Businesses and IT experts from Donbas explore Vinnytsia oblast

Some IT specialists from Donetsk began to settle in Vinnytsia last summer. The Dutch outsourcing firm Ciklum was one of the first to evacuate its employees. Although the staff was quartered in various cities, in Vinnytsia the company has a separate branch, so most of them settled there. The same did another company, EPAM Systems Ukraine. Besides, it has been extensively recruiting local programmers for its backup staff. In the meantime, the Donetsk-based mobile apps and games producer MLSDev with a 30-plus staff has moved its entire office to Vinnytsia, probably for good.

As we know, the Donetsk National University has also recently moved to Vinnytsia. By the way, on October 29 the university is starting an additional enrolment to fill the vacant state-paid seats.

Following the Donetsk National University, the business of Donbas was eager to explore Vinnytsia and oblast as a potential base. This was the subject matter of a roundtable “Opportunities and Barriers for Businesses and Investors from the ATO zone in Vinnytsia Oblast,” recently held in Vinnytsia. Among the participants were the Donbas Entrepreneurs’ Club, the Luhansk Municipal Council of Entrepreneurs, and the Center for International Private Enterprise. Invited were also business owners and investors who have already moved their businesses to Vinnytsia oblast. As a result of the meeting of Donbas entrepreneurs, it was decided to develop a regional program for attracting new production capacities and investments to Vinnytsia oblast, open an information web portal for entrepreneurs from Donbas, and hold an away business forum in the ATO zone.

The municipal executive committee and the council of entrepreneurs under the mayor’s office are helping the eastern business owners to find their feet in Vinnytsia.

Valerii Korovii, deputy mayor of Vinnytsia, noted that shortly before a number of business representatives from the eastern region of Ukraine had addressed the local administration with proposals to deploy their production capacities and legally register their companies in Vinnytsia.

“These are all manners of businesses, from the IT, machine-building, or clothing industries,” shares Korovii. “Some business owners want to re-register their business in Vinnytsia; besides, representatives of big companies are eager to deploy their manufacture here. We are working in all directions and are going to help the entrepreneurs who are prepared to accept the transparent and competitive business conditions which are introduced in our city. We must do everything to help these people adapt not only to our business environment, but also socially. It will be mutually beneficial. Now a lot of technical experts are coming to us, and they are in great demand in Vinnytsia. Many of them say they are not coming back anymore.”

The deputy mayor promised that such entrepreneurs could count on a prompt re-registration of their documents, free business consultations, information on vacant premises and sites in communal and commercial property, and will also be able to settle formalities with real estate, necessary for further business activities.