CANDIDATE PROFILE: Valerii Khoroshkovskyi, National Democratic Party (02/22/98)

CANDIDATE PROFILE: Valerii Khoroshkovskyi, National Democratic Party

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

In the next five weeks leading up to the March 29 elections to the Verkhovna Rada, The Weekly will present candidate profiles of seven candidates for seats in Ukraine's Parliament. We chose seven major political parties from the political center, left and right, and asked them to select one of their candidates to be interviewed. Our only requirement was that the candidate currently not be a national deputy. The parties that responded to our request and whose candidates we will profile in the upcoming weeks are: the National Democratic Party, the National Front political bloc, the Hromada Party, the National Rukh Party, the Social Democratic Party (United), the Reform and Order Party, and the Socialist Party. The Communist Party, which we had hoped would also respond, in the end turned down our request. The interviews will be presented on these pages in the order in which they were taken - today, the National Democratic Party of Ukraine.

KYIV - Valerii Khoroshkovskyi at age 28 is already a successful businessman, a lawyer and a consultant to Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers. He is completing a doctorate in economics, has written three books, is married and has two children.

So what does a 20-something Ukrainian success story do for a new challenge? Run for a seat in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, of course, probably one of the world's most controversy-filled, chaotic legislative bodies.

"This is a choice I made consciously. I believe that young people, if they have had some success, should share it," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi. "It is said that if something works for you, why not make it work in a larger circle?"

Mr. Khoroshkovskyi is running for a seat in the Verkhovna Rada from the Krasnoperekopsk 9th district in Crimea, one in a field of 19 candidates. He is the president of Merx International, a corporation that he started while still studying at Kyiv State University in 1994. Initially specializing in thermoplastic injection, the company has expanded into furniture manufacturing, food processing and finance.

Sitting in his plush office inside a restored Victorian era Italianate-style, three-story building from the turn of the century that is located in a secured compound overlooking the Dnipro River, Mr. Khoroshkovskyi said that in addition to the fact that he believes it's time for a professional legislature to be seated, he feels that his generation is responsible for building a new political and economic system for Ukraine.

"We are the generation at the crossroad. It is the generation that experienced the Soviet times and now must either form for itself a fully legitimate state or again expect a return to, let's call it, another dark period," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi. "I believe it is very important that people of my age work to establish an independent country, and to create it for ourselves."

He said that his 4,000 employees receive their pay on time, have guaranteed employment and are given all social benefits required by law. "Unfortunately the government cannot say that it has accomplished the same," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi.

Ironically, the young businessman is a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP), which is considered by many political pundits to be the party of power, the "goverment's party," and the one closest to President Leonid Kuchma. The leader of the NDP is current Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko.

But Mr. Khoroshkovskyi said that he sees very little difference between most centrist parties in Ukraine today and chose the NDP because of its leadership, experience and openness.

"Today all the parties in Ukraine are young. If you want to talk specifically about the ideologies, with specific exceptions, they are all basically the same, to better the well-being of the population, to improve the economic situation in Ukraine," reasoned Mr. Khoroshkovskyi.

He said that today's voter remains, for the most part, uneducated as to his choices, and "unfortunately, what is happening today in society only shows that the parties have not yet made an imprint on the national consciousness, and people still have not learned how to pick among them."

He suggested that the only criteria that today's electorate can use to make intelligent choices is the membership and the leadership that represents the individual parties.

He said that familiarity with members of the NDP drew him to the party. "I know many of the people who head this party. I know their honesty, their competence, explained the businessman. "I was also drawn to the fact that this is one of the few parties that were formed by a path of unification."

He said that the formation of the current leadership was done openly and democratically, without any major political confrontations, which also pleased him.

Mr. Khoroshkovskyi, who was born in Kyiv, is running from an electoral district in Crimea because that is where he got his start in politics. He was appointed by Prime Minister Pustovoitenko to a commission to develop an economic free trade zone in Krasnoperekopsk, located at the top of the Crimean Peninsula. It is the only free trade zone in Ukraine today.

Mr. Khoroshkovskyi takes credit for helping to establish four giant chemical firms through the creation of the free trade zone, which gives industry partial tax breaks. "I am honored to be one of the people who helped form the free trade zone," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi.

Today he remains the assistant director of the oversight council of the free trade zone that was originally headed by Prime Minister Pustovoitenko when he was minister of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Mr. Khoroshkovskyi believes he can offer his constituents in Crimea a "light" in the dark economic situation in which it finds itself, where economic problems are even worse than in the Ukrainian heartland, with all economic indicators well below those the rest of the country.

"The situation in Crimea today is very difficult," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi. "The example of the free economic zone, which is an experiment, and which I must admit is not fully up to par with typical European free trade zones, has however, given this small parcel of land some tangible results."

He listed the smallest wage and pension arrears in Crimea and a "more or less normal social situation" as some of the results of the special economic zone.

"That is the light that I can propose to the people. And it is not some idea or merely words, these are accomplishments, and people understand this," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi.

The young politician feels his strongest competition in his Crimean electoral district will come from the Communist Party, which is supported by about 40 percent of the voting population.

He believes he must overcome the mindset of the voters. "Unfortunate hungry people do not vote on ideological principles," said Mr. Khoroshkovskyi. "It is the strength of the Communists, but not the ideological Communists. It is an electorate that votes simply for its past. But I don't think you can build the future from the past. You can only take some of the better aspects from the past and build the future with them, but it has to be a completely different structure."

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