Ukroboronprom may be incorporated into state holding system proposed PM
Director General of the state-owned concern Ukroboronprom Aivaras Abromavicius supports the creation of a state holding that would unite large strategic state-owned companies, and considers it possible to integrate Ukroboronprom into its structural system.
"The process is right. I will support both the prime minister and the minister of economy if they continue to push this idea. We should create such a holding," Abromavicius, who was the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine in 2014-2016, and he himself proposed creating such a holding, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that this practice is widely used in the countries of Scandinavia, Southeast Asia and as a whole is a global trend.
"The main idea of the state holding is that state-owned companies should be managed in a centralized way: more professionally, with the employment of people from the private sector. But, unfortunately, there was no political will then. As always, we could not agree on how many companies would be integrated, what way the leader would be elected," said the ex-minister.
Abromavicius stressed that the issue of choosing the leadership of such a state holding, which will be more important than individual ministers, is crucial: "In the wrong political situation, there is a big risk that we immediately hand over all the property to the hands of some not very good people."
Commenting on the discussion whether it is worth creating one holding or several industry ones, the ex-head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade expressed the view that there should be one holding on top, and there may be some industry clusters put under its control, including Ukroboronprom. He added that the state concern lacks some specifics, according to which it could not become part of such a state holding.
Ukroboronprom should be managed in a professional and transparent way. We must work to modernize, supply high-quality weapons to our armed forces. Therefore, there should not be any special approaches," said Abromavicius.
According to him, of the 150 largest arms manufacturers in the world, almost all companies are public.