It's not just about construction. However, investing limited resources in large construction projects is one of the temptations that can lead to decline.
The first thing the war brought us was blood , pain, loss of the most valuable thing – human lives – and destruction. But along with these terrible consequences, the war can give Ukraine unique opportunities. About this in the article “Post-war reconstruction of Ukraine: great times require great actions” for ZN.UA Andriy Vyshnevskyi, Chairman of the Board of Transparency International Ukraine (TI Ukraine), writes.
According to him, it is not just about the possibility of getting rid of ethical and aesthetic ugliness and uncertainty, socio-economic rudiments and atavisms inherited by our society since the imperial and Soviet eras. These are opportunities to develop such a social ethos and aesthetics, to build such new institutions and infrastructure that will allow Ukraine tomorrow to embark on the path of sustainable development and be globally competitive in the long run (30-50-70 years).
The biggest mistake that is easy to make now is to follow the reflex to literally recreate what was lost in the war : from obsolete Khrushchevs, panels, heating networks and transport infrastructure to the archaic post-Soviet economic structure, distorted tax, antitrust, intellectual property and State aid.
Another obvious temptation that is easy to resist and that will quickly lead us to even greater decline is to invest limited resources in unpromising liabilities such as ill-conceived but so sweet, big construction projects.
Read also: EU cities and regions will help rebuild their counterparts in Ukraine – European Commission President
We are unlikely to be able to break free from the webs of the past on our own, and this time, as we have failed for the last thirty years, Vyshnevsky warns. First of all, because of the lack of visionaries. An additional complication and advantage at the same time is that the governments of those who are commonly called developed democracies also do not have ready-made solutions for us, due to the global crisis of liberalism and democracy in general. The main questions we have to answer are – what should be the model of the postwar economy, what should be the model of the state, for the existence of which we are fighting today, what should be the model of the destroyed and rebuilt Ukrainian city?
More materials by Andriy Vyshnevsky at the link.
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