Economist Viktor Galasyuk believes that the Ukrainian IT industry should move away from export-oriented outsourcing, which is currently dominant.
Economist Viktor Galasyuk believes that the Ukrainian IT industry should move away from export-oriented outsourcing, which is currently dominant.
Analyzing research by the IT Ukraine association on his YouTube blog, he compared domestic IT outsourcing with the export of raw materials in the agricultural industry.
«We are simply mechanically selling the labor of IT workers abroad. The difference with raw material exports in the agricultural sector is that there you have to grow something, dig, chop, and here people work with their heads. But, other than that, the model is very similar. IT outsourcing is a virtual analogy to our raw material agriculture,» the economist believes.
According to Galasyuk, unfortunately, outsourcing dominates the Ukrainian IT industry in terms of revenue.
«Sales of IT services abroad account for 85% of the revenue of the Ukrainian IT industry. With such a structure, the IT industry of Ukraine, if it does not evolve and if it does not upgrade towards product companies, then it has actually reached a plateau,» he concluded.
Victor Galasyuk claims that revenue per person in other high-tech industries, such as pharmaceuticals, can be 10 times higher than IT outsourcing figures.
«If we divide the total revenue of the IT industry by the number of people in it — what is called head count — it will be about $25,000 per person per year, or a little more than $2,000 per month. In modern technological production facilities in Ukraine, this figure is ten times higher,» the expert noted.
As dev.ua wrote, in 2025, Ukrainian IT exports returned to growth after two years of decline.
