Comp A: Participation of INOGATE in International Investment and Innovation Forum

Objective

On 6-7 June 2013 theInternational Investment and Innovation Forum took place in Lviv for the second time and became the final stage of Lviv Innovation Spring, the marathon of ideas and activities to promote innovations and entrepreneurship.

The International Investment and Innovation Forumaims to develop cooperation between entrepreneurs and investors, as well as promoting investment in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Currently in Western Ukraine there are no events that directly contribute to attracting investment; despite the fact that Ukraine has a large, still untapped potential to attract investment. In addition, entrepreneurs often lack financial resources to develop their projects, while investors lack good projects for investment.

Given these challenges, the forum aims atimproving the competence of the entrepreneursin the field of project financing and implementation of investment projects,and at uniting the ideas of entrepreneurs and experts with capabilities and expertise of various investors for the successful implementation of innovative technologies and perspective investment projects.

In this second season, the International Alternative Energy Forum brought together leading experts and companies of alternative energy sector, including: Dr. Lemlem Said Issa, Team Leader, EU-INOGATE Program, Roman Bilyk, Managing Partner, Nexia DK. Auditors & Consultants, Vasyl Voloshenyuk, Head, Department of Generating Companies, NERC of Ukraine (National Commission for State Regulation in the Sphere of Energy), Dr. Ralf Walther, Project Manager, Ukraine Sustainable Energy Lending Facility (USELF)/EBRD, Martin Mayr, Head, Competence Center for Renewable Energies, UniCredit Leasing Group,Zinoviy Kozytskyy, General Director, Ukrnaftogazinvest Ltd, William Brady, CEO, Progeny Solar and other experts.

Speakers and participants were able to discuss a variety of issues around Alternative Energy; investments/finance requirements and the opportunities currently available in Western Ukraine. This was followed by an intense Q& A session and a Press Conference.

During the Forum the finals of the Contest for startups and entrepreneurs with ideas in the field of innovative technologies - 3i Start-up Award were heldamongst30  startup teams from Ukraine and Moldova. The winners received the following prizes: an opportunity to present their projects at the global Startup Forums and modern computer technology.

In a breakout session, a Roundtable of leading geologists of Ukraine conduced a workshop on “Shale Gas Extraction: Problems and Prospects”, which was attended by over 60 experts, scholars and researchers from leading Ukrainian universities.Shale Gas is a very hot issue in Ukraine and in particular in Western Ukraine where one of the exploration license were given to a leading American company but where there is environmental controversy due to the proximity of all the country’s water resources in and around the Carpathian mountains.

Participants

The Forum was attended by about 290 participants including investors, scientists, experts and businessmen from Ukraine, USA, Western Europe, China, Moldova and Kazakhstan.

Results

<p>The following links related to Lviv Forum:</p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.2em;">1) Video from Alternative Energy Forum to the following link:</span></p> <p><a href="http://http//http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr9nn0E4e-w" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr9nn0E4e-w</a><br /> <br /> 2)photos with INOGATE partcipation<br /> <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B26pOVSLZKmQbHpZLU9GZVlXc00&usp=sharing-" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B26pOVSLZKmQbHpZLU9GZVlXc00&usp=sharing-</a></p> <p>3) Alternative Energy Forum Press-conference<br /> <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B26pOVSLZKmQdE01cXlnVGZtaGM&usp=sharing-" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B26pOVSLZKmQdE01cXlnVGZtaGM&usp=sharing-</a><br /> <br /> <span style="line-height: 1.2em;">4) comments in mass-media:</span><br /> <a href="http://iiif.com.ua/index.php/en/media/2013-06-10-13-00-49" target="_blank">http://iiif.com.ua/index.php/en/media/2013-06-10-13-00-49</a></p>