Ukraine -- Country Risk Assessment Thesis

The institution found several breaches in human rights policies and strives to increase awareness of these problems. In a clearer formulation, Amnesty International found that Ukraine does not respect the international law in human rights of hosting refugees and allowing them to become settled in other countries, but that the state's officials send these refugees back to their original countries, where many of them stand to suffer torture or other breakings of human rights policies (Amnesty International, 2008). However statistics relating to country risk and human rights are scarce, the foreign investor must also consider these findings when making his decision. In this line of thoughts, Ukraine's country scoring is reduced to their inability to safeguard international human rights stipulations.

A highly important element to be assessed relative to the political and economic status of Ukraine refers to the country's ratings relative to institutional investors. The World Bank finds that these risks have become drastically reduced. Despite the fact that recent studies are yet unavailable to the reader, major improvements are obvious throughout the decades from 1979 to 1998. In measuring this risk, the World Bank assigns several points to the components of the analysis. The maximum number of points is of 100 with a minimum of 0; a total of 100 points means that the risks of institutional investors are reduced; whereas 0 scoring means that they face severe challenges. In September 1979, Ukraine's institutional investors' risk was of 19.8, registering an astonishing growth to 78.8 by the same month of 1998 (World Bank). The massive increase in this index, combined with the major reduction in the risks faced by foreign investors operating in the eastern European country reveals an intensified national effort to reducing corruption at public levels and offering a stable economic and political climate that encourages foreign investments and economic prosperity.

Despite the semi-presidential political regime, Ukraine is based on democratic principles, in which the population and the media are allowed to voice their beliefs and concerns -- at least officially, as under the former president, various opposition papers were closed and some journalists investigating high profile crimes died in mysterious circumstances. Aside the political regime, the potential investor should also assess the country's relations with other states.Historically, Ukraine used to trade almost exclusively with Russia. Today, the majority of trade operations occur between Ukraine and several member states of the European Union; however, the largest independent import-export partner remains Russia. Ukraine depends directly on Russia for gas, but plays an important role on the international map as Russia transports its gases to other European countries through the pipelines in Ukraine, giving it as such some power and ability to control the incurred problems or demands (BBC News).

4. Conclusions

Ultimately, Ukraine can be described as follows -- a country much under the influence of Russia, which has gained its independence only in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union, but which has made, and continues to make, intense progress in becoming aligned with the developed European countries (BBC News). The primary risks Ukraine reveals revolve around economic instability materialized in increased inflation rate and an increased dependence on Russia -- one of the toughest players in the international scene. Despite these however, Ukraine is to be praised for its progresses. Additionally, the status of emergent economy that will welcome foreign investors and might even offer them several incentives, would determine the foreign investor to open operations in the Eastern European state.

References:

Yim, J., Mitchell, H., January 2005, Comparison of Country Risk Models: Hybrid Neutral Networks, Logit Models, Discriminant Analysis and Cluster Techniques, Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 28, Issue 1

2001, a New Database on Foreign Direct Investment, World Bank, http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/data.html last accessed on April 11, 2009

June 5, 2008, Ukraine: No Safe Haven for Refugees, Amnesty International, http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/14132 / last accessed on April 11, 2009

April 1, 2009, Country Profile -- Ukraine, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1102303.stm last accessed on April 11, 2009

2009, Country Risk, Investopedia, http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/countryrisk.asp last accessed on April 11, 2009

2009, the World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html last accessed on April 11, 2009

Country Risk Classification, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, http://www.oecd.org/document/49/0,2340,en_2649_34171_1901105_1_1_1_1,00.html last accessed on April 11, 2009

Country Risk Model -- an Interactive Tool for Analyzing Country Risk, the Economist, Retrieved from http://a330.g.akamai.net/7/330/2540/20051026153304/graphics.eiu.com/files/ad_pdfs/2005CountryRiskModel.pdf on April 11, 2009.....