Tomas Fiala, Ivan Miklos and Slava Vakarchuk establish the Centre for Economic Strategy

[attachments]Tomas Fiala, CEO of Dragon Capital, Ukraine’s leading investment bank, Ivan Miklos, former deputy prime minister and minister of finance of the Slovak Republic, and Slava Vakarchuk, civic activist and musician, have decided to establish the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES), an independent policy think tank aimed at supporting reforms in Ukraine in order to achieve sustainable economic growth.

Centre for Economic Strategy will contribute to the development of an economic growth strategy for Ukraine, conduct independent analysis of the most important policy issues, and will build public support for reforms based on the following principles:

• Economic freedom (liberalisation, deregulation, privatisation)
• Free and fair competition
• Small but effective state
• Transparency and freedom of information
• Law enforcement and property rights protection
• Sound and sustainable public finance
• Knowledge-based economy

CES does not support any political party or any political leader.

“The new generation of politicians in the Verkhovna Rada and the Government have ambitions to change entrenched policy-making processes in Ukraine, refocusing from vested interests to the public good. However, they lack policy analysis capacity. Improving the quality of policies will drive economic growth in Ukraine and make the country attractive for investors”, comments Tomas Fiala who has served as the President of the European Business Association since 2010.

“Understanding and public support for reforms is lacking, and not only among ordinary citizens of Ukraine but also among politicians and opinion leaders such as journalists, NGO activists, and independent experts. Experience of market reforms in Central and Eastern Europe shows that public support is the crucial factor in reform success”, adds Ivan Miklos who currently advises the minister of economy and minister of finance of Ukraine.

“Ukraine is experiencing a critical moment in its history. Today, we are responsible for where we go and whom we will become. All of us, who seek real change, need to use all our power and possibilities in order to contribute to this process. That is why I am glad to be involved in establishing the Centre for Economic Strategy. Ukraine, more than ever, needs professional and unbiased analysis of the current situation and honest, sometimes painful, answers to important questions” – comments Slava Vakarchuk on his decision to become a co-founder of the centre.

Hlib Vyshlinsky will manage the think tank as executive director. Before this appointment he was a deputy managing director at GfK Ukraine, a leading Ukrainian market research company, where he worked since 2003. In 1997-2003 he was a project manager, publications director and deputy director at the International Centre for Policy Studies. Hlib started his career as an economic journalist and editor working in different media in 1993-1998.