Ukraine gets ready for WTO

The authorities from Kiev hope that Ukraine will adhere to World Trade Organization (WTO) in February, 8. Being at the economic forum from Davos, the president Viktor Iuscenko exposed the successes achieved by his country on the way of  carrying out the criteria of being accepted in WTO and called  the investors to buy industrial assets from Ukraine. He even presented a list with the enterprises put for sale. Among the registered units it was found the mining combine from Krivoi Rog and Ukrtelekom. He didn’t miss the occasion of boasting the Ukraine achievements to the premier Iulia Timosenko, being the other days to Brussels for discussions with the greatest of EU. On this background, the publication Ekonomicheskie izvestia, which appears to Kiev, realized an interview with the director of the company Renaissance Investment Management, Aleksandr Kociubei, wanting to find out the opinion of an expert about the attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy. Unlike the politicians’ optimism, Kociubei showed quite reserved in his predictions. „No, there won’t be an investment avalanche. It’s hard for me to believe that the foreign investors will renounce to other shares in order to buy the Ukrainian ones”. First of all, explains the specialist in the published quoted pages, „in the investors eyes the east-European markets are already integrated in the European financial system. Second of all, the investors know that here the prices for assets are exaggerate high. Anyhow, mentions Kociubei, the company he leads created an investment fund off-shore of 150 millions dollars and that injects money in infrastructure objectives from Russia. 25-30 companies with development potential were selected in this purpose. The interlocutor of the newspaper Ekonomicheskie izvestia thinks that on base of the world financial crisis, in 2008 will be registered a decrease of the general interest for investments. Though, metallurgy and chemical enterprises are areas that will continue on dragging the attention. As for the banking area, Kociubei is being pessimistic. „No, nobody will withdraw money, but others won’t come. Any case, there aren’t impressive values”, he estimated.