Mykhailo Oleksandrovych Pozhivanov is a Ukrainian politician, statesman and public figure, philanthropist. People's deputy of Ukraine for four convocations held various government positions. Head of the public organization "Municipal Reforms Foundation "Magdeburg Law". Professor, defended his doctoral thesis in the field of technical sciences.
In an interview the politician talks about the economy, a comfortable city, politics and volunteering in wartime.
The war has been going on in Ukraine for the fourth month, we hope and believe in our victory, but the main issues on the agenda are: how does the state help people, and how will we restore Ukraine?
Of course, we would very much like the war to end as soon as possible, and we would begin to restore the damaged and destroyed territories of Ukraine. Unfortunately, to date, many settlements have experienced significant losses and destruction from global ones, such as Mariupol, Gostomel, Irpin and Bucha, and to a lesser extent, but the problems are absolutely the same everywhere.
There are already the first settlements in the Kherson, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions that have been liberated by the Armed Forces. And we need to think about how to restore them now. When the war is over, we should have ready answers to the questions: what to do, when to do it and with whose money?
Recently, in my blog on the "Left Bank" website, I wrote about the latest changes in the country's tax legislation. Because in the first days of the war, changes were made to reduce the value-added tax, some fees were removed, some were allowed not to carry out inspections, some were allowed to avoid paying VAT and work at 2% of turnover.
It was allowed not to pay taxes on land, real estate and others in the territories where military operations were or are being conducted. To some extent, it has become a business support.
On March 15, Volodymyr Zelenskyi addressed businesses and asked everyone who can to start working. It seems that everything is done correctly, many enterprises have opened in Transcarpathia, Rivne, Odessa and other cities. But at the end of April, the chairman of the tax committee, Mr. Hetmantsev, started talking about canceling tax benefits and previously made reductions. It is a good thing that the Verkhovna Rada did not support his proposals, as it would have sent the wrong signals to domestic business.
Today we are talking about the work of enterprises in wartime. It is necessary to take into account UN data, according to which almost 6,5 million residents of Ukraine left the country, 10-11 million people became internal migrants, that is, almost half of the residents were affected by one or another migration. All these people need to be provided with housing, jobs, and someone should be helped to retrain.
Of course, if you are an electrician, you can easily find a job anywhere, but when you have a specific, narrowly needed profession, the state is obliged to help you with retraining.
In this regard, I would like to mention the "Batkivshchyna" faction and Yulia Tymoshenko personally, for the initiative of adopting changes to the law on employment, where regulations have been adopted for displaced persons that allow them to register at employment centers under a simplified procedure and receive appropriate assistance and compensation, as well as master new specialties to work in the regions where they moved.
In my opinion, the government should soon work out and provide the society with the mechanisms of how the country will be restored, by what rules the business will work, because this is very important for every Ukrainian.
The war is a terrible calamity, but one must honestly admit that it is also a great opportunity for approaches to the reconstruction of cities - how will they be reconstructed - according to the old models or taking into account new urban planning conditions and rules, based on the vision of the state?
If we are talking about an industrial city, then perhaps new locations for cities will appear. Technologies, environmental requirements, regulations and logistics have changed a lot now. In my opinion, it is important to work out issues related to raw materials, so, for example, if the productivity of the railway in Ukraine was higher than the needs, and part of the raw materials went for export, then we need to understand how to move forward in this field.
The Ministry of Economy should calculate the balance of products and their types needed by the country, based on our current capabilities and the extent to which investors and owners are willing to work.
People today are concerned about how they will live and how their jobs will be provided, how small and medium-sized businesses will work, because trade, catering, service, tourism are what provide the main jobs for people and form the budget.
Ukraine is a highly educated country, so it is important how science will further develop on the basis of the National Academy of Sciences and industry institutes. Since we have the potential, it must be used.
Regarding the restoration of the country, I think that Ukraine will have its own Marshall Plan. For example, at the beginning of March, I was going to present my book on a convenient city, about urbanism. Unfortunately, everything was canceled, but now we have already resumed work on its release. So, it talks about the basics of urban planning policy, what criteria it should meet, taking into account our wishes and proposals. I drew a model of a city that should be comfortable and convenient, and I frankly do not want to think that it is a utopia. It is gratifying that our President has already held a meeting on urban planning policy, where the basics of the urban renewal plan were discussed. There were several Western architects, representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development, and absolutely correct accents were placed.
In my opinion, urban renewal plans need to be developed more than once, as the uniqueness of each settlement will be lost. Cities should be different, but at the same time the same in terms of quality and safety of roads and ecology, with a high level of infrastructure, this applies to the city's energy supply and water supply, waste management, clean energy. Other points regarding the direction of work, filling the city's budget should be worked out precisely from its features - location, availability of minerals, logistics, etc.
There should be a single detailed plan of the territory, a single general plan for the development of one or another region, a single plan of the country with preservation of the soul of cities.
You say the right words, but we have a big problem - corruption, both domestic and political, how to deal with it?
Indeed, the big problem is that we have not created a real civil society, we do not have a normal ideological party system. In the West, for example, there are right-left-center trends, there are conservatives, liberals, republicans, and they have ideologies. Some say that we should give everything to a person, and others say: no, we gave a person an education, and then let him go and develop himself, we don't burden him with taxes, and he does what he wants. In these countries, parties have existed for several decades, and the state system works successfully.
In our country, unfortunately, parties appear and disappear every 5 years. In fact, one hand is enough to count those of them who actually claim the title of a political party in Ukraine, and not just register with the Ministry of Justice.
There are more than three hundred parties in the register of Ukraine, but only a few of them are active, have a real structure, program, people and ideology.
Constructive party activity is the most important component of the democratic development of the state, and I am more than sure that we will get there.
It is important to formulate and understand the criteria for evaluating any political force for ourselves, for those whom we will choose even at the lowest level of power - village head, settlement head, deputies of the OTG, etc. It is necessary to choose not because he brought me this or that help today, not because he is a neighbor or my best man, it is necessary to judge cases first of all.
After all, how does democracy differ from the announcer's regime? The dictator said, and everyone ran to do it - in a democracy, there is a general discussion, finding a consensus. Yes, it all takes time, but when everyone has discussed, voted and adopted certain laws - every citizen sees and feels it as his life.
Therefore, a lot will depend on us and our active civic position.
I would really like to see new political forces in the country. For example, at one time, I was impressed by Speaker Dmytro Razumkov, intellectual, doctor of technical sciences Ihor Smeshko, Volodymyr Klitschko tried to achieve something with his party - but it did not work, because everything was confined to a very limited circle of people around the leader, and the party must have a working structure across the country.
My choice today is the "Fatherland" party, it suits me in terms of ideology, party structure, where there are people, ideas, and issues. I made a difficult decision for myself - to head the Odesa city organization of the party. And today we have a lot of work, both with those who are at the front and with those who are in the rear.
We have a very large number of immigrants in our country, a lot of people have lost their jobs, and when you have a clear, working party structure, you can help people more effectively.
For example, we found free warehouses in Odesa for the loading of humanitarian aid in order to create a hub for the centralized distribution of humanitarian aid across the region.
After all, as it happens in our country, individually, this or that community, or a deputy, goes to Romania and personally takes away one or two cars of humanitarian workers.
Now, working with international organizations, we will be able to centrally deliver humanitarian aid to Odesa and, together with the military administrations and our structure, distribute it more efficiently.
We agreed on the main issues, and the first car with medicines is on its way.
Recently, Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the "Batkivshchyna" party, visited Odesa. She visited the military hospital, met with volunteer organizations, and visited the Fontansk OTG, where volunteers of the "WorldCentralKitchen" organization prepare 5000 meals a day. The party handed over material aid, products to the OTG, and attracted people there who had lost their jobs. Maybe someone will call it political PR, but I consider it effective and time-consuming work for the benefit of the state.
