Kiev, Ukraine. A recent interview with a Ukrainian woman selling her country like a personal hygiene product, provides an interesting look into the reasons being offered to American corporations being lured to Kiev for “fortunes beyond their dreams.”
In a recent pitch to American “fat cats,” Nataliia Osadcha of Siutkin & Partners of Kiev offers “To gain a victory in a high stakes game.” So if you like the odds of losing your ass in Ukraine on an investment with a pair of Gopniks with piss poor English skills, look them up and they can hook you up. Meanwhile here are their “selling points” on Ukraine as your “paradise business location.”
“The investment market in Ukraine is very attractive, but is not fully developed yet. It attracts foreign companies, as it is almost impossible to enter a submarket in the West and to get a good profit out of it.”
The lure here is supposedly “undeveloped markets.” The Ukraine has been wide open to foreign corporations since 1992. Anything you can want or produce is already in western Ukraine, in quite an abundance. So on this count our con woman is full of fluff.
“Everything there (in the West) is strictly regulated at the legislative level. In addition, all the niches are busy, and it is very hard to win a market share from some other players. While dealing with large business, we understand that Ukraine is still a very interesting investment market.”
You will think “interesting” as you encounter organized crime and every Ukrainian official you trip over looking for a bribe, if not a piece of your business for “guidance.” Winning a market share in the Ukraine is a figment of your imagination. If your product is cheap, functional and priced lower than it’s lowest priced Chinese competition, you might be able to recover your cost or break even, but fantasizing about “customer loyalty” or market share in Ukraine is not realistic.
“It stays attractive, despite military actions, political and other risks. The reasons for it are the unique opportunities, the profit and capitalization which can be achieved in this country. Foreign investors admit that only 4 years are enough to make rather heavy investments pay off in Ukraine.”
Anybody who tells you in business “try it for 4 years and then we’ll talk,” is somebody you should either run from or punch in the face. There is NOTHING attractive about doing business in a corrupt sewer engaged in genocide upon it’s population and with an internationally recognized corruption problem, these are normally red lights a blind person could see, but many throw caution to the wind and see their investments and capital flowing down a giant toilet of corruption and criminality in the Ukraine of today.