28/05 17:32 EBA EuroDebates

SIX MONTHS OF NEW GOVERNMENT OF UKRAINE: RESULTS AND PROSPECTS
 (May 28, 2008, Kyiv, Ukraine)

The European Business Association held the EuroDebates, devoted to the first half year of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Government - “Six Months of New Government of Ukraine: Results and Prospects” on 28th of May, 2008 (Wednesday).

The meeting was aimed at assisting the dialogue between the business and the Government officials. The key speakers of the EuroDebates were:

Unfortunately, the representatives of the Opposition who had confirmed their attendance before have not appeared.

This time all guests of the EuroDebates heard: vision of results and prospects from the representatives of the State of Ukraine, comments on the situation of the EBA Business Community and conclusions of independent expert. During his address Hryhoriy Nemyrya said that in its day-to-day work the Ukrainian government sticks precisely to the Ukrainian Cabinet of Minister’s Action Plan, which is called Ukrainian Breakthrough: for the people, and not for politicians…

“Working in conditions of constitutional imperfection, the government remains, in fact, the sole island of stability in the country. Yes, meetings of the Cabinet take place on a regular basis, and the operation of government committees, at which decisions are adopted by consensus, has been renewed”. Answering critical remarks on the part of opponents who were present, as regards the development and introduction of economic and social reforms, Hryhoriy Nemyrya said: “I would like to speak the language of facts and not populist expressions. The government has fulfilled and is fulfilling the promises it made during the election race. Thanks to the successful steps taken by the Government of Ukraine, the negotiating process for Ukraine’s entry into the World Trade Organization has been completed which, in its turn, gave the opportunity to start official talks with the European Union on 18 February 2008 on the creation of a free-trade zone and to hold two rounds of talks. Other confirmation – the return of lost savings to the Ukrainian population, work to prepare for the transparent privatization of state companies, active work to get rid of obstacles to investment activity in Ukraine, the establishment of “Authorities-Business” dialogue and others”.

“The Government should be commended for taking investor issues and concerns very seriously and for creating unprecedented action plans for improvements. This is indeed very promising.  But even though six months is a short time, the business community is still impatient for some real breakthroughs in areas such as Corporate Governance and Protection of Shareholder Rights, Judicial Reform, Land and Real Estate Reforms and improvements in Taxation enforcement.  These issues are still major and basic barriers to investment in Ukraine, and we hope that the Government – and future governments – will soon implement real reforms in these important areas, so that Ukraine can attract even much higher levels of investments and business development,” – said Trond Moe, Country Manager, Telenor Ukraine.

“In order to be able to comment on the Government’s almost six months of work, I will first of all allow myself to go back six months in time. In January of this year the Prime Minister of Ukraine presented a table developed by our Association on the basis of its own analytical report entitled “Barriers to Investment in Ukraine”. This table consists of 217 points, which clearly outlined: the problems of business, proposals on removing these problems, the organizations responsible for carrying this out, the timeframe for implementation and comments on the process of implementation. The said document was taken by the Government as the foundation for its work on improving the investment climate in the country. It was at that time that representatives of business promised to fulfil requirements on reducing obstacles to investment in Ukraine. Today, we can say that over 20 questions have already been solved, and a further 55 find themselves at the stage of being solved. Of course, turning the pages of the Table, there are still 150 problems, which still need to be considered and solved, and we understand that relatively little has been done so far to have a positive influence on the investment climate in Ukraine. However, if we compare the said indicators with last year’s indicators, this is a positive trend. And I can tell you that the entire business community of the Association has an approving attitude towards the Government’s work on the path towards fulfilling the obligations it has undertaken,” - Anna Derevyanko, the executive director of the European Business Association, said.

There were about 80 people present at the EuroDebates. These included members of the European Business Association, representatives of the Ukrainian government, coalition and members of the diplomatic corps, as well as media representatives.

The event was held from 17:30 to 19:30 at the Sofiyiskiy hall, the Premier Palace Hotel.

Check the EuroDebates page.