Ukraine sets its development course for the future

System Capital Managment Group (SCM Group)
Donetsk, Ukraine, Friday, November 8, 2013

Jock Mendoza-Wilson,
SCM Director of International and Investor Relations

 

 
This week in Kiev, the Ukrainian government sat down with business and range of international and Ukrainian policy experts brought together by the World Economic Forum to discuss what the scenarios for the country’s future development should be. The process comes at a pivotal time for the former soviet republic’s journey from communism to an independent nation which is now embracing a European direction.

The road so far has often been rocky and it’s sometimes a challenge when you sit at the cross roads to decide which right road is to take. Certainly, if you are going on a journey the first thing you need to agree on is your destination – a choice which the country is on the cusp of confirming. Once you know where are going, you need a route map and the EU and its Association Agreement, with its valuable deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, offers this.

But while the debate is sometimes presented as an east vs. west argument, particularly by those outside of Ukraine, this is too simplistic. Ukraine sits at the geographic cross roads between Europe and Eurasia and is a strong trading nation with an open economy with great strengths in agriculture, minerals, and steel, as well as a fast emerging IT sector. As such, it needs to have strong relations and effective trade with Russian, USA, and China as well as with European Union and others.  EU integration while important will not on its own be sufficient to secure the country’s optimum economic and social development.

Government and business in Ukraine share the same goal, a strong and independent Ukraine which can deliver growing living standards for all of its citizens. This requires continued upgrades to the legal and regulatory frame work to ensure clear rules of the game from which citizens, business and government can prosper and the WEF facilitated dialogue helps this process.

During the two days of detailed discussion and debate, in which the President, Prime Minster and Cabinet took a leading role, really focused on the priorities for the nation’s development through to 2030. The key themes which were drawn from the WEF Dialogue were, the need for a level playing field to attract increased investment to Ukraine to help the country’s transformation to a strong European state; the importance of the government’s continuing reform agenda, and the need for Ukraine to be a strong trading nation with a multilateral trade policy in place with the European Union, Russia, China and middle east region and its black sea neighbours

It’s too early to say what the final outcome of these discussions will be.  However, we will not have long to wait. The final report from the World Economic Forum on the future scenarios for the nation’s development will be  presented publically in Davos at the Forum’s  annual meeting in January next year.

One fact that is clear is that the development of a clear long term strategy for Ukraine’s economic growth and development which has the buy-in of government,  investors and international institutions will make a significant contribution to the growth of living standards of all Ukrainians.

The post has been written for the official blog of World Economic Forum