KIEV, January 24, /ITAR-TASS/. Sweeping mass protests In Ukraine may force Ukraine and Russia to suspend industrial cooperation, according to Anatoly Kinakh, the vice-chairman of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction and president of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
“The country’s solvency is going to decrease if the socio-economic and socio-political crisis gets worse,” Kinakh said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
He added that Kiev had already received the first 3-billion-dollar tranche from Moscow in exchange for the purchase of the first emission of the country’s sovereign Eurobonds.
“However, problems will certainly arise if Russia doubts Ukraine’s solvency and its ability to return the tranche,” Kinakh told Itar-Tass.
He explained that Ukraine would also have problems with long-term programmes, including aircraft-building, space and rocket complexes and the power sector.
The implementation of joint projects depends on how well partners implement the undertaken reciprocal commitments.
“Risks of political instability will immediately create risks of non-implementation that will certainly have a negative impact on long-term programmes,” the president of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov told a government meeting early in January that Ukraine had been planning to launch a program of industrial cooperation with Russia to full capacity since February.
He emphasized that it would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and budget guarantees at all levels in the next few years and would serve as a financial base for developing Ukraine’s domestic market.
According to Kinakh, mass protests have already affected Ukraine’s investment climate, distracting many investors from cooperation with Ukraine.
Kinakh told Itar-Tass that many entrepreneurs who had infrastructure projects in mind would like to start investing in them and even implement those projects in Ukraine.
“They are German, Lithuanian and some other investors,” the Ukrainian politician said.
“Unfortunately today we have to deal with a negative factor: some investors have lost trust in Ukraine as in a reliable and predictable partner because of sharp worsening of political situation,” Kinakh said.
Kinakh described the absence of investments as one of the main threats to the state. “There can be no development without investments,” the Ukrainian politician emphasized.
“Like never before, we need to reach a new level of understanding and put the course of events into a peaceful and democratic stream way to find the way out of the crisis on the basis of national dialogue and joint efforts to change the quality of a system, including a dialogue between the state and society,” the deputy said.
Commenting on President Yanukovich’s initiative to hold an extraordinary session of Verkhovnaya Rada (parliament) to consider a political settlement to the crisis, Kinakh said that the session would succeed only if the parties in conflict reached a consensus.
“I am constantly reminding our political opposition that Verkhovnaya Rada is a unique floor for discussion. Instead of stupidly blocking all decisions, it is necessary to lead a discussion and express suggestions,” Kinakh emphasized.
The agenda of the parliament’s extraordinary session scheduled for January 28 is yet to be approved.