Campaign Program for Dictatorship of Destitution?

Ruslan MALASHENKO, deputy director general, Helvex Financial Agency:

Criticizing Leonid Kuchma certainly does not look pretty; after all, he is our President. Yet many of the figures he mentioned make one wonder. For example, that million new jobs. It sounds attractive, but the question is how profitable these jobs will be. If not, who will finance them? At whose expense will all these people live? Even now the state owes so much money to budget-sustained organizations and pensioners. If these jobs are subsidized by the state it will be an additional burden on all of us. I think that it takes a different approach. 53% of our enterprises are unprofitable. If they could operate effectively all those jobless workers would be back at work and we wouldn't have to pay for them.

As for the President's promise to raise GDP, I would like to believe him very much. However, the focal point is that in actual prices will rise, but in terms of relative prices the reverse will be true. Say, compared to 1998, GDP rose 95% during six months of this year in relative prices and 121% in actual ones. And the budget deficit presents an unattractive picture, hitting 8% of GDP in the first half of the year. So how can one expect a GDP increment in 2000?

Today, two-month back wages are not even regarded as arrears. People living in the provinces look horrible, and most enterprises are in total ruin. Of course, one wants to hope for the best, but the figures indicate absolutely the opposite.

Serhiy CHUKMASOV, People's Deputy:

I would like to see the precise calculations that allowed the President to cite all those «basic parameters.» I think his was a presidential candidate's speech meant to get him reelected. It cannot be explained otherwise. So far there is no telling how all his promises will be carried out. Perhaps more detail will be provided in the extended campaign program. However, from the economic standpoint the current situation (I mean the public debt and next year's interest payments) makes one wonder precisely how all these promises can agree with the realities.

Hennady SUDORHIN, general director, Information Systems Research and Production Enterprise:

It is hard if at all possible to believe the man who introduced the dictatorship of destitution in this country. Now he says he did not have the time to accomplish everything and asks for another term. It is utterly impossible to believe his promises. And take his entourage. Representatives of clans besiege him and dictate their terms. No matter what the President promises the people, he serves only the interests of his entourage. His Independence Day speech was just one more farce, another serving of lies. He was Prime Minister and did nothing, and as President has done nothing. And now he has gone beyond the limit of people's faith. I say this as an ordinary honest Ukrainian businessman.