Rican

 Rican Statistics Username Rican Joined July 21, 2007 First Round Round 11 Current Nation Togo Former Nations Ukraine Contacts AIM ciaransheehan99 MSN ciaransheehan@hotmail.co.uk  Rican (joined July 21, 2007) is a Superpower: Classic player.

Player Information
Rican is a pseudonym for the handler. The handler is a 20-year old student from England currently studying Management. Rican's previous experience of nation simulations include a stint as a player on Qpawn. He has been active on SPC since July 21, 2007.

Ukraine
In Round 11, after taking on the leadership of Viktor Yanukovych, Rican's time in charge of Ukraine was centred on developing a safer, more efficient healthcare system whilst greatly reforming the financial services sector in the country. There was a determined effort to eradicate corrupt practices across all industries in the country. The main outlet for news was the Kyiv Post.

Economy
The first action of the new government was to merge the country's two stock markets before going on a scheme of reforms including overhauling the securities markets with restrictive and anti-corruption legislation ensuring an unprecedented low level of corruption in Ukraine's financial markets.

The most radical change was allowing the National Bank of Ukraine full independence from the government to set interest rates in a move similar to that which handed the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England power to do the same in the US and UK respectively. It was widely seen as a move away from the Commonwealth of Independent States' new-found single currency and even a possible shift towards Eurozone convergence.

There was also a huge hike of, on average, 2% on tobacco prices as the government sought to reduce the number of smokers in Ukraine. As an aside, the government developed a duty stamp scheme similar to that in Europe and North America to plug the flow of black market cigarettes from Russia.

Healthcare & Education
Within a month of taking office, the government announced a massive investment in the healthcare system. It entailed revising the way in which tax revenues were distributed, moving from a regionalised system to a centralised tax pool able to pay out to healthcare facilities across the country. There was also the introduction of a new costing system for healthcare with a set tariff for operations, checkups and surgery. A drug-approval board was also set-up to stem the influx of counterfeit drugs.

There was also the construction of a $750 million super-hospital capable of accommodating over 1200 patients in a state-of-the-art facility including a pioneering robotic surgical arm theatre room.

Infrastructure
The government also initiated the privatisation of Ukraine's only state-owned television channel shortly after taking up office in an effort to balance Ukraine's budget deficit and also do away with a TV station well-known for being little more than a government puppet when it came to news coverage.

There was a $300 million investment in the country's telecommunications network with the laying of fibre optic cables in the four largest cities in Ukraine. The project was started but was not completed before the end of the government's tenure in office.

Military
The government announced plans to massively revitalise the Ukrainian military though the plans never made it beyond the initial purchase of several armoured personnel carriers.

There was also a small fallout between Russia and the Ukraine over the Ukrainian Minister of Defence's call for Russia to withdraw their Black Sea Fleet from around the Crimean Peninsula.

Other
The government was also keen to make reparations for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. This included setting up the Chernobyl compensation fund, $2.2 billion of money to be paid out to victims and their families as well as being used to revitalise the region affected by the disaster.

Togo
In Round 12, under the leadership of Faure Gnassingbé, Rican developed a manifesto which centred on revitalising Togo's economy and pushing it to the forefront of African economic growth. The government also committed itself to vastly reducing the number of Togolese nationals suffering with HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases. The main outlet for news was the Togo Presse.

Awards
Being that Round 12 is Rican's first round, he has been awarded nothing to date.