Kyiv, February 25. Under new, post-crisis conditions, Ukraine should concentrate its efforts on improving the investment climate and creating the most favorable conditions for both foreign and domestic inward investors and for all its foreign economic partners.

This is the statement of Natalya Izosimova, Director of the Foundation for Effective Governance, expressed at the public debate “Ukraine will not overcome the economic crisis without Russia”. The event was organized by the FEG in partnership with Intelligence Squared.

Ms. Izosimova underlined Ukraine’s advantageous geographic position as a transit country, located among several huge markets. By confining itself to only one of these markets, Ukraine will severely limit its growth potential. Ms. Izosimova also noted that the global economic crisis highlighted the importance of creating useful alliances.

“Historical production ties, similar technologies, common markets and joint scientific potential have made Russia our long-term strategic partner. However, global economic transformations create numerous opportunities of successful cooperation with the Old World and new, rapidly growing economies”, believes Ms. Izosimova.

The debate participants, advocating stronger economic cooperation with Russia to emerge from the economic crisis, emphasized that this cooperation will help raise considerable investments in the Ukrainian economy already in the short-term perspective and will greatly enlarge export markets for local goods.

“The economies of the two countries are mutually complementary in many ways and there is a significant scope for expansion of their trade and business relations. Close cooperation between Russia and Ukraine will facilitate a breakthrough in industry and innovations and raise competitiveness of both economies. Moreover, establishing a single economic space will bring forth tangible economic results”, argued Kirill Dmitriev, President of Icon Private Equity, at the debate.

“We calculated that by 2016 synergy from a single economic space with Russia will procure about $4,000 per year for every Ukrainian family. We may argue about the figures, but the fact remains: we need to view Russian-Ukrainian economic relations through the prism of economic pragmatism and not political myths”, he said.

In his turn, Evgeny Gavrilenkov, Managing Director of Troika Dialogue Group, stressed that the expansion of economic relations between Russia and Ukraine will not limit the possibilities for their integration in the global economy.

“Both countries need to expand their export markets. They also need international capital to finance their economies and diversify their export structures. Closer cooperation and coordination of efforts in different economic sectors, e.g. machine-building, will help to achieve this goal (though it will not by all means guarantee it)”, he says.

In the mean time, other panelists questioned the pressure of the need to strengthen economic partnership with our northern neighbor. They maintained that Ukraine should overcome its dependence on Russia and opt for attracting as many foreign partners as possible. In their opinion, the new allies may bring in new technologies and modern methods of administration and eventually raise Ukraine’s competitiveness on the global market.

Andriy Shevchenko, First Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, stated during the debate that Russia and Ukraine can endorse the great idea of strategic partnership by real-life, mutually beneficial projects.

“This is an objective reality – economic and political. Instead of futile talks about team spirit, it is much better for both countries to work out neighborhood rules and define mutual goals”, he said. He also emphasized that to emerge from the economic crisis, Ukraine needs money, technologies and market outlets, while Russia currently is not in the position to provide financial resources. Moreover, Russia blocks our access to new technologies and imposes non-tariff restrictions on different categories of Ukrainian goods.

In the apt words of Kost Bondarenko, Head of Kyiv Gorshenin Institute of Management Issues, Russia is a great country but it cannot take the place of the entire world.

About the debates

The debate “Ukraine will not overcome the economic crisis without Russia” which was held on February 25 in Kyiv, is the sixth public debate in Ukraine carried out in the Oxford Union style.
The event was organized by the Foundation for Effective Governance in partnership with Britain-based Intelligence Squared.
In 2009, the Foundation held a series of debates (debaty.org) on reforming Ukraine’s economy during the economic crisis. For future debates such important topics as reform of education, administrative reform, regional economic development, the role of science and education in economic development, and innovation and technologies have been chosen.
“The goal of debates is to arrange an informative and efficient conversation on those issues of Ukraine’s economy development on which we don’t have a clear and simple answer. At the same time the debates are important both for the present and the future of Ukraine”, states Natalya Izosimova, Director of the FEG. –“However, for us the process of discussion is as important as the content. We’re trying to ensure that arguments in favor of opposing opinions can be expressed in a constructive manner, and that the opposing opinions can be heard."
A partner of the Intelligence Squared Nick Pisani is confident that such debates can attract attention of the public to culture of political discussions. “The debate helps present and, most importantly, future generations of decision-makers think and act in a different way,” he says.

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