PERSON
after our fruitful cooperation, everythinghas
changed. Austrian Embassy operates in Kyiv,
and there aremany Austrian companieswork-
ing inUkraine. All this is a signof pragmatic
approach theAustrians use towards Ukraine
and the interest they demonstrate to long-term
cooperation.
Unfortunately, inUkraine people do not
realize that Austrians and Europeans in general
lack information onUkraine and that infor-
mation campaigns are needed to promote
Ukraine in Europe.
–Dr.Huk,whatdoyou thinkabout the
followinghypothetical situation: ifaverage
Austrianbusinessman faces thenecessity
tochoosebetweenaGermancompanyand
Ukrainiancompany,wouldhebewilling to
chooseUkrainianpartner?
–You know, this issuewas topical 10 years
ago. Today, Austrianbusiness has come to
Ukraine’smarket (I have alreadymentioned
Fischer, though there aremanymore compa-
nies). Their success inUkraine is adirect proof of
correctness of their choice.
Inorder to stimulateAustria –Ukraine
relationships in the very beginning, colossal
political work had tobe done: government sup-
port of both countries had tobe secured and
certain intergovernmental agreements had to
be signed. Today, this issue has been resolved.
I want to say that not only Austrian companies
work inUkraine –Ukrainianbusinesses also
enter Austrianmarket.
– Is theshareofUkrainianbusiness in
Austriasignificant?
–Yes. You see, Austrianpopulation is only 8
millionpeople, while almost 50millionpeople
live inUkraine. These aredifferent scales.When
aUkrainian company comes toAustria, its scale
is different –Ukrainianmediumbusinesses are
much larger that Austrianmediumbusinesses.
–Manypeople talkaboutbuildingEurope
inUkraine thesedays.AlthoughUnitedArab
Emiratesaremuch farther fromUkraine
thanUkraine, therepeoplegotveryclose to
Europeanstandardsof living…
–This summer, General Director of Ukrainian
TradeCenter Sergey Pachkovskiy invitedme to
Dubai. I heard about Dubai before. Manyofmy
friendswent there andwere very excitedwhen
they cameback. Doctors fromDubai also visit us
for consultations or training. However, I hadno
idea about the situation in the region. Europeans
have tobe very focusedon the situation,
because in10 years this region is going tobe the
FirstWorld, not theThirdWorld. And if Europe
misses themoment, we aregoing tobecome the
thirdWorld. This is aglobal issuebecause it con-
cernsUkraine and the EU andRussia and all the
Arab countries using theBritish system.
Many interesting conferences areheld in the
EU, where theydiscuss the futureof Europe. It
is hard tooverestimate the roleof Ukraine and
UNFORTUNATELY, INUKRAINE
PEOPLEDONOTREALIZE
THATAUSTRIANSAND
EUROPEANS INGENERAL LACK
INFORMATIONONUKRAINE
ANDTHAT INFORMATION
CAMPAIGNSARENEEDEDTO
PROMOTEUKRAINE INEUROPE
by
RUSSIAN EMIRATES
74
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