Utah business executive Jon M. Huntsman gives Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev "three (months) to six months" to make the ruble convertible to other world currencies or the Soviet republics will "go their uncertain ways" on creating their own currency along with their own new governments, according to an article in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal.
"They (the republics declaring independence from the Soviet Union) will figure out how to do it," Huntsman, chairman of Salt Lake City-based Huntsman Chemical Corp., told Tim W. Ferguson, who writes "Business World" for the Journal. "But it won't be without pandemonium and, in my opinion, horrendous inflation." The Journal said the current Soviet inflation rate is at 140 percent a year.The focus of the article was on the humanitarian "economic missionary work" that Huntsman is doing in Armenia by opening a pre-fab concrete plant to aid restoration work following the devastating 1988 earthquake; a joint venture with Aeroflot to produce plastic cups for the Soviet airline's in-flight service, and his plan to open a $40 million polystyrene plant in the Ukraine by the end of next year.
It has never been easy doing business in the Soviet Union, but the failed coup in Moscow, followed by the breakup of the communist party and the stated intention of many of the Soviet republics - including the Ukraine and Armenia - to become independent, has added to Huntsman's problems in doing business there.
Huntsman told the Journal he was "floored" by the Ukraine's declaration of independence because Ukrainian officials who visited Salt Lake City this summer gave no hint of their intention.
In the article, Huntsman advises Western business leaders to avoid the Soviet central government at this point and deal directly with the republics - but he warns of stumbling blocks.
"These people in many ways are not ready to be independent nations . . . (They) will need two to three decades just to maintain equality with the existing nation," Huntsman told the Journal.