MBS Blog

Recently, one of my business partners here in Ukraine read his bank statement and discovered that he was the victim of fraud.  Parties unknown had withdrawn money from his European bank account…in Egypt. Well, today it was my turn to be the victim.

What the experience of my partner and I have in common is this:

We, like other travelers and ex-pats, use our bank debit cards to make withdrawals at ATMs here in Odessa.

…and the money was withdrawn from each of our accounts in Egypt.  In my case,  the fraud occurred after I had made a small withdrawal from UKRSIBANK (a member of the Paribas Group) here in Odessa this past Sunday. I am still verifying if my business partner had made any withdrawals from the same bank ATM.

I am not an expert on fraud, but I would think that banks would take precautionary measures to prevent this sort of thing.  Maybe it is an “inside job?” Would not surprise me. Bank fraud is prevalent throughout Ukraine. I was told this before I entered Ukraine. In fact, it is difficult to order goods and services online, and pay with a credit card.

Recently, a  Ukrainian banker(s) stole a BILLION U.S. dollars!! This was part of the money given to Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund. While the amount illegally withdrawn from my account was only about $1,000., there are probably scores of others who may have had considerably more taken.

One can only hope that Ukrainian banks-especially those that are foreign subsidiaries of larger institutions-are monitored more carefully by their parent companies, and that this type of fraud is addressed. Ukraine has great potential as a tourist destination as well as a place to do business. It would be a shame if it became known as a nation of thieves.

A few weeks ago, two of my business partners and I traveled by car from Odessa to Western Ukraine. On our way back to Odessa, we decided to stop and see Hitler’s wartime bunker in Vinnitsa, about 150km west of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. We had heard that it was more like a Roman ruins, and we were not surprised that there wasn’t much to see in terms of a structure that one could easily identify as a bunker.

What we found were bits and pieces of reinforced concrete in the area, scattered about since the bunker and the surrounding above ground structures were bombed. The actual bunker-called Werewolf-is sealed off. Recently, a team of Russian engineers surveyed it and proclaimed that it is unsafe and cannot be opened to the public since it was mined by retreating Germans. Apparently, live munitions remain in place, though this could be just a canard to keep the curious as well as neo-Nazis out.

The area where the bunker was built looks similar to an alpine forest in Germany. The bunker and barracks complex-which housed an army of SS- was easily concealed from aerial views by the woods. The surrounding fields-beautiful spans of Ukrainian farmland-were ideal for massing tanks and aircraft.

Hitler was transported by air to this command post.  From this vantage point, he directed Operation Barbarossa…the invasion of the Soviet Union…and watched his evil fantasy of “Lebensraum” unfold. Living space for Germans in the vastness of Ukraine and Russia was never realized, though the deaths of millions of Jews and Slavs unfortunately was.

One of the strangest aspects about visiting Hitler’s Bunker, is seeing what it has become: a Ukrainian National Park (see photo of sign below), where families stroll with their young children and couples congregate. Although it is a picturesque area, it is difficult to comprehend why Ukrainians would want to be there, other than to appreciate it’s historical significance. One would think that the death of millions of Ukrainians and Russians at the hands of Nazis who built this bunker for their beloved Fuhrer, would weigh on the minds of those spreading their picnic blankets about.

On the other hand, perhaps a park is a way of turning a negative into a positive? I however, found another form of expression. Before I departed the area where the most physical evidence of the Nazi invasion persists-a large piece of concrete from the bunker structure-I relieved myself on the remains of this edifice. Pissing on Hitler’s Bunker was my way of turning a “negative” into a “positive.” Maybe the grass will grow a little a little greener as a result?

…and coincidentally, just as I was finished “watering” an area where the Fuhrer might have walked more than six decades ago, a friend of mine in Odessa called me. Since my business partner wanted to hear as well, I put the call on speakerphone. The caller was walking through the center of Odessa where many street musicians play for small change and the music was now being broadcast over a good portion of the bunker area…excuse me; Ukrainian National Park. At that very moment, a familar piece of music was now echoing out: Hava Nagila.

Hearing Jewish folk music waft across a graveyard of Hitler’s dreams: perfect!!

This will come as no surprise to people living and working here, but the International Monetary Fund sees greater economic decline than it had projected earlier. The real concern…spoken in hushed tones by businessmen here…is that things may not really improve until the political situation does. The upcoming elections could help, but real reforms will be slow in coming and that may keep Ukraine in an economic funk long after other emerging markets recover.

IMF Sees Sharper Downturn in Ukraine, Budget Strain Amid Crisis

By Kateryna Choursina and Timothy R. Homan

June 18 (Bloomberg) — The International Monetary Fund will likely change its forecast for an 8 percent economic contraction in Ukraine to a sharper decline, an IMF spokeswoman said.

“We do foresee a sharper-than-expected contraction,” Caroline Atkinson, director of external relations at the IMF, told reporters today in Washington, adding that the numbers are still being worked out. “Obviously we are looking at the strains of the budget from the deeper contraction and from the continued financing need of Naftogaz.”

The global economic turmoil forced Ukraine, like other emerging markets, to seek assistance from the IMF last year to prop up its financial system and currency. Moreover, the Ukrainian government said this week it will increase the capital of state-run energy company NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy as it seeks funds to pay for natural gas to be stored over the summer.

Of the $16.5 billion the IMF has allocated to help Ukraine, the first $4.5 billion tranche was received in November and the second $2.8 billion in May.

The IMF originally planned a third payment of $2.8 billion, which Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko has said can be $3.2 billion. To qualify for that installment, Ukraine needs to stabilize its troubled lenders.

The use of third tranche specifically to bolster Ukraine’s budget “is quite possible,” the IMF’s Atkinson said.

An IMF mission is scheduled to depart for Ukraine next week, she said.

(from www.bloomberg.com)

OK…if you are a woman living in Ukraine you might think differently. However, if you are a man that likes women and you seek less competition, then you aren’t shedding too many tears.

Of course, behind the statistics there are discomforting reasons contributing to a shortage of men. The usual suspects include diet and lifestyle, high per capita alcohol and tobacco consumption, traffic accidents, a lack of safey standards and enforcement, TB & HIV, an inadequate health care system, and men leaving to seek employment and business opportunities in other countries.

Another factor are the high levels of stress due to a culture that has lost some of it’s bearings after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the lack of a stable political system and economy. Moreover, the difficulty in completing even the simplest task, as well as endemic corruption, wears people down in a way that is insidious and often obscured.  Something as simple as crossing the street in any Ukrainian city, can create a level of stress that one rarely experiences in the developed world.

Of course, women are also subject to many of the same stresses that men are, perhaps even more so when they are caregivers or mothers. As in most countries however, their level of alcohol consumption tends to be far less for example. Moreover, they are generally not employed in jobs that have the same degree of hazards that men are exposed to. In most societies, women also tend to utilize the health care system more than men and perhaps are genetically predisposed to deal with certain types of stress better.

Deficit of men in Ukraine is 3.6 million

As of January 1, 2009, the number of Ukrainian population made up 45 million 963 359 people (as of January 1, 2008 – 46 million 192.3 thousand people, as of May 1, 2009 – 45 million 881 048 people).

According to the official information of the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, the number of urban population made up 31 million 331,587 thousand people as of January 1, 2009 (as of Janaury 1, 2008 - 31 million 413,1 thousand people, as of May 1, 2009  – 31 million 294,756 thousands), out of them men – 14 million 349,742 thousands, women – 16 million 981,845 thousands; rural population – 14 million 631,772 thousand people (as of January 1, 2008 - 14 million 779,2 thousands, as of May 1, 2009, – 14 million 586,292 thousands), men – 6 million 835,190 thousands, women – 7 million 796,582 thousands.

As for the age difference, the average age of a Ukrainian made up 40.1 years as of January 1, 2009. In particular, the average age of men made up 37.3 years, women – 42.5 years. Besides, as of January 1, 2009, the age of 1 thousand 425 Ukrainians, including 287 men and 1138 women, exceeded 100 years old.

(from www.unian.net)

Even the most jaded Odessa local, expat or tourist will enjoy the new restaurant cafe Kakadu (Russian for the tropical bird Cockatoo)  located in the courtyard just behind McDonalds on Deribasovskaya and Krasnyi Lane.

Kakadu has a genuinely eclectic menu and is reasonably priced with generous portions of food (our favorite so far, is the Caesar salad). The interior of the restaurant has the sort of masculine style of expensive martini bars one would find in New York, yet it maintains an intimate and romantic atmosphere. The courtyard seating evokes the feeling one gets sitting outside a villa in Italy or Western Europe and is a nice respite steps from Deribasovskaya.

Kakadu has just started a “Ladies Night” every Thursday evening (free drinks with a coupon) and if the past two Thursdays are an indication, the event is gaining in popularity as some of the most beautiful women in Odessa are starting to congregate there. Let’s just hope that the place doesn’t become too popular and they start charging a cover.

Went for my run today along beautiful Primorskiy Bulvar here in Odessa. As I crossed the pedestrian bridge I noticed workers cutting and removing all the “love locks” that are attached to the iron bars of the bridge. The attachment of metal locks-some modern, some antique- are an informal tradition for couples who often scroll their names and dates of weddings and/or anniversaries on the locks.

This is one of the most beautiful and romantic areas in the historical center of the city. Nearby, are the famous Potemkin Steps.

While the workers removed the locks so they can give the bridge a fresh coat of badly needed paint, it would be a shame if the locks are discarded. That appears to be the case. One can only hope that couples return to the bridge, renew their vows, and replace the locks.

The economic policies described below should do wonders for the Russian economy.  Sarcasm aside, Putin’s well intentioned (whatever one thinks of Putin, he believes he is a Russian patriot) restrictions-like all protectionist policies designed to help domestic industry-will backfire as the productivity that technology provides will not be available. That will be the effect of tariffs.

It is no surprise that xenophobic Russia employs protectionism. This fits into a historical pattern of encouraging development periodically, and then squashing it just as it bears fruit. A vast nation like Russia with an incredible array of resources should be the richest nation in the World, but protectionist and other anti-growth policies keep it underdeveloped. The excuse of protecting domestic companies and jobs is always used, though an examination of nations that allow competition shows that it increases wealth, tax revenues, and creates a greater numbers of jobs.

Our hope is that Ukraine does not adopt these restrictions. Given the cultural similarities between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the shared oligarchic influences in both governments, we would not be at all surprised if Ukraine went down the same road. It would be even more damaging to Ukraine since it does not have the same resources of Russia and must rely more on the industrial, service and consumer sectors of the economy.

 Restrictions and tariffs on farm equipment and machinery in a nation sitting on an under-utilized agricultural sector with the best farm land in the World, would damage a nation that has already suffered through ill conceived socialist collectivization decades ago.

Putin’s Tariffs Stall Russian Growth for Caterpillar

By Melita Marie Garza and Paul Abelsky

April 20 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s trade measures are starting to keep Deere & Co. combines and Caterpillar Inc. trucks out of Russian wheat fields and coal mines, dimming the companies’ prospects for expansion abroad.

Deere and Caterpillar, reeling from the longest U.S. recession in a quarter century, were the companies most affected by loan restrictions and tariffs of as much as 25 percent that Putin imposed this year, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey of the top 50 American businesses operating in Russia.

Putin is trying to boost Russian industries with tariffs on everything from drugs to farm equipment as declining oil revenue saps the nation’s economy. The policies are hurting sales by Caterpillar, Deere and Agco Corp. in a market where revenue was forecast to rise as much as sixfold in the next decade.

“The new tariffs kicked these guys in the knees when they were down,” Larry De Maria, a New York-based analyst with Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc., said in a telephone interview. “Russia was supposed to be a $3 billion market in 2008 with potential to grow to $20 billion, possibly in as little as a decade.”

Emerging-market sales likely fell so far this year for Deere and Caterpillar, which reports first-quarter earnings tomorrow, De Maria said. Caterpillar is expected to report profit excluding certain items of 5 cents a share, the average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The company earned $1.45 a share a year earlier.

“We are really going to struggle this year in Russia,” Ken Harding, Caterpillar’s regional execution manager for the Commonwealth of Independent States, said in a telephone interview.

‘Low’ Expectations

Caterpillar’s “expectation is low” that it will sell any of its 60-ton trucks, used for quarry and construction work, in Russia this year after selling eight last year, Harding said.

Starting in January, Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar and other foreign makers of off-highway trucks faced duties of 25 percent, an increase from 5 percent last year. BelAZ, a Belarusian equipment producer that dominates the region’s truck industry, isn’t subject to the tariff and will benefit, Harding said.

Caterpillar declined 59 percent on the New York Stock Exchange in the 12 months through April 17. Deere fell 56 percent, and Agco dropped 64 percent.

Deere, the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment, and Duluth, Georgia-based Agco are being hurt by a program that gives Russian farmers a 20 percent discount on loans from Russia’s Central Bank if they buy domestic machines.

Loan Program

The deal is for loans made through OAO Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, and Rosselkhozbank, the Russian Agricultural Bank, which both have local offices that farmers rely on for financing, Michael Considine, director of EurAsia issues for the Washington-based Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview.

“If a Russian farmer had the cash to buy a Deere combine, it would cost substantially more because of the tariff increase,” Considine said. “And if you didn’t have the money, you could just forget about it because you’d only be able to get the money to buy something made in Russia.”

Putin undertook the measures after a December visit to Rostov, Russia-based Rostselmash, the country’s leading combine maker.

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov wasn’t available for comment. Valeriy Khromthenkov, a Russian official in Washington with oversight of agricultural issues, declined to comment. A spokesman for Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who also is deputy prime minister, wasn’t available to comment.

‘Dramatically Reduced’

Agco’s sales are “dramatically reduced” in the region, because borrowing for a foreign tractor is now almost impossible, Greg Peterson, Agco’s head of investor relations, said in a telephone interview.

In its first-quarter earnings announcement in February, Moline, Illinois-based Deere said sales will decline in Central Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States for the year. Ken Golden, a spokesman for Deere, declined to comment.

“Our main problems have been the lack of state subsidies on loans combined with insufficient operating cash and the general economic downturn, not the import tariffs,” Alexander Altynov, the general director of AgroSnab, an official John Deere dealer in Russia, said in a telephone interview.

Market Decline

Altynov predicted the foreign machinery market in Russia will decline as much as 75 percent this year.

Deere was expected to post second-quarter profit excluding certain items of $1.08 a share, the average estimate of 17 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

The U.S. Trade Representative has worked with the U.S. combine harvester industry and at a meeting in Moscow in March expressed concern about the tariff, Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for the trade representative, said in an e-mail.

The tariff runs counter to Russia’s G20 pledge to avoid protectionist measures and is contrary to a November 2006 bilateral agreement that Russia will maintain a 5 percent tariff on combines until it joins the World Trade Organization, McPherson said.

The ruble’s 31 percent decline against the dollar since July also has made foreign products more expensive. Russia’s Economy Ministry estimates that imports have tumbled more than 30 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Last month, Russia allocated 25 billion rubles ($746.7 million) to OAO Rosagroleasing, the nation’s largest farm- equipment leasing company, and 45 billion rubles to state-run Rosselkhozbank as part of a 3 trillion-ruble stimulus package.

Rosagroleasing spent the money on Russian-made equipment, including 5 billion rubles on OAO KamAZ trucks, Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik told Putin during a meeting on April 17, according to a transcript on the government’s Web site.

Farm Equipment

Russia’s Union of Farm-Equipment Producers, known as Soyuzagromash, asked the government last week to extend the 15 percent import duty on combines to all farm equipment. The tariffs may boost domestic market share for farm machines to 60 percent, the union said.

“The government wants both to help the domestic producers and keep the state funds allocated to the agricultural sector inside Russia,” said Mikhail Pak, an analyst with IFC Metropol in Moscow.

Putin’s efforts may hurt U.S. companies’ operations in the rest of the world, said De Maria, of Sterne Agee.

“There is a worry that these measures could spread to China and other emerging-market countries,” De Maria said. That “would be a blow to the Deere brand and others, stifling their growth strategy as local companies build share.”

(from www.bloomberg.com)

“Best kept secret in Europe!”  That is the cornerstone behind the founding of MBS Ltd.  Our philosophy is that we can help companies navigate and mitigate the pitfalls and obstacles of doing business here, to take advantage of the many opportunities. This requires vision, and a LONG TERM perspective. For those individuals and companies that have that, the rewards will be great as Ukraine is a “virgin” market, untapped and ready to be reshaped.

We believe Ukraine will at some point, break free from current restraints and “leap frog” over many of its more developed neighbors like Poland. With MBS Ltd. and very soon BOZONGO.COM, investors and entrepreneurs will have the tools they need to realize their goals here.

Hard-Core Investors Staying Put Despite Endless Crises

KIEV, Ukraine — Weak competition, high profits still make nation a promised land for some businesses. No matter what Ukraine throws at them, a small, hard-core group of foreign investors – from giant multinational corporations to lone expatriates – weathers the turbulence.

A conveyor line at the Trostyanets chocolate factory in Sumy Oblast, the biggest Kraft Foods factory in Ukraine.

They stay through crisis and boom times, “blue” and “orange” politicians, a hryvnia worth 4.6 to the dollar and a national currency that trades closer to 10.

They stay put when other foreigners get scared away by headlines of rampant corruption, a sea of bureaucratic red tape and political chaos. Who are these determined businesspeople? Do they make a lot of money here? If so, how do they manage to swim in Ukraine’s muddy waters?

“Ukraine is the best kept secret in Europe,” insisted George Logush, vice president of Kraft Foods International and area director for Ukraine, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “The European media did a wonderful job, focusing on negative things and rarely showing positive aspects. [To them, I say]: ‘Thank you for sheltering this market for us from the competitors.”

Kraft Foods Ukraine is part of Kraft Foods, the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. It is one of the most successful investors in Ukraine, known by Ukrainians for Korona and Milka chocolate, Jacobs coffee, Lux potato chips, holding a leading position in all three categories. In 14 years, Kraft invested more than $150 million into Ukraine’s economy and increased its business by 100 percent, Logush said, a feat that “would not be possible in very many countries.” Today, the Kraft group boasts annual revenue in Ukraine of about $400 million on domestically-produced products, and more on imports, such as coffee.

The company arrived in 1995, when the economy was still reeling from the collapse of the Soviet Union four years earlier. The hryvnia, the new national currency, had not yet arrived. In its place, until 1996, Ukrainians used the karbovanets, a coupon-like form of payments.

One of the keys to Kraft’s success, Logush said, has been the company’s ability to take advantage of hard times to introduce new product lines. “Now we launch biscuits,” Logush said. “Crisis is the time when you can shake up the established order, because it’s being shaken anyway.”

Yet Kraft remains one of a relatively small number of multinational corporations and foreign investors who have ventured into Ukraine, a vast and largely untapped market of 46 million citizens.

The nation has attracted a mere $35 billion in foreign investment since independence. By comparison, nearly $200 billion has poured into neighboring Poland, a European Union member with eight million fewer citizens than Ukraine, since the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Many investors have stayed out because of corruption, red tape and political squabbles between ex-Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych’s “blue” forces and the “orange” ones led by the now-dissolved alliance of President Victor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Jorge Zukoski, president of the American Chamber of Commerce, said Kraft’s success is shared by many foreign investors brave enough to tiptoe into the market. They stay, Zukoski said, because they’re generating higher profits than they might in other nations. By establishing themselves first, companies such as Kraft grew fast, faced limited competition and can look forward to high growth rates ahead.

Zukoski said it helps to be in a place for the long run.

“At the end of the day, the large strategic and institutional investors that we represent see the current global financial crisis as a short-term blip on the radar screen. They look at Ukraine as a 50- to 75-year play and understand that there are very few countries left in the world that have the potential to drive future growth for their companies.” Despite the challenges and difficulties, chamber members keep striving for a Ukraine that is “competitive and well-positioned when global growth resumes,” Zukoski said.

But for some investors, the headaches of doing business in Ukraine are simply too much. And, while normal economic cycles are manageable, sometimes Ukraine’s off-the-charts corruption is not.

“The crisis did not affect our business in Ukraine as much as the corruption,” said Hanan Mor, owner of an investment company, in an interview with Israel’s Calcalist newspaper. “That is why we are stopping any business initiatives in this country.”

But the cheerleading and individual success stories cannot hide the fact that, by many measures, Ukraine’s business climate remains unfavorable. The list of grievances is long: unstable legislation, corruption, red tape, non-transparent taxation system, raider attacks, abuse of intellectual property and auctioneer rights.

Politicians are aware of the problems, even if they seem unwilling or unable to improve the situation. As parliamentarian Nataliya Korolevska told an investors’ conference in February: “As the world investment capital reaches $1.5 trillion, Ukraine has to do everything to participate in the process under competitive terms.”

Hard-core investors say instability is part of the game.

“I’ve been here for 15 years and this country has never been stable. I wouldn’t advise anybody to stay out of Ukraine, just because they want to wait for the next election,” said Glen Willard, a 15-year business veteran in Ukraine and founder of Willard, an advertising and public relations company.

Willard admitted that the worst part of doing business in Ukraine is its unpredictability. “Other than that, business is not easy anytime, anywhere,” Willard said: “So just get over it.”

Kraft’s Logush also said Ukraine is not for the squeamish.

“If you need to find an excuse to leave the country, you’ll find it,” Logush said. “Particularly, in terms of political instability, I think people are just extremely shortsighted and purposely blind. How long has democracy been in Ukraine?”

American businessman Paul Waters is one of hundreds of expatriates who have thrived on the Ukrainian market. Since arriving 17 years ago, Waters appears to have done a little bit of everything in Ukraine and he has no intention of leaving. From steel trading to the construction business, software and solar panel systems development, Waters said that “Ukraine has been very kind to me. I could be sitting on my boat in California fishing. But in Ukraine, I am enjoying everything. It’s not a Disneyland, it is real,” Waters said.

Waters did, however, confess that it took him awhile to get accepted. He also was cheated several times by Ukrainian partners.

“When I arrived, there were all these Soviet bosses, running businesses and, certainly, they were not as open to our ideas,” Waters said. Ukrainian companies still lack efficient administrators, but they have plenty of highly educated people, computer wizards and other professional standouts to choose from, according to Waters.

Seasoned foreign investors have had success in the financial, insurance and telecommunication sectors, as well as food production and construction, according to Konstantin Stepanov, chief analyst at Sokrat investment group.

The leading individual foreign direct investment in Ukraine’s all-important metal sector came from the $4.8 billion re-sale of the former Kryvorizhstal steel mill in Kryviy Rih, the nation’s largest steelmaker, to ArcelorMittal Steel in 2005. The sale followed a scandalous purchase by a group led by Ukrainian billionaires Rinat Akhmetov and Victor Pinchuk, who bought the steel mill for six times less than what ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, paid in an open auction.

So, 18 years after independence, Ukraine still represents a big gamble with big potential payoffs – and terrible downsides. It’s a high-risk, high-reward game, Logush admitted. But many are betting that emerging economies will get out of the crisis more quickly than developed ones.

“Which of them will [foreign investors] gamble on first? The ones with the greatest multiplier effect, the largest scales, like China and Brazil. But they always want to spread the risks,” Logush said. “I think those who’ll go into the Ukrainian economy will do very well.”

(from the Kyiv Post)

Julia Pilyavskaya, a Ukrainian on the MBS team provides a perspective of current events:

I read many discussions about Ukraine and how different it is from the

rest of the world. People ask me how it is to live in Ukraine. Well,
certainly it is different, it cannot be the same. We grew up having
different realities, different mentality and conditions of life.

Being isolated from the rest of the world for many years, some things unusual
for foreigners are “normal” for Ukrainians, because they have never
seen different.  And many years will pass before things will change.

Government doesn’t really care about people and not many believe this
will change with new elections. People don’t know where taxes go and
prefer not to pay them. People don’t trust banks and that is why cash
everywhere.

With our “free medicine” one would think twice before going to a hospital without money.  And so on… Most people wonder why change if it’s not going to change.

And now the most popular word is “crisis”. Whenever you go, you hear
it, in the streets, transport, restaurants, homes, television…  90 %
of conversations are only about it, and also prices that go up
constantly and are higher than in Europe, exchange rate, business that
is down, unemployment and certainly government that people can’t trust
anymore.

It will definitely take time for people to understand how to do things
properly, how to work in customers’ service, how to change attitude
and make our country more attractive to live in for ourselves first of
all.