Ukraine must create joint ventures with partners to avoid becoming raw-material appendage of their defense industries – Yatsenyuk
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum (KSF) and Ukraine's prime minister from 2014 to 2016, stresses the importance of creating joint ventures in Ukraine, primarily in the defense industry, with partner countries.
"I don't want us to become yet another raw-material appendage of Europe's major defense-industrial complex on an outsourcing basis, where big companies produce final technological products while we spend our evenings 'sewing' something together. So without investments in R&D, this is only possible in one way – by creating joint ventures. Moreover, to build such enterprises with our partners, we must share a common security space, because this involves technology transfer, which is a national-security issue," Yatsenyuk said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that if Ukraine is not a NATO member and does not have guarantees for protecting partners' secrets, "then we'll continue assembling drones designed by others."
"Today we hear many discussions about intentions to place production facilities in Ukraine. Believe me, the core facilities will be located where countries want to strengthen their own defense industries. That's why we need to negotiate and work to ensure that the security-economy segment becomes one of Ukraine's key economic pillars. That's how it should be. Our experience is a top global brand. When you say you are selling Ukrainian-made products that have proven effective on the battlefield against a heavily armed Russian army, that product is highly valued on foreign markets," the KSF chairman said.
He is convinced that after the war, Ukraine could become one of the key elements of the world's new "security economy" for the next decade.
"We've entered a new world… We are in a situation where, without security, there will be neither economic growth nor economic stability. Therefore, investments in the defense industry and defense-related manufacturing are a key part of the economy for the coming decades… Investment in defense and in our own security is an investment in every country's future," Yatsenyuk said.
