohn, visiting Ukraine on October 4-6 invited by the President of Ukraine, also visited the Quasar-Micro Corporation last Thursday, where, at the business center, he familiarized himself with state-of-the-art information technologies and Internet development in Ukraine. The World Bank and its head are known to have great interest in utilizing high tech processes to stabilize and improve the economic situation in Ukraine. Moreover, the World Bank is precisely the initiator of the project called Ukraine: Development via the Internet which implies Ukraine’s integration in the world economic system through the information network. One of the first who backed this idea was Quasar-Micro.
To begin with, Quasar-Micro president and chairman of the board of directors, Yevhen Utkin, presented his new project called Ukrainian Hi-Tech Zone to World Bank representatives. According to Mr. Utkin, the project aims to set up the environment and infrastructure for developing promising projects and companies dealing with software and the Internet. This zone is a business incubator, a unit that promotes projects at their initial stage.
It is no secret that one of the main problems in information technologies is the shortage of specialists, due to which the Internet and software companies are as a rule set up by engineers. For a company to develop successfully and achieve a qualitatively new level, it needs appropriate management. Hi-Tech Zone assists the companies that lack properly skilled specialists to find ways of establishing good management and seeking project funding sources.
Also important is the fact that this zone includes information portals which spread extensive information about Ukraine all over the world. The latest portal of this kind was opened on October 5 by Mr. Wolfensohn personally. This in fact launched a new Quasar-Micro — Studio 1+1 joint Internet project called Ukrop aimed at uniting Ukrainians and Ukrainian communities the world over.
The resumption of “close cooperation” between the World Bank and the government of Ukraine will contribute to the political and economic stabilization in Ukrainian society, President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine believes, stated the head of state’s spokesman Oleksandr Martynenko on October 6. According to him, during the meeting between Mr. Kuchma and World Bank President James Wolfensohn, the two sides agreed to draw up a rigid schedule of cooperation between the World Bank and the government of Ukraine, setting out the list of priority projects to be implemented. Mr. Kuchma stressed the World Bank head’s visit was “a good sign” for Ukraine. In this connection, he expressed hope for the resumption of cooperation with the bank and other international financial institutions. The President also showed interest in attracting strategic investors to Ukraine not only from Russia but also from Europe and the US, Interfax-Ukraine reports. In the course of the meeting, Mr. Wolfensohn expressed the World Bank’s readiness to render assistance in improving the information infrastructure of Ukrainian society, particularly, in modernizing information technologies. He also stated the bank’s readiness to help Ukraine solve its AIDS problem.
