“Diya.City is 3 years old: its residents are defending Ukraine, implementing AI and more
7 February 15:42
Already 240 defense-tech companies – residents of Diia.City – are helping to defend Ukraine. This was announced at an event dedicated to the 3rd anniversary of Diia.City by the head of the Ukrainian government Denys Shmyhal.
In his turn, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov noted that supporting defense-tech companies in Diia.City is a special priority.
“We are doing everything to ensure that such companies work in the best tax conditions, hire employees and scale up the production of drones, robots and other technologies that help to destroy Russians,” he added.
Mikhail Fedorov also said that half of Diia.City’s residents have switched to the exit capital tax regime.
“Thanks to the exit capital tax, they reinvest in development and scale up, create the best conditions for employees, and launch internal startups. One of the companies that produces products for the country’s defense industry has built an entire R&D laboratory,” the official said.
Recently, the Diia.City space was opened for small startups. Manufacturers of bionic prostheses also got the opportunity to become residents.
What are Diia.City’s plans for the coming years?
Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, recalled the recent presentation of the Ministry of Education’s vision of the Science-City initiative, which aims to combine the efforts of science, business, and the state to create a network of modern science parks. According to him, this contributed to the fact that universities are now ready to create new science parks and become members of Diia.City.
Mykhailo Fedorov also said that the ministry is currently working on the Diia.City-invest project.
“We have an ambition to create the best conditions for the launch and development of venture capital funds in Ukraine. Of course, there is a full-scale war and many challenges now, but we need to think about what will happen after the war, think about how to attract investment,” the minister emphasized.
Authorities take care of conditions for Diia.City residents
At the end of December last year, the Parliament passed and the President of Ukraine signed a law amending the Tax Code and some other legislative acts to stimulate the development of the digital economy in Ukraine.
The law, in particular, provides for
– for Diia.City residents with startup status, the abolition of the rule on the non-application of the 5% preferential personal income tax rate and the minimum unified social contribution to the income of Diia.City specialists if the number of such persons in the Diia.City resident is less than 9. At the same time, a safeguard against abuse is envisaged: if a startup fails to meet the criteria by the end of the second year of its residency in Diia.City, it will have to pay additional personal income tax and unified social contribution;
– exemption from taxation on the withdrawn capital of charitable assistance provided by Diia.City residents in favor of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
– abolition of certificates of services rendered for gig-specialists;
– tightening the “anti-criteria” for Diia.City residency for the period of martial law and the post-war period;
– elimination of some editorial inaccuracies in the relevant Law of Ukraine “On Stimulating the Development of the Digital Economy in Ukraine”.
