President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Country Manager of Microsoft in Ukraine Jan Peter De Jong.
The President thanked the company for giving priority to Ukraine in the project of developing data centers and supporting digital initiatives implemented in the country.
In this context, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also noted the importance of the Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Microsoft, which was signed as part of the presidential project "A State in a Smartphone" on October 2.
"We are grateful to Microsoft not only for signing this important Memorandum, but also for the fact that the company pays its important attention to Ukraine, sees that digitization is not just words for Ukraine. This is both economic development and the fight against corruption,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed.
According to the President, Ukraine is open to the development and implementation of digital innovations and IT projects of companies such as Microsoft.
"We are open. We are not a bureaucratic machine. We want to be considered as a startup among the countries of the world, which has moved away from the bureaucracy as much as possible," the Head of State said.
The Country Manager of Microsoft in Ukraine said that his company seeks to achieve a common result with Ukraine.
"Use all our strength and all our capabilities to implement the projects that were presented today very quickly," Jan Peter De Jong said.
He noted that Microsoft is ready to assist in the development of technology in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked Microsoft for its readiness to be a partner of Ukraine. According to him, specific steps for cooperation will be outlined in the action plan for the implementation of the signed Memorandum.
Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov noted that Ukraine’s cooperation with Microsoft will contribute to the development of our country’s brand and its recognition in the world. In particular, the Memorandum envisages training of 113 thousand students to work with Microsoft Azure cloud services.
"As of today, we are already considering the transition of the "Diia 2.0" app to this system. We are also actively working to store important data in Ukraine, not abroad," the Deputy Prime Minister said.
He also added that the introduction and use of new programs and services will help save budget funds.
"After all, when we analyze all the procurement, we see how much money is being spent inefficiently. We can consolidate these purchases and use Microsoft services, save money, get exactly the best service and involve companies,” Mykhailo Fedorov summed up.