Friends of Ukraine Network Members Present Their Priority Recommendations for Assistance to Ukraine
|
|
|
|
Highlights This Week
FOUN Update - Members Presented Their 2019-20 Recommendations at the Diplomatic Academy
Why Ukraine Needs to Bolster
its Defense Capabilities - Insight from an Expert
BioUkraine Update - Second Annual USUF Biotech Awards Ceremony Held in Kyiv
Ukraine’s IT Industry Generated $4.5 Billion in Revenue in 2018
Open World Program Update
Travel to Ukraine - Join Us at
the NYT Travel Show in 2020
|
|
FOUN Update - Members Present Their 2019-2020 Recommendations at Ukraine's Diplomatic Academy
|
|
New FOUN Recommendations for U.S. Priority Assistance to Ukraine
By USUF Staff
This year, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN) released its new Priority Recommendations for U.S. Assistance to Ukraine as part of a discussion on U.S.-Ukraine relations held at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine. Representing FOUN at the event in Kyiv were Ambassador John Herbst (Atlantic Council), General Philip M. Breedlove (former Commander, Supreme Allied Command, Europe), Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (former Commander, U.S. Army, Europe), Ambassador Sandy Vershbow (former Deputy Secretary General of NATO), Ambassador Roman Popadiuk (Board Chair, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation), Anders Aslund (Atlantic Council), Edward Chow (Center for Strategic and International Studies) and Nadia K. McConnell (President, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation).
The Friends of Ukraine Network currently consists of three task forces — National Security, Economic Security, and Democracy and Civil Society – which met and deliberated throughout the year to develop the recommendations on U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
|
|
Gen. Breedlove Urges Ukraine to Bolster Its Defense Capabilities
By USUF Staff
General Philip M. Breedlove, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, was part of a U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN) group of experts presenting their Priority Recommendations for U.S. Assistance to Ukraine 2020 at the Diplomatic Academy in Kyiv earlier this month.
When asked about his membership in FOUN — in an interview published in Den (The Day) newspaper — General Breedlove said that it’s no secret that from the very start he has been a strong supporter of Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression.
While describing the significant ongoing defensive military assistance that Ukraine receives from the United States, General Breedlove underscored Ukraine’s substantial defense industry capabilities and the importance of attracting investment to help improve the sector’s capacity and effectiveness.
Click here
to read Gen. Breedlove's full interview in "Den" (in Ukrainian).
|
|
USUF Biotech Initiative Awards Ceremony in Kyiv
|
By USUF Staff
On September 17th, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) hosted its second annual biotech awards ceremony in Kyiv. Fifteen promising young entrepreneurs received travel grants to continue work on their specific projects. The awards were presented by USUF Board Chairman Roman Popadiuk and USUF President Nadia K. McConnell. Ambassador Popadiuk noted that the Foundation’s biotech program is made possible through the generous support of Ms. Irene Joseph, who has Ukrainian roots and is dedicated to enhancing the biotech sector in Ukraine. He explained that the Foundation program aims to assist individual researchers but to also help grow the Ukrainian economy and to help gain international recognition for the work that is being done in this sector in Ukraine.
Ms. McConnell outlined the long history of USUF’s work in Ukraine. Joining the discussion were Ms. Christina Redko, who heads the Foundation's biotech program in Kyiv, and Markian Bilynskyj, Vice President for Field Operations. Ms. Redko outlined a number of forthcoming events that the foundation will be sponsoring, including a December 6th one-day conference in Washington, DC that will showcase the biotech sector. Mr. Bilynskyj added that the recipients' work is very important and that they should be proud of the leading role they are taking in biotech.
The event was held at the offices of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council. Morgan Williams, President of the Council, has been a longtime supporter of Foundation activities and serves on USUF’s Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN), a coalition of experts who focus on the economy, energy, defense, national security, and humanitarian and civil society issues, and offers suggestions for action by both the U.S. and Ukraine for furthering reform in Ukraine.
Joining the evening's event were a number of award recipients from last year.
|
|
Ukraine’s IT Industry Generated $4.5 Billion in Revenue in 2018
|
|
By Mike Buryk, USUF Board of Advisors
The Ukrainian outsourcing firm N-iX has just released a new study, “
Ukraine – The Country That Codes
,” confirming IT is a major growth engine for the Ukrainian economy.
Here are some of the findings of this report:
- The IT industry generated $4.5 billion in revenue in 2018, taking the third place among export industries in the country. Overall, in recent years, the industry showed an annual growth rate of 26%.
- There are more than 1,600 IT service companies and 185,000 IT specialists in the industry.
- The USA and Western European countries remain the largest destination markets. While in 2012, the USA accounted for 81% of the Ukrainian IT service exports, more recent research suggests the share of Western Europe has grown significantly over the years.
- A.T. Kearney put Ukraine in 20thplace on its 2019 Global Services Location Index, which was a steady climb from 42ndplace in 2009.
- Nearly two thirds of Ukrainian IT specialists live in Kyiv (KIev), Kharkiv (Kharkov) and Lviv (Lvov). Thus, according to Stack Overflow, there are around 68,500 software developers in Kyiv.
|
|
Open World Program Update
|
|
Ukrainian delegates visiting state offices in Austin, Texas in 2018.
|
|
By John A. Kun, USUF Vice President
The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) has been tasked with administering 13 Open World delegations from Ukraine this year. Four Open World groups are being organized for this fall.
Each group is composed of six young professionals who visit the U.S. for 11 days, two days in Washington, DC, and then family-hosted in a U.S. community for the remainder of the trip.
|
|
The Open World Leadership Center sponsors the Open World program, one of the most effective U.S. exchange programs for countries of the post-Soviet space. The cultural/educational program has enabled more than 29,000 current and future leaders from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan to meaningfully engage and interact with Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and thousands of other Americans, many of whom are the delegates’ direct professional counterparts.
USUF has been participating in the Open World program since 2006.
Here are the details for the Foundation’s fall line-up of four delegations:
In November,
Global Ties KC
will focus on Investigative Journalism, the
Birmingham (AL) Sister Cities Commission
will feature a Media Literacy theme, and
USUF
, in cooperation with American Councils, will be responsible for a delegation from Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the theme of Public Diplomacy.
|
|
Travel to Ukraine - The Upcoming New York Times Travel Show
|
|
The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation Plans to Represent Ukraine, again!
Join us in 2020!
|
The 2020 New York Times Travel Show will be one of the most successful international celebrations of travel, food and culture ever! Mark your calendars for this 2020 “open to the public” convention, which will take place from January 24 – 26 at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC.
.
Many of the past exhibitors and sponsors have already indicated they will be reserving their same space and more than 100 new organizations have expressed interest or already signed up to exhibit at the event. The 2019 show was one of the most-highly attended Travel Show ever. The New York Times Travel Show, the largest of its kind in North America, is widely regarded as the "gateway show" for the world's travel destinations wishing to present to the U.S. market.
|
|
Please Note: USUF welcomes inquiries from travel agencies, hotels, airlines, restaurants, conference centers, economic development agencies, etc., for trade show representation.
For more information: Contact us!
Email: info@usukraine.org
Tel: 202-789-4467
|
|
SUPPORT THE U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION'S
2019 ANNUAL GIVING CAMPAIGN
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
