How does Ukraine stand out among nearly 200 other countries? What makes it competitive? What is Ukraine’s brand and can it be sold to the world?
Officials, businessmen, artists, academics and marketing experts gathered on Sept. 19 to mull these questions and more at the Fedoriv Hub in Kyiv at the Kyiv Post’s third Straight Talk public discussion.
“When we speak about a brand we need to find some essence, to find something that is really a point of differentiation,” said Andriy Fedoriv, the founder and CEO of Fedoriv marketing agency and one of the panelists at the discussion.
“And it has to reflect our real place in the world,” he said.
Fedoriv said that, paradoxically, the fact that Ukraine is currently under-developed, and “a little bit wild,” means there are opportunities for investors.
“If you’re willing to take a risk, if you’re ready to think like a venture capitalist here, you could get a great return on an investment,” he said.
Other panelists included Anatoliy Solovey, the head of Public Diplomacy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Artem Bidenko, the state secretary at the Ministry of Information Policy, Dennis Gurak, the deputy CEO for foreign economic activity at the Ukroboronprom state-run arms producer, Yuriy Sorochynskiy, the CEO of the Nemiroff vodka company, and pop singer Ruslana Lyzhychko, who won the Eurovision song contest for Ukraine in 2004.
The discussion was moderated by Dmytro Fedoruk, a partner at Redcliffe Partners law firm.
Time travel
Bidenko, from the Ministry of Information Policy, said that fact that Ukraine lags behind a lot of other countries means foreigners who travel here can effectively travel back in time as well, and experience what their parents experienced in the 1980s or 1990s.
“It could be clubbing, it could be investing, it could be adventures,” he said.
Bidenko said that the government has created a special commission of specialists in branding, in public diplomacy and management, including some from Britain, who will determine what brand is best for Ukraine.
He added that Ukraine badly needs to take a sober look at what the essence of the country is, and work systematically to develop its potential — something it hasn’t done for the 26 years of its independence.
Volunteer movement
Ruslana, who became the “voice of the EuroMaidan Revolution” in 2014, said Ukraine was special for being a country that has created one of the biggest volunteer movements in the world.
“That means that if you have any social or charity project, it’ll be very easy to implement it in Ukraine,” she said.
Ruslana said the movement, which emerged in response to the EuroMaidan Revolution and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, had made Ukrainians take more responsibility for conditions in their country.
She added that Ukrainians are a hardworking and inventive nation, while Ukraine’s village culture is a great source of inspiration for artists and musicians — Ruslana’s own Eurovision-wining song “Wild Dances” was inspired by folk melodies from the Carpathian Mountains.
Changing cliché
However, Fedoriv said that currently Ukraine is better known worldwide for its troubles and sorrows, including the disaster at the Chornobyl power plant in 1986, the tragic events of the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, and Russia’s war against Ukraine, which the Kremlin launched in 2014.
The country needs to change its image, switching the focus from its troubles to its heroes, he said.
“We have plenty of success stories,” Fedoriv said. “We need to focus not on our negative past, which, though important and crucial for the nation, has to be balanced with a positive vision and successful examples.”
He added that Ukraine’s modern heroes are “successful young people who have successfully built global companies.”
Best value
Fedoriv said Ukraine was also known for good value for money — a result of the sharp devaluation of the national currency the hryvnia, caused by Russia’s war and deep economic crisis.
He said Ukrainians should not be ashamed of the weakness of the hryvnia, but rather take advantage of it. Foreign tourists choose to travel here because of the good quality and reasonable prices of local goods and services, he said.
Low prices have been a boon for the development of the restaurant and entertainment business in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities over the last three years, he added.
“Ukraine is cheap. But that makes us attractive.”
Lack of trust
However, all these advantages of Ukraine have to be weighed against the huge risks faced by foreign investors, who can fall victim to corruption and pressure from law enforcement bodies.
Luc Jacobs, the ambassador of Belgium to Ukraine, said that over the three years of his mission in Ukraine he has had to continually deal with problems encountered by Belgian investors here. “The situation on the ground is not changing convincingly enough,” he said.
Sorochynskiy, the CEO of Nemiroff, joked that Ukraine needs to “replace the Ukrainian court system with the English court system” in order to give investors the confidence to work here.
“If we protect private property in Ukraine, we’ll attract a huge amount of investment,” he said.
Land of opportunity
David Brown, an ethnic Georgian IT entrepreneur from Mykolayiv, said that Ukraine’s current laws don’t fully protect intellectual property or foster sustainable and reliable businesses.
On the other hand, the wild and risky business environment is a good platform from which to launch startups or venture projects.
Those who have a good idea can travel here and start businesses, hire professional specialists for reasonable salaries, and start selling their products worldwide.
“So this is a country of opportunities,” Brown said.
See more photos from the third Kyiv Post’s Straight Talk public discussion in the special gallery.
