Ukraine's still practically nonexistent gold-mining industry has turned into a priority target in view of the forthcoming presidential campaign. Mr. Kuchma signed an edict setting up the State Department for the Gold Mining and Processing Industry, granting this new bureaucratic body the status of a "central executive organ" but accountable to the Ministry of Industrial Policy. Officially, its ideology sounds very proper: implementation of a national policy, developing the industry, improving secondary processing technologies, and establishing international contacts.
The latter is regarded by experts is the only way in which Ukraine may get some actual revenues in the near future. Gold deposits existed and were known in Ukraine during Soviet times. Prospecting and development would simply have required huge capital investments. And what about now? Will such expenses benefit the sequestered budget program? A rhetorical question, of course. Yet there seem to be enough funds to spend on yet another huge bureaucratic apparatus. Why not? The project is labeled as having "national importance." Meanwhile the geologists in the field are on short rations.
Most likely, the Cabinet will concentrate on attracting foreign investors to this promising industry. No one knows, however, how these investors will respond, considering Ukraine's investment climate these days.






