“Ukraine’s problem isn’t the oligarchs, but the fact that there are too few of them and they’re ‘resource-based,'” said Novak
18 March 14:48
The vast wealth of Ukrainian businesspeople, set against the backdrop of widespread poverty, often sparks outrage among the public. However, the main problem with the Ukrainian economy is not the existence of wealthy individuals per se, but rather how they earned their money and what they are doing to contribute to the country’s development. Economist Andriy Novak made this point in an interview with the YouTube channel "Komersant Ukrainian".
“Our problem isn’t that there are oligarchs. The problem is that there are too few of them and that they are mostly resource magnates. For an economy the size of Ukraine’s, ten very wealthy people aren’t enough—there should be over a hundred,” he noted.
The economist explained that most of Ukraine’s great wealth was accumulated back in the 1990s during privatization, when large enterprises passed into the ownership of a small circle of people, often connected to the government. Because of this, Ukrainian big business differs significantly from the success stories of the world’s richest people.
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“In global rankings, most of the richest people are those who built their businesses from scratch: founders of tech companies and new manufacturing enterprises. But most Ukrainian oligarchs didn’t build anything from scratch—they acquired large manufacturing assets during privatization,” Novak explained.
According to him, this is precisely why the key issue is not the wealth of individual people, but whether big capital is working toward the country’s development.
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“If big business invests in the country, creates manufacturing facilities and new technologies, and pays taxes—that’s beneficial for the economy. But if it’s just about exploiting resources and funneling money through offshore accounts, then the benefit to the country is minimal,” the economist emphasized.
According to Novak, Ukraine needs not just billionaires, but a new generation of entrepreneurs who will build modern industry and sell Ukrainian products around the world.
“We need businesspeople who will manufacture airplanes, cars, ships, clothing, or furniture and sell them on the global market. When the country has over a hundred such major manufacturers, that will mean the economy is truly developed,” he concluded.
