- Atlanta economist to advise PM

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: Atlanta Economist to Advise Ukraine Prime Minister : Atlanta economist Sheila Tschinkel would welcome meeting with Georgia travelers when she moves to Kiev, Ukraine, in September to work as economic adviser to Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. : "I've heard that she's the hardest working person in the Ukrainian government," Ms. Tschinkel said, noting that she was prepared to work long hours to assist Ms. Tymoshenko in implementing economic reform policies in the Ukraine. : "I told her that I would work American hours, which essentially means no vacations," she told GlobalAtlanta in a farewell interview at her Atlanta residence. : Ms. Tschinkel, who served as senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, has advised Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Uzbekistani governments on implementing economic reform policies since she left the Fed in 1995. : Dealing with debt management, fiscal policy reform and the decentralization of banking systems, Ms. Tschinkel has assisted representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. : While she describes her work as helping to implement economic reforms into the day-to-day framework of a country, she is careful to note that she only takes an advising role when working with local government officials. She facilitates discussions between government officials and representatives from international aid agencies and coaches officials into making their own decisions on economic policy, she said. : "It's their government. [Officials] have to make the decision(s) on their own, and they have to take responsibility for their decisions," she said, adding that most government officials who she had worked with had been extremely motivated to implement economic policy changes but needed guidance in making their decisions. : "Ideally, you should get done and people should be able to do this themselves, without you," she said. : Ms. Tschinkel, who has never lived in the Ukraine, will wait to learn about the people and the Ukrainian government before deciding how to advise Ms. Tymoshenko, she said. : Ms. Tymoshenko, the founder and former president of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a private energy company that imported natural gas supplies from Russia, began her own opposition party in the Ukrainian government in 1999. : During Ukraine's 2004 presidential elections, Ms. Tymoshenko joined with opposition candidate, Viktor Yushechenko, and was appointed prime minister in January after Mr. Yushchenko was elected president in the re-run of an internationally contested election in November. : Ms. Tymoshenko was also named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine, following Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and China's vice premier and minister of health, Wu Yi. : Ms. Tymoshenko chose Ms. Tschinkel as her economic adviser upon the recommendation of U.S. ambassasdor to the Ukraine, John Herbst, whom Ms. Tschinkel met in 2003 while working in Uzbekistan. Mr. Herbst was serving as U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan at that time, Ms. Tschinkel said.