Zelensky preparing pro-business legislation, promotes “State in a Smartphone” initiative

The Presidential Administration of Ukraine is preparing
reforms legislation to support the development of small- and mid-sized
business, Volodymyr Zelensky said during a June 15 visit to the port city of
Mariupol near the conflict zone. “Small and medium-sized business is the blood
of the country’s organism,” he said, as reported by the administration website.
Zelensky also mentioned his administration’s support for the “State in a
Smartphone” initiative to reduce the influence of corrupt and inefficient
bureaucrats. “The main goal is ‘State in a Smartphone,’ in order to minimize
the interaction of business with state officials,” he said. Zelensky also
promised new investments in Donbas in the nearest future, which he said he
discusses “with all foreign investors.”

The Presidential Administration hosted on June 12 the
first discussion of the “State in a Smartphone” initiative that was launched by
the E-State Coalition of 65 organizations and experts in the information
technology sphere. “I want quick changes,” Zelensky told the audience, as
reported by the administration website. “I believe in your talent and desire to
make Ukraine a digital leader and I guarantee to you my political will. We are
supposed to prepare together initiatives and legislation and take steps to
remove barriers to the digital economy and electronic governance.”

Mykhaylo Fedorov, the digital adviser to Zelensky and
digital manager of The People’s Servant party, told the meeting that “State in
a Smartphone” aims to make 90% of state services available online by 2024,
which will reduce the interaction between citizens and business with the
government by three times and “achieve zero corruption in this sphere.” The key
proposals are developing instruments of an electronic state and democracy,
digital infrastructure, digital identification, cybersecurity, creating order
in state registers, and electronic governance, even elections. The coalition
plans regular meetings, the next being this week.

Zenon Zawada: These
initiatives are the latest positive actions by the Zelensky administration for
Ukraine’s long-suffering business community. So far, Zelensky is demonstrating
that he is serious about improving investment conditions in Ukraine in dramatic
fashion, as he says he wants. And Zelensky is on the path to fulfilling his
political mission, which is to take pragmatic steps to improve basic living
conditions in Ukraine. Moreover, it’s steps like these that will convince the
residents of occupied Donbas that Ukrainian passports are better than those
currently being distributed by Russia.