Hroisman’s French “rendezvous”

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman begins a two-day working visit to France on October 27. In the course of his first visit to that country, the head of government will meet French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Minister of Finance and the Economy Michel Sapin, and President of the Senate of France Gerard Larcher. Besides, Hroisman will take part in a French-Ukrainian business forum and meet top executives of France’s leading industrial and financial companies.

Incidentally, President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine paid an official visit to France on April 22, 2015, and the then Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk did so three weeks later. Since he was elected president, Poroshenko has visited France for about 10 times. His visits usually dealt with the preparation and implementation of the Minsk Agreements as part of Normandy format summits.

As is known, the premier is in charge of economic matters in this country, which raises the question of what hopes Ukraine is pinning on Hroisman’s visit to Paris and his participation in the business forum. The Day put this question to Leonid LITRA, a senior research associate at the Institute of World Politics, who took part in drawing up the debate notes “Auditing the Foreign Policy: Ukraine-France.”

“THE BUSINESS FORUM WILL DRAW ATTENTION TO THE EXISTING OPPORTUNITIES IN UKRAINE”

“Ukraine has great expectations from this visit. On the one hand, France is the European Union’s second largest economy and the second partner in the EU after Germany. On the other hand, France is only the eighth largest investor in Ukraine. We expect France to be a more active investor in Ukraine and our country to have more French investment projects.

“As for the business forum, it has been postponed many times. It was first put off due to terrorist acts in Paris and then because Ukraine was in a political crisis and it was not clear who will be the prime minister.

“It took a long time to prepare this forum. The Ukrainian side expects France, first of all, to increase its investments. We know a lot of instances when French entrepreneurs launched successful businesses in Ukraine. But, to attract more French investments, we must solve the current problems of business. Among them is VAT refunding and issue of visas to the families of French businessmen. These are the problems of Ukraine, and the forum will, unfortunately, not solve them. The forum is an event that will draw attention to the existing opportunities in Ukraine. And there are very many of them.”

And what messages should Hroisman put across when he will be meeting the top French leadership and taking part in the business forum?

“Firstly, he should say clearly that the government is tackling the problems that French and other Western businesspeople are facing. After this forum, French businesspeople and investors should know for sure that they can go to and invest in Ukraine without fearing that they will be robbed of their business or come across any other problems. The Ukrainian premier is supposed to try to convince them of this.

“I think Hroisman will find it difficult to do so because these problems have been on the agenda for many years. And some of them are either not being addressed or are being addressed very slowly and, what is more, selectively.

“As for French investments, they can be found in many sectors – not only in agriculture, as most of people think erroneously. In reality, farming is the first sector where there are French investments. The second sector is banking and financial services. The third is retail chains and supermarkets, such as Auchan, Leroy-Merlin, and Vinolioub. The fourth is the transportation sphere. The CMA CGM group offers to build a large-ship terminal in Odesa, while Alstom is carrying out a joint project – with the City Transport Group (LAZ) – to make streetcars. The fifth and sixth are the burgeoning cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors of Ukraine. The seventh sector is building a cover (‘sarcophagus’) over the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant with the participation of French companies Bouygues Construction and VINCI.

“So I must emphasize that France is present in Ukraine and could be present in still more sectors. But the obstacle is the domestic problems which Ukraine has failed to solve in the past two and a half years. One of them is, of course, corruption. But it is rather an elastic notion. The French are, first of all, concerned about independence of courts. They want to be sure that if they have to go to court, it will handle their case fairly. In other words, their main expectation from Ukraine is judicial reform.

“In this case, the investment forum is the right event to show that there are opportunities for investors in Ukraine. But it is much more important to convince French investors at this forum that they can invest in Ukraine and they will have no problems on the part of governmental bodies which have been traditionally considered as a stumbling block to foreign business.”

Will Hroisman’s assurances be sufficient, or, in other words, is he an independent enough figure to solve the abovementioned problems?

“I don’t know if he will manage to convince French investors. In my view, he did not look convincing enough during his visit to the US and participation in the business forum. Judging by publications and expert opinions, he only tried to create a good impression of himself and show that he could solve a lot of problems.”