An important issue of the third Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF), to be held on October 6-7, 2016, will be the search for specific instruments to support economic growth, which are the most suitable for today’s Ukrainian reality.

Discussions at last year’s Forum related to the development of promising economic sectors and some areas have brought to light that creating legal framework for the entire country is a necessary, but insufficient condition to facilitate rapid development. This requires specialized institutions. In particular, an export credit agency is an indispensable tool for increasing non-resource exports of each developed country. But Ukraine has not created the appropriate agency for over 20 years. The same goes for a development bank. The situation does not differ much when it comes to industrial parks and other special regimes in particular areas. Changes in legislation introduced in 2014-2015 made it possible to take real action. However, implementing internationally recognized practice of creating the areas that are different from common ones and stimulating business environment to attract investors turned out to be extremely slow.

The discussion “Establishing Institutions for Sustainable Development” will be dedicated to the prospects of establishing the aforementioned institutions in Ukraine. It will bring together Innovation Policy Advisor at the World Bank Peter Lindholm, Professor of Finance at IMD (International Institute for Management Development) Arturo Bris, CEO and founder of Kocaeli Free Zone (Turkey) Ertugrul Işıksoy, First Vice President of ULIE (the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs) and founder of K.Fund Vasyl’ Khmel’nyts’kyi, as well as Member of the Supervisory Board of Eurocar CJSC and Director of Sezparkservice LLC Volodymyr Panov.

Main driver of the economic renewal of Ukraine can become implementing innovations in manufacturing. Many economic experts are confident of the fact that combining the Ukrainian IT companies’ options and industrial needs is the most effective way to increase the competitiveness of domestic products in global markets. Instead, our manufacturers and IT companies are still unable to join forces out of the absence of adequate government attention to the industrial sector. After all, the Ukrainian companies cannot independently search for and implement innovations because of the significant financial risks.

Despite the fact that over the past two years there have been some attempts to create innovation policy in Ukraine, progress has been negligible. Industrial startup funding is still an open issue because of the absence of the venture investors and funds in Ukraine. Both production of industrial designs and mass production of finished products based on Ukrainian inventions take place in China and other countries. Corporate innovation practices that would allow even an average Ukrainian company to get access to innovation market and provide lucrative global sales of its products will be discussed by the panelists of “Creating Innovation Clusters for Ukrainian Industry”. Among them is Distinguished Professor of Materials Engineering at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and Nobel Prize Winner (2011) Dan Shechtman, General Partner of Wadi Ventures Israeli Venture Capital Company Jonathan Pacifici, CEO of Microsoft Ukraine Nadiia Vasyl’ieva, co-founder of TradeHub and BlackBox Capital Yevhen Sarantsov, Cisco Regional Business Development Manager (Ukraine/CIS) Valerii Fishchuk and Peter Lindholm.

The real mechanism of Ukraine’s economic development should be the National Bank. However, the NBU management believes that the only tool for creating conditions for economic growth today is to ensure stability of Ukrainian currency. What can and should be changed in the National Bank activities to make it an effective mechanism for development, not a dogmatic apologist for monetary policy? The discussion entitled “Development Strategy of the Ukrainian Banking System” will aim to answer this and other related questions. It will be attended by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Financial Policy and Banking Serhii Rybalka, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland Grzegorz W. Kolodko, Expert at the Central Bank of Japan and Advisor to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Masaru Tanaka, Vice President of National Bank of Poland Anna Trzecinska and CEO of the Center for Market Economy Development (CMD-Ukraine) Yurii Prozorov.

Another way to stimulate the real sector of the economy may be the use of the Pension Fund resources. Can be pension reform experiences of other countries useful for Ukraine? How are pension fund resources used for developing the real sector of the economy in the world? Is there any link between pension reform and capital market reform? How can pension fund investment in residential construction influence GDP growth and economy in general? These issues will be considered during the discussion “Pension Funds as an Important Resource for Economic Growth”. It will feature President of the International Federation of Pension Fund Administrators (FIAP) Guillermo Arthur, the well-known Norwegian economist Erik Reinert, Chairman of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) Timur Khromaiev and Vice President of KINTO Asset Management Company Vitalii Mel’nychuk.

In general, the third KIEF will bring together several dozen leading foreign and Ukrainian economists, reformers, businessmen and government officials, including experts from countries, whose experience of economic transformation can be useful for Ukraine.

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Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) is a permanently operating venue for the formation of Ukrainian economic development strategy. It is aimed to set up a dialogue between experts, businesses and government, borrowing the best international practices, creating a road map for the development and promotion of the conversion of ideas into the real action.

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