President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a video call with Microsoft President Brad Smith.
During the conversation, the interlocutors discussed the details and steps of implementing the Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation signed by Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and Country Manager of Microsoft in Ukraine Jan Peter De Jong this year.
The President noted that one of the priority goals of the government and the relevant ministry is to transfer all public services online and digitalize the main state processes in two and a half years. After all, this is one of the important ways to fight corruption.
"We are really digitizing the country. We really want the state to be a very comfortable service for the people. We were the first to introduce a digital passport. We also introduced a digital driver's license. We had problems with business registration, long queues, and today you can register your business in 15-30 minutes. I think this is a great victory," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to him, the priority for next year is to launch the Paperless program.
"We want to ensure that all services are digitized by the end of my presidential term, over the next three years, and that we reach my big dream - to transform the elections in Ukraine into an Internet format as well," the President noted.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, if the program for online voting is developed by Ukrainians together with specialists from one of the world's leading companies, "people will trust this technology more". The President of Microsoft said that new technologies should protect democracy.
Brad Smith praised the steps taken by the Ukrainian authorities towards the digitization of services.
"All this is extremely useful for Ukrainians. And all this is actually very useful for us. Because as the private and public sectors are involved in this process, the digital market is expanding. These are the steps that can make us look to the future and have greater ambitions for the extra investment we can make,” Brad Smith said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Microsoft to invest more actively in Ukraine adding that the Ukrainian authorities will guarantee the protection of their investments and create a favorable business climate. Thus, the law on so-called investment nannies was recently adopted in the first reading to support large investments.
The President thanked Brad Smith for announcing the implementation of the cloud service program in Ukraine, as it provides great opportunities to build infrastructure in the country to place data centers. Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the Ukrainian state has all conditions for the construction of powerful data centers. In particular, a favorable climate, a surplus of environmentally friendly nuclear energy, specialists in relevant fields. According to Brad Smith, the development of cloud technologies in Ukraine is beneficial for ordinary citizens, as well as for investors and the state.
"Investing efforts in the development of the private sector now, and then helping the public sector move to cloud technology are all the right steps towards the future," he said.