Think Tank Alert

Praxis Politikberatung: Wirtschaftspolitische Beratung der Ukraine in der Transformationsphase

Obwohl wissenschaftliche Beratung zum politischen Alltag gehört, liest man – im Gegensatz zu politischen PR-Kampagnen – in der Regel nur relativ wenig über die Berater und ihre Aufträge. Deswegen sollen hier in unregelmäßigen Abständen interessante Beratungsaufträge oder -methoden und die Köpfe dahinter vorgestellt werden. Die Reihe beginnt mit einem Bericht über die ökonomische Politikberatung, die das Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW) seit 1994 der ukrainischen Regierung gibt (aus dem Annual Report des DIW):

It is not self-evident for a German economic think tank to provide economic advise to the head of a foreign government. Nonetheless in Ukraine, the continuous and research based advisory work of German economic experts received top level attention by Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. Since 1994 DIW Berlin has provided a great number of top policy makers and stakeholders in the Ukraine with a broad range of sound advice on economic reforms. German experts, assisted by the partnership institute IER in Kiev, were recruited and managed by DIW Berlin and financed by the Federal Government of Germany.

The research work of both the German Advisory Group and the IER focused on the solution of practical day to day economic problems the political key players were faced with and on the development of far reaching reform strategies. Over the years with more then 800 policy papers, 15 books and numerous reform programs the team shaped economic reforms in Ukraine.

During a meeting on 13 July 2005, the Prime Minister of the Ukraine stated at the end of the intensive, two-hour discussion that she wished to be properly briefed by the DIW Berlin team on individual topics on a weekly basis. Dr Tilman Brück, Head of the Department of International Economics and a member of the delegation on the day, said about the meeting: “It was amazing how openly Prime Minister Tymoshenko spoke about current matters of economic policy and how interested she was in our approach. Although some of the economic problems in the Ukraine have partly been caused by her government, she seemed willing to discuss the topics, to change track after a consideration of the arguments and thus to improve economic policy.”

The DIW Berlin team analyzed for Prime-Minister Tymoshenko the macroeconomic situation and main causes for rising inflation, fiscal risks and the current budget situation. This helped to prevent much demanded but wrongly argued interventions into the monetary policy of the National Bank of Ukraine. “We also put forward proposals for structural reforms aimed at increasing efficiency in health care provision. The core reform element is the fundamental change towards the remuneration of services provided, instead of the current practise of payments for existing infrastructure. This key reform step is now broadly accepted in Ukraine and should become part of future health care reforms,” says Dr Lars Handrich, coordinator of the advisory group.

The team developed a framework for reforming public utilities by introducing benchmark competition among the different local monopolies supervised by an independent regulator. “Our discussions also covered the difficult situation agricultural policy. Corning the hot potato issue – the populist debate about ‘re-privatisation’ in the aftermath of the ‘Orange Revolution’ we offered a face saving exit strategy to the government,” tells Dr Brück.

Dr Handrich, coordinator of the advisory group stated that “the close, personal provision of advice to Prime-minister Yuliya Tymoshenko was one of the absolute high lights in the 10-year long history of the project, and the involvement of the relevant decision makers represented a new level of quality”.

Despite the ouster of Yuliya Tymoschenko as head of government the reform arguments presented during the meetings shaped persistently Ukraine’s economic reform agenda.

(Quelle: Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung)