On May 13-15, 2021 CGPA launched the project of Kazakh-Ukrainian cooperation for the implementation of the first Kazakh-Ukrainian program for the development of entrepreneurship and corporate governance “NEW LEADERS”, which is implemented with the active support of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). The initiators and developers of the program were Oleksandr Okuniev, Chairman of the CGPA Management Board, and Timur Bairov, head of the Kazakhstan division of Bitfury Group, Chairman of the Bridge Group SB, member of the Astana Startup Hub SB.
At the beginning of the program A. Okuniev focused on the consideration of the “right” approach to the establishment of companies, partnerships in the “bud” of business, how to correctly and what to negotiate with co-founders, if there are two or more of them. Timur Bairov, in turn, considered leadership and corporate culture issues with the participants.
The training was implemented in a mixed format. Some of the participants were present in the classroom, while others took an active part online. Almost 50 participants had the opportunity to communicate and ask questions, despite the constraints under which the whole society has to work.
Among participants, there were 21 women and 31 men. About twenty were CEOs and five business owners. More than twenty were top managers (CFO, Deputy CEO, and others). There were about ten members of the supervisory boards. Most participants (about 50%) represented the service companies (education, medicine, logistics, tourism, information security). About ten participants represented production, and the same number were from the consulting. Also, there were a couple of representatives of IT, NGOs, and government authorities.
In addition to seminars and workshops the participants met with representatives of Ukrainian business and members of the CEO Club Ukraine. Ukrainian businessmen shared the practice of creation and development of business in Ukraine and the experience of surviving the crisis and lockdown caused by the pandemic, which became an incentive to find new spheres and directions of doing business. However, basically all the participants of the meeting shared their ideas and opportunities for cooperation and for entering foreign markets. Friendly and informal atmosphere contributed to making friends and establishing professional contacts.
The program ended with an presentation of the UNIT.City, the first innovation park in Ukraine; the place where the ecosystem and infrastructure are created to develop business in the high-tech and creative industries. Vasily Khmelnitsky shared with the participants his own vision for the development of Ukrainian business and startups, stressing that changes must begin with changes in the approach to educating children and teenagers.