At a meeting of the Presidential Council on Entrepreneurship Support on June 17, McKinsey presented its approaches to developing an economic strategy for Ukraine, which should be ready within six months, said businessman Sergiy Tigipko, an independent advisor to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President’s Office and head of the Council on Entrepreneurship Support.
"This will be a medium-term program for Ukraine’s economic development for 7-10 years," Tigipko said in Kyiv Thursday at the Concorde Capital investment conference, which the investment company held for the first time since 2019.
He clarified that McKinsey faces two constraints in its work on the strategy, which began two months ago: European integration and the need to build the most liberal economy in the European Union.
Tigipko called on businesses to join the strategy’s development and help finance it. He recalled that the idea for its development arose two months ago at the previous meeting of the Entrepreneurship Council.
"We discussed it and said there were many excellent solutions that worked: the 5-7-9 program, business parks—many good things. There were solutions that didn’t. But still, there was a lack of systemic approach," explained the businessman, who is the founder and head of the major financial and industrial group TAS, and who also once headed the National Bank, served twice as deputy prime minister in the government, and as a member of parliament. According to him, this idea was supported by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his office.
As several other members of the Council for Entrepreneurship Support told Interfax-Ukraine, work on the economic strategy includes developing individual sectoral strategies.
Tigipko added that a regional approach is also planned.
He explained the need to fund the development of this strategy by arguing that the liberal approach must be aligned with the requirements of European integration and then implemented two years before joining the EU.
"Therefore, if anyone has any ideas for their sector—and that will include a sectoral approach, a regional approach, a shared vision on taxes, deregulation, and so on—they need to hire someone from the Big Four or one of the advisors," the businessman emphasized.
He said he hired BDO to study the audit experience in order to create "the most liberal regime, the most correct one in the European Union."
