In a talk that lacked depth but underscored the generational change under way in Ukraine’s leadership, 35-year-old Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk didn’t back away from his ambitious goals of growing the economy 40 percent in five years.
He said his youth is an asset, because he sees the world differently and in new ways than some older-generation politicians. As for details, “in a couple of weeks we will present a new program to parliament with plans, figures, details and discussions about what we all do.”
He said he’s “very optimistic” and the basis for it is the people.
“Ukrainians are a well-educated people, an underestimated people,” Honcharuk said. “Ukrainians are honest, decent, sincere people, and the long history of our country created an environment where Ukrainians were forced to lie and manipulate.” The prime minister ticked off many examples: Truckers overloading their vehicles, journalists taking money to produce fake news, businesses hiding their earnings from government tax inspectors.
But he said it’s not up to him to achieve the goal, but the responsibility of everyone in the room listening to him at the Yalta European Strategy Conference on Sept. 14 and also of everyone in Ukraine.
Emphasizing his dramatic change in status, Honcharuk noted that he came to Victor Pinchuk’s YES forum annually “as a young reformer,” but “never in the first row” as he is today.
The moderator of a 30-minute question-and-answer session with Honcharuk, private equity entrepreneur David Rubenstein, never got the discussion going much beyond generalities. Rubenstein asked the questions in English, while Honcharuk answered in Ukrainian.
He did, however, draw laughs from the audience when he tried to get the serious Honcharuk to answer personal questions.
Noting that Honcharuk is single, handsome and childless, he asked whether it’s easier to get dates as a prime minister.
“We agreed to talk about the economy, right?” Honcharuk replied.
He asked what his mother said when she learned he would be the prime minister.
“Good boy,” he replied.
“How does life change as prime minister?” Rubenstein asked.
“I have the same phone number I have had since…” Honchark said.
“What is that number?” Rubenstein asked.
“You do want me to change my phone number,” Honcharuk replied.
Rubenstein even noted that Honcharuk wears a three-piece suit with tie, unlike others of this generation.
Honcharuk replied that his is how he’s dressed for the last 10 years.
Rubenstein even tried to get Honcharuk to talk about his sport, playing football, and asked whether the people he competes with can get in trouble if they knock him over during play.
After repeating he’s here to talk about the economy, Honcharuk joked about his close association with new Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka, which may “scare” some of his opponents.
Rubenstein asked Honcharuk if, when he looks at himself in the mirror, he regrets taking the job.
“Well, I very rarely look in the mirror,” he said.
“Is there a reason you don’t look in the mirror?” Rubenstein replied.
“We agreed to talk about the economy,” Honcharuk said.
Rubenstein got more out of Honcharuk when he talked about the economy.
“Why should I invest in Ukraine?” Rubenstein asked.
“Because you can earn a lot of money here,” Honcharuk responded, noting that Ukraine’s “low base” allows investors to “penetrate the market cheaply.” He said “whoever comes first will make more than others.”
“What about corruption?” Rubenstein asked.
“That’s a huge problem for our country,” Honcharuk replied, but predicted boldly: “Very soon we won’t have corruption.” His strategy centers on “upgrading the state management who were the embodiment of corruption. I am very convinced if we re-launch the government with new, high-quality faces, the attitude will change, a new culture will come with new people.”
“What areas should I invest in?” Rubenstein said.
Honcharuk said it would take a long time to list the opportunities, but put the focus on an investment forum on Oct. 29 in Mariupol, the southeastern Donetsk Oblast city of 500,000 people located 832 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
He also talked about Ukraine’s 42 million hectares of beautiful farmland, solid infrastructure in some areas, and a coming demonopolization and large-scale privatization that will come. He talked about liberalizing the labor market from Soviet-holdover rules, saying it’s easier to get divorced in Ukraine than to hire and fire an employee. He also said greater environmental protection is needed to prevent diseases and premature deaths, arresting a demographic decline. He said government needs to help rectify a digital inequities growing in society.
He said that Ukraine needs a census soon. The last one took place in 2001.
“We indeed understand the country very poorly,” he said. “We need to make maximum inventory of what we have.”
He will be happy “when they don’t have to run away from their own country and abandon the place to lie and manipulate, I will be the happiest on the planet,” he said.
He made a plea for big businesses to bring “their capital back to Ukraine,” and look to the national interest rather than their narrow self-interests. He said the government will ensure an end to illegal corporate raiding and encourage the “free movement of capital. If there’s no boundaries, people are not afraid to invest here. We had raiders; and you could go to sleep as an owner and wake up and be stripped of ownership. That has to go into the past.”
He said he only got to know President Volodymyr Zelensky well in the last six months and is now convinced that “the choice of Ukrainian people is the right one.”
In his only remarks about Russia’s war against Ukraine, Honcharuk replied that “the best response is our own success” to the aggressor country. “We are planning to be very pragmatic,” he said.
He altered U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s catchphrase of the 2016 presidential election, saying “Let’s make Ukraine great…and happy.”
