KYIV. Oct 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President Petro Poroshenko has met with investors of Horizon Capital and Western NIS Enterprise Fund.
“I am grateful to Horizon Capital and Western NIS Enterprise Fund investors for their faith in our country. We are carrying out reforms that make Ukraine stronger, more successful and more reliable,” he wrote on his Twitter on Thursday night.
The president told about the reforms in the country and its plans for the future. He said that in three past years, the country managed to stabilize the macro-financial situation and restore economic growth, purify the banking system, create the anticorruption institutions, reform the energy sector. In autumn, the parliament adopted the educational, judicial, pension and healthcare reforms, he added. The president is hopeful that by the end of the year, the parliament will have supported the initiative on privatization that will be held transparently and with a high level of trust.
“We are holding the reforms that make Ukraine stronger, more successful and reliable,” Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko said that Ukraine is a unique country and “now, it is the right time and place to invest.”
The investors of Horizon Capital represent government agencies, international financial institutions, pension funds, family bureaus and investors with a total capital exceeding $350 billion. The four funds managed by Horizon Capital invested in more than 140 companies and attracted $1.5 billion in these companies, creating more than 45,000 jobs in each region of Ukraine, the information says.
Western NIS Enterprise Fund was the first donor of the ProZorro electronic procurement system and funded the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, which currently educates around 200 students from all over Ukraine.
Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmytro Shymkiv and Head of the Office of the National Investment Council under the President of Ukraine Yulia Kovaliv also attended the meeting.
KYIV. Oct 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a procedure for using UAH 2 million announced in the national budget for the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine for development of e-governance in the agroindustrial complex.
The decision was made at a government meeting on Wednesday.
The government appointed the ministry the key spending unit of the budget funds under the program.
Budget funds are allocated to introduce the e-document flow, in particular, the creation and introduction of local computer networks and purchase of computer and office equipment.
The government obliged the ministry to submit information about the results of the implementation of the budget program in a month.
KYIV. Oct 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine hopes to find a compromise regarding the loan issued by China Complete Engineering Corporation (CCEC) for the cheaper implementation of the Air Express project and other projects. A joint group with CCEC has been created, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“It consists of representatives of ministries and parliament and by the middle of November it will revise this and other Ukraine-China projects, as well as determine top priority tasks and present proposals on their optimal implementation,” he wrote on his Facebook page after a meeting with representatives of CCEC in Kyiv.
He believes that the constructive dialog helps to settle existing problematic issues and find a mutually beneficial solution that would suit passengers and would be more efficient from the point of its implementation.
Kubiv said that a high-speed train is required to be launched between Kyiv and the Boryspil airport, although the project should be economically viable.
“For example, a tram train, as this is more beneficial alternative to the Air Express project initiated in 2011,” Kubiv said.
As reported, Ukraine has the unrealized national project “Air Express” of railway passenger communication between Kyiv and Boryspil International Airport, construction of other infrastructure objects in Kyiv region, which is aimed at ensuring the development of transport infrastructure, strengthening the competitive positions of Ukrainian air carriers, increasing the investment and tourist attractiveness of the country.
To implement it, in 2011, a $372.3 million government secured credit agreement was signed with the Export-Import Bank of China. The CCEC was designated as the general contractor for performing turnkey construction works.
KYIV. Oct 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli believes that effective coordination of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU requires a strong coordination of ministries, the involvement of the Verkhovna Rada and communication with citizens.
“Our experience tells us that four conditions have to be met for the effective implementation of this agreement. The first condition is that there’s a need for a strong coordination of various ministries involved, which means that the deputy prime minister in charge of European integration and the government office in charge of European integration must be given the possibility to coordinate the work of all ministries in this regard,” he said at a government meeting on Wednesday, October 25.
The EU ambassador added that the second condition concerned the involvement of the Verkhovna Rada in this process, which means that every year there should be a common “roadmap” for the government and the parliament on priority actions to be implemented.
At the same time, Mingarelli believes that ahead of each session of parliament it would be necessary for government members to spell out clearly the priority legal acts that need to be adopted.
Also, he said, all stakeholders such as the Government Office for European Integration, various ministries and committees and the EU Delegation should meet on a monthly basis to discuss the implementation process, as well as identify and eliminate possible obstacles.
“The last condition is the need for an effective communication around the Association Agreement, which would explain to ordinary Ukrainian citizens the benefit that this Association Agreement can bring to the country,” Mingarelli said.
