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Military, economic, energy, information, ecology and nuclear security reinforcement should become a priority of government policy, according to participants in an extended meeting of the Management Board of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) and the Anti-Crisis Council of Non-Governmental Organizations of Ukraine which was recently been held in Kirovohrad region.
The participants noted that the approval of the National Security Strategy of Ukraine was an important step towards an improvement in the country's defense capacity and the development of the defense industry. However, the government is yet to pass a new military doctrine and a state program for the reform and development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. To avoid turning this strategy into a merely declaratory instrument, it has to be supplemented with a relevant package of documents, including an action plan clearly outlining responsibilities, deadlines for implementation, etc.
ULIE President Anatoliy Kinakh says that Ukraine's defense industry can produce its own modern defense and offensive technologies, weapons, and other goods that support combat readiness of the army – military uniforms, food, etc. However, these capabilities are not used in full due to the inability and sometimes the lack of state orders for military equipment and uniforms.
"The ULIE has proposed that the Defense Ministry of Ukraine and state-run Ukroboronprom company should make new samples and upgrade military equipment at domestic machine building enterprises. However, in most cases these proposals were ignored. One of the reasons for this is the fact that Ukroboronprom has limited powers due to which it is unable to fulfill all tasks in the sphere of support for the defense industry. Thus, powers concerning the defense industry management should be passed to a state agency that would be charged with proper implementation of the government policy in the defense industry," he said.
An updated Anti-Crisis Program of Joint Actions of the Government and Businesses, which was approved at the extended meeting of the Anti-Crisis Council of Non-Governmental Organizations of Ukraine and the ULIE Management Board in Kirovohrad, contains a proposal to form state quotas for the defense industry taking into account the duration of the production cycle of at least 2-3 years. At the same time, management decisions should be directed at establishing a tight connection between the army, industry and science – which is the only way to develop the defense industry. That would bring two positive results to Ukrainian society – the defense of the country and resumption of work of huge enterprises that could provide hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians with jobs and push the entire economy towards revival.
Ukraine's business community has sent its proposals on the development of the defense industry to the country's leaders.