The national project Diia.Business has presented an updated portal that will strengthen support for entrepreneurship in Ukraine and abroad. From now on, Diia.Business offers users a unique trajectory depending on the type of business and the stage of its development. Entrepreneurs can quickly and easily find all the information they need, from finding an idea for starting a business to entering foreign markets.
“We launched the Diia.Business project in 2020, with the mission to help create a country of entrepreneurs. It is already a powerful tool for business — 14 offline centres, a web portal with free consultations, a selection of grants, and a special focus on supporting Ukrainian exports. In 2024, we are relaunching the portal to provide everyone with even more opportunities and ideas for development. In the context of a full-scale war, entrepreneurs play a crucial role — we must create all the conditions for their success”, — said Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister for Innovations, Development of Education, Science and Technologies — Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
The updated portal also has a personal user account, where you can conveniently store the most relevant content on exports, grants, educational programmes, trainings and other development opportunities.
“At the Ministry of Digital Transformation, we are creating an ecosystem for entrepreneurs, where everyone has the opportunity to get the necessary information or advice. This is exactly the mission of the national project Diia.Business. In almost 5 years of its operation, 14 Diia.Business entrepreneurial support centres have been opened, and the project portal has been visited by more than 13 million users. To continue providing reliable support to Ukrainian businesses and stay one step ahead, we have rethought the Diia.Business platform. Now, the portal creates movement trajectories in accordance with the current requests of entrepreneurs and saves the most important resource –– time”, –– said Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister for Eurointegration and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
The portal will also recommend events for entrepreneurs on a variety of topics: educational events, workshops, seminars, and international exhibitions. Users will be able to add them to their Google calendar in one click.
“Updating the portal is primarily a response to the needs of a modern Ukrainian entrepreneur. In the new version of the portal, we introduced a personalised approach to the available opportunities. From now on, the most relevant offers will be automatically prioritised in your personal account. This will allow entrepreneurs not to miss the most relevant opportunities for their business and to use the tools offered by Diia.Business as efficiently as possible”, — commented Аndrii Remizov, Director of the State Institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office”.
The updated portal also has a chatbot that provides users with content on demand. Among other innovations, the Financial Opportunities Marketplace will allow users to compare financial programmes and sort them by priority.
“Diia.Business portal has become a valuable tool and an integral part of Diia ecosystem which continues to grow and expand. Through our EU4Business-SMEPIS project we were happy to support the transformation and upgrade of the Diia.Business functionality and hope it will be even more user-friendly and easy to navigate. The European Union is committed to support digital transformation in Ukraine, including a wide spectrum of Government-to-business services and instruments”, – said Henrik Huitfeldt, Head of Section for Public Finance, Business Support and Social Policies at the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
Ukrainian exporters will also get a number of updates, including a tool for searching for the UKTZED code when entering foreign markets. Foreign users can use filters to sort company profiles in the Catalogue of Ukrainian Exporters to find potential partners.
“The Diia.Biznes portal is the result of work that went against the conservative approaches that existed in the Government, because it was impossible to achieve this result using classical methods. Partnerships, donors, and open communication are what make this kind of changes possible.The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) has been working on deregulation since 2015 to make life easier for entrepreneurs. The IWG on deregulation, in which the BRDO is involved, has reviewed 1,323 state regulatory instruments, such as permits, licences and other mandatory documents for business. The Government decided to cancel a third of these instruments. This means that we were able to prove that there is no need to require 300-400 permits and licences from entrepreneurs to spend their resources on developing their business. How can deregulation be measured? By the money that businesses either save or spend on compliance with the law. According to SMEPIS experts, the anticipated economic impact of deregulation initiatives is UAH 15.7 billion in savings for businesses”, – said Оleksii Dorogan, Deputy Team Lead EU4Business: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS), CEO of the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO).
The updated portal has new sections: Diia.Business Start, Diia.Business Development, Diia.Business Export, Diia.Business for Women, Diia.Business for Veterans, as well as a section dedicated to business digitalisation called Diia.Business Digital. It includes a catalogue of products and services, an entrepreneurial skills test — Entregram for youth, a digital literacy test for employees — digitogram, ideas for starting a digital business, and cyber diagnostics for businesses.
“For many years, Mastercard has been a strategic partner of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in developing initiatives for small and medium-sized businesses. The joint launch of the Diia.Business online portal, large-scale support for offline centres across Ukraine, the opening of the first Diia.Business centre abroad, the development of specialised innovative services and grant and acceleration programmes for entrepreneurs are our powerful joint projects to digitise the entrepreneurial experience and help small and medium-sized businesses scale their business. We are pleased to continue to engage our experience and expertise to create solutions that will open up new opportunities for Ukrainian entrepreneurs”, – said Anzhela Kashperuk, Vice President, Business Development, Mastercard in Ukraine and Moldova.
To learn more about the new features of Diia.Business, please follow the link. You can also check out the beta version of the portal at https://business.diia.gov.ua
The event was initiated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office within the framework of the EU4Business project: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project, implemented by Ecorys in consortium with GIZ, BRDO and Civitta and funded by the European Union in Ukraine. The partner of the event is the international technology company Mastercard.
The development of the updated Diia.Business portal was initiated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office within the framework of the EU4Business project: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project, implemented by Ecorys in consortium with GIZ Ukraine, BRDO and Civitta and funded by the European Union in Ukraine.