Representatives of the Government, the Parliamentary Committee, experts, and the business community shared their views on the draft Economic Security Strategy of Ukraine until 2025. The main goal of the meeting was to discuss the current draft, identify threats not yet included, and develop common positions to be implemented in the Strategy.
According to Dmytro Natalukha, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, Ukraine previously had recommendations on economic security, but they were non-binding. However, the current NSDC decision to develop an Economic Security Strategy, supported by the President, is a path toward establishing a strategic direction for economic security.
«If you look at global trends, it's globalization and protectionism by all states, except Ukraine. Ukraine is fully opening its markets, while other partners do so moderately, cautiously, and strategically. Another negative factor is unfavorable prices in the market for products exported by Ukraine. We must shift from a raw-material economy model to a value-added economy model», - noted Mr. Natalukha.
According to him, Ukraine is losing the ability to cover imports with exports. This indicates that we have almost no domestic market; the real sector of the economy is struggling, and there is insufficient capacity in processing industries. As a result, Ukraine is turning into Côte d'Ivoire: exporting 60% of cocoa beans, the country does not produce a single gram of chocolate.
«We sell metal and import cars, the prices of which are stable. We export grain and import pasta. We must abandon the raw-material model», - concluded Dmytro Natalukha.
In turn, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Svitlana Panaiotidi noted that the discussed strategy is based on priority national economic interests.
«This document is very thoroughly prepared, allowing us to conclude how many challenges we are dealing with within the country, in foreign economic policy, from the perspective of financial security, and so on. Economic security is a state of the economy in which basic national economic interests are achieved and economic sovereignty is ensured», - the Deputy Minister is convinced.
According to her, this Strategy defines all possible indicators that will allow achieving the final goal. After its adoption, relevant documents and draft laws will be developed for each direction to implement the document.
Representatives of business associations also had their say during the meeting. Grigol Katamadze, President of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine and member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Business Council, believes that our state has delayed the adoption of such a document for too long. After all, Russia—the aggressor state—adopted a similar strategy back in 2017, outlining economic threats, including those regarding neighboring countries.
«One of the main foundations of economic security is fiscal security. We conducted research and obtained interesting conclusions regarding these challenges and threats. For example, we only talk about the tax on withdrawn capital. But Poland, which is a major, powerful competitor to Ukraine, adopted this law, which came into effect on January 1st. I hope this will be implemented in Ukraine in the near future», - stated Grigol Katamadze.
According to the founder of Intecracy Group and Chairman of the Board of the Software Ukraine Association, Yuriy Syvytskyi, one of the components of economic security is reducing the role of the state in the economy in many processes.
«The idea of the strategy was to apply the principle of how the state operates, to move to a model that stimulates and protects the economy and the Ukrainian producer. Currently, we see that new state-owned enterprises are being created under every ministry. Instead of services being provided by private companies and businesses, the state is engaged in non-core functions. It would be good to create a group that could change the state's view on the economy. The state should perform a strategizing function. Then the economy will start to develop. But now, we are constantly expecting some kind of trick», - noted Yuriy Syvytskyi.
In response, Ms. Panaiotidi assured that the Strategy-2030, proposed by the Government, takes into account the approach of gradually reducing the state's share. Furthermore, the Government and Parliament intend to continue listening to the opinions of businesses and experts during the development of key economic strategies.
Following the discussion, the participants agreed on further cooperation to finalize the draft Strategy so that by March, when it is to be put into effect by the NSDC and the President, the Strategy will describe all possible economic threats and ways to neutralize them.