Deputy Prime Minister from the machine tool
The Ukrainian government was strengthened by Oleg Dubina
At the end of last week, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma appointed Oleg Dubina as the new Deputy Prime Minister, replacing the dismissed Yuliya Timoshenko. The President gave his word that the new Deputy Prime Minister is not associated with any financial and industrial group.

The new Deputy Prime Minister has a really good reputation. In December 1999, when he agreed to head Krivorozhstal, the plant was, as they say, on its last legs: huge debt, low production profitability. The government was wondering what to do with the flagship of the Ukrainian metallurgy: privatize the enterprise and attract large investments, or create a joint venture to carry out reorganization and subsequent sale at a competition. To begin with, we decided to change the management.

Krivorozhstal produces about a quarter of Ukraine's metallurgical products. Its main products are cast iron, steel, and rolled products. The enterprise's capacity allows it to produce about 4.6-5 million tons of rolled products and 5.5-6 million tons of iron ore raw materials annually.

A year after the appointment of Mr. Dubina, the situation changed for the better. According to the results of ten months of last year, the plant’s profit amounted to more than 1 billion hryvnia ($180 million at the current exchange rate). The work of the new director was personally appreciated by the President of Ukraine: “He is under my protection. I want to say unequivocally: I, the President of the country, help solve all the problems that arise at this plant.” No one in the history of independent Ukraine has ever received such an honor. Leonid Kuchma personally removed Krivorozhstal from the list of enterprises subject to privatization in 2001.
Oleg Dubina’s new position is called “Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Policy.” It is still unknown whether he will oversee the fuel and energy complex. Earlier, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko said that he would control the fuel and energy complex himself “due to the particular complexity of the issue.” But Mr. Dubina will still have to deal with fuel and energy issues to one degree or another.
The fact is that due to rising prices for local iron ore, Ukrainian metallurgists began large-scale purchases of it in Russia. A similar situation has developed in the coking coal market. The new Deputy Prime Minister will have to combine the interests of the coal kings and enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex. This means that one way or another he will be forced to take part in the reform of the country’s coal industry. And this is exactly the threshold that Yulia Tymoshenko stumbled over.

KIRILL RAZUMOVSKY, Kyiv

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 15 dated January 30, 2001, page 11