“There is no alternative but to come out on the Maidan”
The small and medium business congress heard a lot of questions that remained unanswered because the authorities ignored the forum
Last Thursday Kyiv hosted the annual all-Ukrainian congress of small-scale and medium business. About 500 people gathered in the morning in Ukrainian Home, the venue of the forum. This means there was no dearth of those who were going to tell about their problems, but what the entrepreneurs said did not reach the main addressees of their speeches. Small and medium businesspeople never saw at least one Cabinet minister or representative of the Presidential Administration. Among those who came to hear the entrepreneurs’ soliloquy were only representatives of some political parties and sectoral associations, journalists, and the UDAR leader Vitali Klitschko.
According to Klitschko, small-scale and medium business is the core of the middle class and the state in all economically and democratically developed countries. For example, small- and medium-scale businesses account for about 50 percent of GDP in the countries of “old” Europe and 30-40 percent in Eastern Europe. At the same time, the Concept of a National Program of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development for 2014-24, now being applied in Ukraine, calls for the figure of 7 percent only. “It is because small and medium business is of no benefit to the current Ukrainian government,” Klitschko says, commenting on what causes the low development rate of small-scale business in trade. In his words, when entrepreneurs came out on the so-called “Tax Maidan” in 2010, they forced the government to reckon with them and their rights.
Yet Klitschko notes that the government has not dropped the idea of destroying strong and independent entrepreneurs and has chosen a different tactic – gradual destruction of small-scale and medium business sector-wise, size-wise, and region-wise.
The Day asked Klitschko if he would start a business of his own today from scratch. Vitali answered: “Yes, but it is very difficult in the current conditions.” “Firstly, there is no competitive environment. Secondly, conditions are very bad for small-scale and medium business. The earnings of small and medium businesses have halved, investors are leaving Ukraine – so, with this in view, it is rather difficult to launch and carry out business. I recently visited the Czech Republic and spoke with the Ukrainian small and medium businesspeople who work there. About 40 to 50 came and said: ‘We are eager to work in Ukraine, but there are no proper conditions for work. When these conditions are created, we will be ready to come back,’” the popular politician says.
Yet, in spite of the not-so-easy conditions of work, business is not going to let the government lead it by the nose, says Oksana Prodan, MP, chairperson of Fortetsia, an all-Ukrainian association of small-scale and medium business people, on behalf of entrepreneurs. Small-scale entrepreneurs have already succeeded in blackballing the bill on cash registers for those who work on a simplified basis and the bill on domestic trade. She says that one more position has been won back today: the law on penal sanctions for the entrepreneurs who fail to equip their cash registers with special modems to transmit online their accounts to taxmen by July 1, 2013, will take effect a year later than expected. A deal has already been made with the government to this effect, Prodan says. Besides, she continues, a bill has been submitted to parliament on behalf of business on effective judicial system, twofold reduction of the single social fee and a simplified system of its assessment. The MPs will also have to reconsider the bill on a single window, which calls upon officials, not businesspeople, to collect licensing documents.
Business showed an interesting reaction. The entrepreneurs kept silent during the forum. Why did they keep silent? The Day asked them about this after the congress.
“Business is fed up with knocking on the door of the government which is deaf to it. Most of the problems are being ignored rather than tackled. Therefore, there is no alternative but to come out on the Maidan. And when somebody says it is not worthwhile to come out and protest, I will say that nobody has suggested anything else. In Europe, 100 to 200 thousand people may be publicly protesting. Entrepreneurs are of this opinion. When the government does not hear them, they have no other options,” says Mykola Naumenko, executive manager of the association United Enterprises of Nizhyn District, commenting on the behavior and mood of businesspeople.
By contrast, the Kyiv-based entrepreneur Valerii Babiy says he is satisfied with the congress, but he would like the top echelons to hear businesspeople. “I want at least something to change for the better, for it is next to impossible to work honestly,” he stresses. According to the entrepreneur, what hinders his business (vegetable sales) is unauthorized on-the-street trade. “They have faulty scales, and have no certificates – no control at all. This affects the price of vegetables,” he says. The entrepreneur says he wants the state do just one thing: “Business conditions should be the same for all. Why should I pay all the taxes and the rent, while others don’t want to do so?”
