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The Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Ministry has eventually heard the demands of Ukraine's business community and begun work on hammering out a national export strategy and an action plan for the next five years.
These are numerous appeals and initiatives of the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs of Ukraine that have helped the authorities to realize the need to revise the current approach to foreign trade policy and identify its new priorities and determine what changes are needed in the regulatory and institutional framework, according to head of the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs and President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatoliy Kinakh.
"We began to ring alarm bells when domestic exports in 2014 fell by 13.5%. In 2015, the situation aggravated even more seriously: exports decreased by 35.9% January through April 2015 compared to the same period last year. After the removal of all trade restrictions for Ukrainian shipments to the EU, our exports there in 2014 grew by a mere 2.6%. Of course, the situation was significantly destabilized by fighting in the east, the annexation of the Crimea, a subsequent reduction in foreign trade activities and industrial production. However, the business community thinks that the major causes behind the aggravation were protracted economic reforms conducted by the authorities and the Central Bank's forex policy, which is aimed against entrepreneurs. That is why the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs of Ukraine has proposed to the government the anti-crisis program of joint actions, which gives prominence to the subject of how to facilitate exports," Kinakh said.
He stressed that the development of the national export strategy for which the ministry invited foreign experts, should also involve Ukrainian industrialists and entrepreneurs, business NGOs, which could give practical advice and make relevant comments proceeding from own experience of arranging and expanding export shipments under uneasy economic conditions.
The Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs believes that that the policy of the National Bank of Ukraine, which complicates the work of domestic exporters, cuts down opportunities of investment in modernization, leads to delays in payments and breaches of international contracts, should be changed immediately. The prolongation of last year's provisions on the mandatory sale of 75% of receipts in foreign currency and a 90-day period for payments for export and import operations and the March resolution by the NBU Board on the settlement of the situation in the money and forex markets of Ukraine considerably complicated the work of domestic exporters, created barriers, which make it impossible not only to expand foreign trade operations, but lead to the failure of already existing contracts, the loss of confidence by long-time foreign partners.
While preparing the export strategy, one should remember that the expansion of foreign operations should be preceded by the growth of international competitiveness of domestic products. The state should support export-oriented sectors of the economy, introduce international technology standards in the Ukrainian industry, develop financial, technical and information infrastructure.
The national strategy and a five-year action plan should include tasks aimed at a faster harmonization of technical regulations and standards with EU requirements to reduce production, commercial and investment risks associated with the loss of markets in the country's east. It is necessary to establish producers' access to loans on reasonable terms, provide for the possibility of export-oriented lending to importers to pay for purchases, and establish a system of export credit insurance to protect the property interests of exporters acting as lenders, against commercial and non-commercial risks.
The anti-crisis program proposed by the NGOs suggests reopening trade and economic missions at Ukraine's foreign diplomatic missions abroad.
"The export policy in Ukraine should fulfill tasks of the significant expansion of sales markets for Ukrainian products, and include a system of incentives to improve the quality of the products and boost exports of added-value goods," Kinakh said.