Gorbachev Adviser Captivates Area’s Leading Capitalists

The speaker was the Soviet Union’s most influential economist, the place was a hotel in West Hollywood, the audience was mainly business executives and the topic was . . . sleigh riding.

At least it seemed to be.

“The Russians take a long time to hitch a horse to a sled,” declared Abel Aganbegyan, the affable native of Armenia who is Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s key economic adviser. “But once it’s done, they travel rather fast. We’re still hitching a horse, so to speak.”

What Aganbegyan was really talking about, of course, was perestroika, the profound restructuring of the Soviet economy that is under way. His listeners were fascinated by the front-seat account and whatever insight it might offer about business opportunities in that giant country.

“We know what we want,” the official said through an interpreter, in answer to questions about whether the new policy is working. “Not many countries can brag of knowing what they want.”

Aganbegyan, who is head of the economics section of the Soviet National Academy of Sciences, is traveling in the United States to learn more about the U.S. economy and to meet with executives, entrepreneurs and academics. The occasion was a seminar for business executives sponsored by Barry, Ambrosetti & Associates of Los Angeles at the Bel Age Hotel.

“I like to get acquainted with the experience of American business--especially in innovations,” he said in a brief interview.

Next week, for example, he plans to visit high-tech companies in San Jose, San Francisco and Cupertino, and may meet with professors at Stanford University.

Much of the day’s discussion was on the possibility of joint ventures between U.S. firms and the Soviets, a kind of partnership that changes in Soviet policy make easier than in the past.

Gordon Feller, founder of Integrated Strategies, a consulting firm in San Rafael, pointed to Soviet technological accomplishments in space, optics and other areas. But “they have no capacity to commercialize these technologies,” he said, adding that for American companies the situation is potentially “a gold mine.”

Aganbegyan, a big, lumbering man who laced his comments with folksy expressions, freely acknowledged the obstacles to industrial change. The Soviets, for example, are attempting to introduce elements of free enterprise into such areas as agriculture, dominated for years by centrally run collectives.

“The baggage is always with you, and you can’t run fast with baggage,” he said, noting at the same time the need for rapid change “so the majority of Soviet families become convinced of the material benefits of perestroika.”

He said Soviet society approached the border of “an economic catastrophe” as stagnation spread throughout the economy before Gorbachev. Now, he explained, the priorities are to establish an economy much more responsive to the needs of consumers, to utilize the nation’s vast resources more efficiently and to improve the quality of management.

“We are not only committing errors, we are admitting them--and that is a guarantee we will make fewer errors in the future.”

In the interview, he even discussed the possibility of a Soviet stock market of sorts. The idea, he said, would be for individual enterprises to trade in shares of other enterprises, but individual investors would not be permitted to speculate Western-style. “We cannot afford to have people amassing huge money reserves and to live without work.”

And despite some disappointments, Aganbegyan cited various examples of advancement under the new approach, including improvements in life expectancy and decreased infant mortality, expanded residential construction and a greater investment in schools.

Not that the Americans seemed to need much convincing.

“To the Russians, perestroika is restructuring. To me, perestroika is opportunity,” said Angelo Leparulo, executive vice president of Occidental Petroleum, which has done business in the Soviet Union and has two joint projects in the planning stage.

Don Gevirtz, chairman of the Foothill Group, which provides business financing, called for an “entrepreneurial summit” in the Soviet Union attended by entrepreneurs from the United States and Soviet officials.

He recalled his amazement during a conversation with two Soviet economists when they told him that among the most critically needed goods in their country were children’s clothes. “I’ve heard astounding stories,” he said.