The expert meeting of the unique project for the country - National rating of influence "Elite of Ukraine" took place in Odessa, in the hotel "Bristol" on August 19.
According to Oleg Muratov, a member of the expert council, head of the Southern Office of the State Audit Service, this rating will be fundamentally different from similar projects thanks to completely new criteria for selecting people - only with a "plus" sign. In addition, the rating will help draw the attention of the capital to the regions of the country.
"You can say that we are trying to connect the regions of the country, and also show the connection between Kyiv and the regions. It is important for us that there is already a large interest among society. All this will be representative, as a real slice of public opinion. And many of those we don't know about will fall into these ratings. And vice versa - those whom we know well may not get caught."
In her turn, sociologist Elena Knyazeva noted that the problem of "personnel hunger" in the country, which the president recently spoke about, is largely imaginary.
"We do not know the society in which we live well enough, and we are not well informed about talented and progressive leaders in the regions. Based on this, the main task of the rating is to identify these people," she said.
Elena Ovchinnikova, the head of the Organizing Committee of the National Influence Rating "Elite of Ukraine" emphasized that this project not only allows you to clearly see the strengths and weaknesses of certain people, but also motivates the laggards to "tighten" their positions, and the leaders - "not to relax."
"With the help of the rating, we strive to create information openness in the regions and in Ukraine as a whole and to contribute to the development of society. Thanks to regional ratings of the influence of persons, we learn the names of those who determine the mood of people, actively participate in the life of the region. We want to make our expert contribution to the formation of a new society," she said.
According to Sergei Yakubovsky, doctor of economics, professor of Odessa National University named after I. Mechnikov, this rating is an attempt to make the choice of elites much more presentable.
"It just so happened that now Kyiv is dominated by representatives of several regions. And the selection of regional elites will help to change Ukraine, to change it by forming new elites. We must build a country in which the opinions of the regions are taken into account. And the regional elites must also influence the formation of the central government and at least the local government," he said, calling it an unacceptable situation that people are appointed to the governorships of the Odesa region from year to year according to the same principle - "as long as they are not from Odessa."
Note that a 100-point measuring scale has been developed to assess the level of influence, according to which experts assess the importance and influence of specific individuals, as well as 10 criteria with a "plus" sign, among which only positive qualities - ranging from patriotism and honesty to intelligence and charity.
"There are very important points in the criteria on which the opinions of experts will be evaluated: mind, intellect, education, literacy and intelligence. For Ukraine, this is not some kind of nonsense, it returns us to the country's traditions. For example, Lesya Ukrainka, who knew 9 foreign languages, played the piano beautifully and left such a legacy in literature... And today there are such people too. We just need to identify them and bring them to the forefront," said Maryna Ponomarenko, a lecturer at the National University of Applied Sciences and Candidate of Art Studies.
Eduard Karazhiya, a teacher at the Department of Economics and Management of the National Economy of the Odessa National University of Economics, also drew attention to the selection criteria:
"Very often such ratings come down to recognition. Whatever criteria were considered, the result was known in advance. Unfortunately, very often such ratings were won by "authoritative" people, they won positions, not surnames and names. It's no secret that someone can buy their position, someone can inherit it, someone can be appointed, and someone can be elected to this position. Naturally, these are completely different opportunities, approaches and achievements, the expert explained. - If before everything was predictable and understandable, then there is no predictability here. This means that a person can deservedly enter the club of the elite, indeed, his authority, achievement, name and even just moral behavior can be much higher than a person who can, roughly speaking, buy half of the country."
The colleague was supported by the lawyer who manages the "Markov and Partners" lawyer association, Alexander Markov:
"The very concept of "elite" is now discredited, "with a sigh." Pathosness is invested in it. And we will try to prioritize moral qualities and transform the concept of the elite in society."
And the head of the "Union of Lawyers of the Odesa Region" and the head of the legal company Legal Partner, Alexander Ryabets, believes that thanks to his unique criteria, only people with positive human qualities will get into the coveted hundred.
- Many state structures are looking for honest and hardworking specialists, but we are forced to state that there are difficulties with this. And just such ratings will demonstrate the way to move and where to look for such people. And even for political forces, it will be a good indicator of how to correctly form their lists, he summarized.
We remind you that in total, 200 international, national and regional experts - professionals in the fields of political science, sociology, economics, jurisprudence and media - are involved in this project.
The "Elite of Ukraine" rating, founded by the International Expert Club and the "ElitExpert" rating agency, is a non-commercial two-stage expert study that began on August 10, 2020 and will end on October 5, 2020.
From September 1 to September 20 inclusive, experts will evaluate candidates, each in his region. In parallel with the expert voting on the official website of the project - https://elitukraine.com/, there will be online voting.
On September 21, the results of online voting will be summarized, the experts will announce the results of the first regional round of the National Influence Rating "Elite of Ukraine", and the second round of expert evaluation will begin.
In the second round, which will last from September 21 to October 4, experts and online users will choose the best from the general all-Ukrainian list of applicants, consisting of 300 people, 240 of which are the top tens of 24 regional ratings, and 60 are high-ranking people and state officials , not participating in regional voting.
On October 5, 2020, the final results of expert and online voting will be summarized and the laureates of the first National rating of influence "Elite of Ukraine" will be named.
The National Forum of Strategic Development, which will be held in Kyiv in March 2021, will be the final of the National Ranking of Influence "Elite of Ukraine". Laureates of regional and national ratings will be able to participate in it, and leaders of the international community, businessmen and senior government officials of Ukraine will be invited as speakers. The estimated number of guests will be 2 thousand people who will be able to lay a new vector for the development of Ukrainian society.
