29 December 2013

Business Wish List for 2014

Whilst Ukraine continues to be an Eastern European centre of conflict, the owners and managers of small and medium size enterprises in the country continue to try and survive among the daily conflicts of doing business. So, just as many people write out their list of hopes and intentions for the year ahead, here is my wish list for doing business in Ukraine in 2014.

I wish I could:

1.       Convince the government that all the money circulating in the economy does NOT belong to them.
2.       Go into a bank and do business WITHOUT the State Tax Service being involved.
3.       Send a payment of EUR 100,000+ to another country WITHOUT asking permission from the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Economy.
4.       Persuade all my accounting people that they should be doing more WORK for my company than they do for the State Tax Service.
5.       Receive a service from a government agency WITHOUT them asking for a bribe.
6.       Persuade people to STOP asking me for my PASSPORT. I have told you my name already, just believe that I am telling you the truth.
7.       Provide people with copies of documents and NOT have to keep giving them the ORIGINAL document every time I want to do something.
8.       STOP using those stupid document stamps

Is this all too much to ask? Why not. Because in REAL European countries all of the above already happens. Let’s hope that one day Ukraine can break free from old soviet systems.

No comments: