Ivan Miklos, a

54-year-old Slovak economist, calls himself “an architect of Slovakia’s

reforms” that made the 5.4-million strong nation the world’s largest car

producer per capita, while back in 1989 it wasn’t making any. He says Ukraine

should go the same direction – become friendlier to foreign investors and

benefit from the taxes they pay.

That’s how Slovakia

became a country with fivefold higher gross domestic product per capita

compared to Ukraine. Almost all local banks are foreign-owned, while global

automakers Hyundai Kia, Peugeot Citroen, and Volkswagen brought better-paying

jobs to the Central European country, tells Miklos, who is currently a member

of parliament in Bratislava from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, a

minority party that has seen better times.