BUDGET/FINANCE 

Last Friday, The Day's editorial office hosted Viktor Yushchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.  A few hours before, President Leonid Kuchma met with economic and financial experts to discuss the work of the NBU and of the banking system in general; however, Viktor Yushchenko was not invited to that meeting and learned about it only in our editorial office.

What could this mean?  Is the President changing horses for a currency ford across the crisis that has undermined the financial system of the country?  Despite all the tricks played by the journalists who attended the meeting, the NBU Governor stayed away from politics and carried on a purely professional discussion, proving with specific figures that Ukrainians have all reasons to trust the hryvnia and the country's banking system.  Apparently, those were the same trump cards that he had put on the table of the current difficult negotiations in Washington with the IMF and the World Bank.  In a word, Yushchenko is trying to stand up for the hryvnia at all levels and claims that he has all grounds to do so.  Strangely enough, to some extent the President is publicizing the opposite opinion, while at the same time appealing not to over-dramatize the situation with the exchange rate, whose stabilization has so far been the only accomplishment of the government since Ukraine's independence.  Doesn't this approach represent an attempt to remove the popular competitor?  The meeting with Yushchenko did not give a final answer to this question; however, it did convince the participants that the hryvnia defenders, despite all the criticism, have a large potential and that they are capable of restoring confidence in the national currency both in Ukraine and abroad.

For a more detailed account of the discussion, please see the next issue of The Day.

The Day reporters met Lyudmyla, a Kyiv schoolteacher, at the Obolon flea market. She is still trying to teach her first-graders to be wise and kind. However, in her spare time between classes she caters hot meals to the market traders. "I get only Hr 100 a month," cries out Lyudmyla, "and my husband, an artist, is the author of several textbooks that are used in schools across Ukraine, but he is not receiving his salary either. I simply have no other choice."
As of Teachers Day, back wages for teachers stand at a total of Hr 339 million. In the Ternopil and Kirovohrad Oblasts alone, teachers have not been paid their legally earned, albeit meager, salaries for two years. However, teachers from only 14 schools in Kirovohrad Oblast and 2 schools in Kyiv and Transcarpathian Oblasts each are currently continuing their strike. 

The Kherson Oblast is regaining its lost reputation as the "tomato republic". According to predictions, at least 160,000 tons of tomatoes will be harvested this year, ten times more than last year. The Day correspondent Vasyl Piddubniak reports that farms will send a major part of the harvest to collective processing plants and canneries in Kherson and Skadovsk. The well-known Ukrainian-Swedish joint venture Chumak is working three shifts these days. Because of a lack of tomato paste, the joint venture at one time was forced to import the half-finished product from China. Now there will be enough to even think about exportation: Turkey is making deals with the Oblast to purchase the tomato paste.