The three symptoms,

All the conditions needed for the expansion of the trade and economic cooperation in the near future between Ukraine and Georgia are at hand. This was stated by Serhii Tihipko, deputy prime minister of Ukraine and minister of social policy, during the 7th meeting of the Georgia-Ukraine Joint Intergovernmental Economic Commission.

The official emphasized that Ukraine remained one of Georgia’s largest external trade partners, and the volume of bilateral trade was constantly growing. The deputy prime minister indicated that the increase of the volume of mutual investments was one of the most promising areas of cooperation. He also pointed out that the government of Ukraine was doing its best to create the positive investment environment. “The work in this direction is in full swing, we did not just decrease the number of taxes and tax rates, but we have also drastically shortened the list of licenses and other types of permits required for business. The investment climate improvement is the strategic task of the Ukrainian government,” Tihipko emphasized.

The meeting resulted in the protocol of the Georgia-Ukraine Joint Intergovernmental Economic Commission signed by Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Social Policy Serhii Tihipko and Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia and State Minister for European and Atlantic Integration Giorgi Baramidze.

However, Tihipko, unlike his colleague from Georgia, did not wish to communicate with those who would soon have to feel the result of the signed agreements and can already tell a lot about the “positive” Ukrainian business climate. Though Ukrainian deputy prime minister was announced to be the main speaker at the Ukraine-Georgia International Business Forum, dedicated to the activity of the intergovernmental commission, he did not make his appearance. “He fell ill,” Mykhailo Brodsky, the chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship, explained the absence of his “boss” to Ukrainian and Georgian business community. [As a reminder: on Friday, when the forum actually took place, Tihipko appeared in Yevgeny Kiseliov’s talk show Big Politics. – Ed.]

So, it was Brodsky who had to do the work. It was clear that he came unprepared. His 7.5-minute speech was nothing but common phrases and promises of the good old “improvement that is already happening today.” “We hope for investors to come to your country. Besides, we hope that our investments will be welcome in your country too,” Brodsky parried. He cheerfully invited everyone to appeal to his “service” that is “engaged in deregulation processes.” The final touch was added when he invited everyone to message him on Facebook, which was probably done to convince Georgian businessmen of the hospitality of Ukrainian officials. “We have the direct connection. I check it personally in the morning, and at night, when I cannot fall asleep,” Brodsky boasted of the “openness” and availability of Ukrainian government. However, when he was instructing the businessmen on how they should find him on Facebook, nobody in the hall reached for a piece of paper and a pen to put down the “instructions.”

It looked like this speech came as a surprise to Brodsky himself. However, the most interesting details are revealed namely in such conditions of unpreparedness. For example, when Brodsky addressed the Georgian part of the forum, he stressed for a couple of times that Ukrainian business hoped that its investments would be eagerly accepted in Georgia. But why does Ukrainian business not invest so eagerly in Ukrainian economy? This slip-up practically cancelled out half of his emotional speech on reforms and favorable climate in Ukraine. It is obvious that if business hopes to receive a warm welcome in foreign countries while its native country experiences an urgent need of investments, it is not all that rosy at home.

Brodsky made an even more symptomatic slip while trying to convince the Georgians of the attractiveness of Ukrainian investments. “I know that there already are representatives of Ukrainian business in Georgia. The ‘Private’ Group is engaged in feroalloy business. But I do not know if they came to Georgia through offshores or directly from Ukraine. I think they did it through offshores. Though, they have done beautiful job here [in Ukraine. – Ed.]. They created a resort here. I am talking about tourism. And if they are going to start doing this in your country, it is going to be another quality investment from Ukraine,” Brodsky stressed.

“Cutting a long story short, in the areas where we are the most competitive, we are going to come to you; and you should come to us in the areas where you are more competitive and naturally active,” Brodsky tried to extemporize while summing up his short speech. He added that “if everything works well,” the annual trade turnover between Georgia and Ukraine should grow from one billion to two or even three.

The speech of Georgian deputy prime minister was less emotional, but it received a great ovation. Baramidze talked about the results of the intergovernmental commission’s activity and reported that Ukraine and Georgia agreed to cooperate in four projects: construction (Georgia is getting ready for the construction of a new sea port and a city near it), information channels (according to Baramidze, Georgia wants to have a direct communication line with Ukraine, instead of using Russia as a transfer zone), and two projects in the energy sector (transportation of the liquefied gas from Azerbaijan, and hydroelectric energy).