Valeria Gontareva: “The time is right to create a hi-tech and highly innovative country”

On the day marking the anniversary of the introduction of the Ukrainian hryvnia and the beginning of the school year, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeria Gontareva met with the first-year students at the  National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” to brief them about the National Bank of Ukraine and  its role and place in the society, to speak about the country's future and encourage the students to succeed in their studies, take part in the transformation process the country is going through and move decisively toward the goal.

“I got my first higher education at this university,” said the NBU Governor, reflecting nostalgically on her years as a student here.  She gained profound knowledge and met her tried-and-true friends and future husband at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. “Frankly speaking, back then 30 years ago I never could have guessed that I would be giving a lecture to the first-year students in the capacity of the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine. Not least because I majored in Optical and Optical Electronic Instrument Engineering,” she said joking.  

In 1987, she graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Optical Engineering. After graduating from the Institute, ValeriaGontareva launched her career as planned: first as a research associate at the Ukrainian Center of Standardization and Metrology, and later - as a design engineer at the Gydrobudmashina Institute.

“The Kyiv Polytechnic Institute has always been an elite training centre.  "I have recently seen the ranking of universities and I am pleased to note that the graduates from our university hold senior executive positions in the largest companies in Ukraine,” said Valeria Gonatreva. Four out of the 6 Board members of the National Bank of Ukraine have engineering backgrounds, and the two Board members are the graduates from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

The motivational lecture delivered by Valeria Gontareva was focused on the transformation the National Bank of Ukraine is undergoing and the banking sector reform implemented by a new team led by the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.  The lecture also touched on the changes the country is going through – the transition to the European standards. She also told the audience about a drastic turning point in her life, when 22 years ago she decided to change her career and connect her future with business, and then, in July 2014, she met another challenge – to take office as NBU Governor.

Valeria Gontareva told the students that back then, when she was a student at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, they worked on designing an infrared thermal imaging device and an unmanned aerial vehicle. If these projects had not been shelved, Ukraine wouldn’t have to ask the U.S. to provide it with infra-red vision devices that could be used in the ATO area and ask the international community to supply it with drones now.

The NBU Governor urged the students not to be afraid to change their lives and find strength to change life in the country for better:

“Don’t give up!  Put your ideas and projects into action!  Register your inventions, contact business incubators, and search ways to keep your projects moving forward,” Valeria Gontareva said, calling on the students.- Our country needs your brains and your energy, because it is high time to depart from a resource-based economy model. The time is right to create a hi-tech and highly innovative country”.

The idea to give a course of lectures to first-year students belongs to Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeria Gontareva. The aim of the project is to show the students unlimited opportunities for development, brief them about the changes, drawing on the example of the National Bank and provide inspiration to the youth to change Ukraine for better.

It is common practice around the world for heads of central banks to meet with university students. For instance, when in office, Ben Bernanke, Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, gave a course of lectures to M.B.A. students at George Washington University's School of Business.  Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, also met with the students from the University of Helsinki.  Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, also devotes her attention to the financial education of the youth.

Besides the Governor of the National Bank, her three Deputy Governors have already participated in the project. Today, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Oleksandr Pysaruk has aroused aspirations in the minds of the students from the National University of “Kyiv-MohylaAcademy”.

Yesterday Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Vladyslav Rashkovan delivered a highly motivational lecture to the first-year students from the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University and the Banking University (Kyiv). On Monday, NBU Deputy Governor Dmytro Sologub met with students at the Kyiv School of Economics.

On Friday, September 4, NBU Deputy Governor Oleh Churii is to give a lecture at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. On the same day, NBU Deputy Governor Yakiv Smolii is to deliver a lecture at his alma mater, I. Franko Lviv National University.

The project is expected to cover 1,000 students. Approximately 700 first-year students have already attended the lectures given by the NBU’s senior executives.

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