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The economy has one eternal law: programs of import substitution get a new chance amid the devaluation of the national currency. It is the way of getting rid of total dependence on imports, which is very important to Ukraine, where 60-65% of the consumer market belongs to imported products. However, this requires a clear position of the state, measures to support national producers, system programs within public-private partnerships that help manufacturers attract investment for modernization and implement new technologies. This opinion was aired by President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Anatoliy Kinakh in an interview with one of Ukraine's mass media.
"Ukraine's powerful light industry, if it works, often uses raw materials on a tolling basis, which is in fact the sale of cheap labor force abroad. The most common goods — furniture, garden equipment — are shipped from abroad. At the same time it is clear: delivering what we already produce or can produce means replenishing foreign budgets and creating jobs in other countries. This is of course to the disadvantage of our own country. I am sure that we need strong state programs for import substitution, localization of production facilities that will support the domestic market, will create new jobs, will make a significant contribution to the stabilization of the economic situation," Anatoliy Kinakh said.
He reiterated that as of January 1, 2016, there will be a free trade between Ukraine and the EU. The domestic market will naturally see a significant number of competitive foreign goods. Clearly, only a powerful national manufacturer could endure this situation. It is not about the creation of the "Iron Curtain," but it is important that the domestic business could be able to grow in equal terms with foreign competition, and a well-considered and systematic state policy could help achieve this.
Anatoliy Kinakh said that the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs, which includes more than 100 business associations, had developed an anti-crisis program of joint actions of the government and businesses. It stresses the necessity to implement state programs for import substitution, develop national protectionism policy, which would not contradict Ukraine's WTO commitments and the Association Agreement with the EU. Measures to introduce the policy of protectionism should strengthen trade, financial and political positions of Ukraine in the world arena and enhance the benefits of international cooperation. The anti-crisis program of joint actions of the government and businesses offers detailed measures to implement this task through the resumption of lending to the real economy, implementation of active anti-monopoly policy, restoration of positive dynamics of industrial production, promotion of the development of infrastructure on the domestic market, and so on.