KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at a meeting of the National Reforms Council devoted to the anti-corruption reform, has said that the legal framework for fighting corruption had been created and currently the establishment of the required infrastructure and formation of anti-corruption personnel was being held.
“Basically, we formed a legal framework for fighting corruption. Now, we need to create appropriate infrastructure and, on the basis of rigid transparent competitive selection, form the backbone of honest and incorruptible law enforcers willing to go to the end. Their work shouldn’t be obstructed by any political pressure or lack of political will,” the press service of the head of state reported on September 18, citing Poroshenko.
“We must ensure a quick and efficient start of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and form the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office as soon as possible,” the head of state said.
The Ukrainian president is confident that this will have been done by the end of the year, and the anti-corruption prosecutor will be appointed in November.
“Detectives can prepare relevant developments to have the first results of their work already this year,” Poroshenko said.
The president noted the importance of institutional steps taken – creation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Anti-Corruption Agency, formation of new prosecutorial staff.
The Ukrainian president commended the decision of the parliament, which delegated its representatives to the commission, which must determine the top managers of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office. Poroshenko noted the fact that the faction of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc had voted for representatives who often criticized him.
“In fact, it is easy to criticize, but it is the right step to unite and work together on a common result,” Poroshenko said.
Among successful anti-corruption steps, the president mentioned the work of volunteer troops in the Defense Ministry and transition to the pre-threshold electronic procurement system.
“The law on increasing transparency in ownership relations accelerates the creation of effective system aimed to prevent corruption. It enhances financial control over the assets and income of officials. Access to the registers of owners of movable and immovable property will be opened in early October, and we will not allow the delay,” he said.
However, he said, the war against corruption was started, but there are still no tangible victories.
“It is not enough to reveal, detain, dismiss and initiate criminal proceedings. We will no longer accept these reports. Ukrainian people require strict and inevitable criminal penalties for corruption. Corrupt officials must be in jail,” the president said.
In this context, he noted the role of judges who are often corrupt themselves. The head of state called on the MPs to submit the proposals of public organizations that provide for a radical renewal of the judiciary for consideration by the Venice Commission.
“The main thing is to ensure that corrupt officials are brought to justice. We must do everything to prevent the loss of faith in the effective fight against corruption and ensure an appropriate outcome,” he said.
The president urged the parliament to consider and approve the law that will prohibit the release on bail of civil servants, especially senior officials, suspected of corruption.
The president said that the anti-corruption reform should not be limited only to the punishment of corrupt officials. It also provides for the prevention of corruption, elimination of opportunities and reasons to take bribes.
Poroshenko said that the results of the anti-corruption reform must be noticed by Ukrainians, our foreign partners and investors who will actively invest in the Ukrainian economy, which will contribute to further economic growth.
The president also focused on the law on budget financing of political parties, stressing that if the parliament adopts this law, he will sign it without a delay.
“It is cheaper for the country to maintain the parties at the cost of the state budget than to bear huge losses from political corruption caused by the material dependence of the party projects on oligarchic structures,” the head of state said.
The Ukrainian president drew the attention of the economic development and trade minister to the need to accelerate the process of deregulation.
“The smaller the role of the state in the economy and human life, the smaller opportunity officials would have to demand bribes”, he said.
“I insist on speedy, fair and transparent privatization of state enterprises. I consider myself a follower of economic school, which believes the state a priori cannot be an effective owner. I am convinced that the government has the same views on privatization and there is no excuse that the parliament does not make relevant decisions blocking these extremely important processes,” the president said.
Speaking about the issue of wage of civil servants, Poroshenko said: “We are not a rich country to have cheap officials. Corruption risks of this policy are too high. We either learn to speak honestly with people, or move to this side of the shadow economy as well”.
Commenting on the abolition of parliamentary immunity, the president said that his draft amendments to the Constitution had been endorsed by the Constitutional Court and somehow disappeared in the archives of the Verkhovna Rada.
“I emphasize that every MP must be responsible for this. The same thing is with the judicial immunity. The Prosecutor General’s Office must do everything for Ukraine to have no more people protected from prosecution for offenses committed,” the president said.
KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin as a part of his official visit to South Korea met Chairman of Saenuri ruling party Kim Moo-sung.
“Attention was paid to the issues of further development of political contacts, ways to boost practical cooperation in all areas, first of all, trade and economic, investment, research and humanitarian areas,” the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine reported on September 18.
KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Germany’s KfW (Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau) Development Bank as of September 17, 2015 approved infrastructure development projects in Ukraine worth EUR 89.5 million that would be realized using the bank’s funds, Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Minister of Ukraine Hennadiy Zubko has said.
“The sum is EUR 89.5 million,” he said asked about the cost of the approved projects at a meeting of the Ukrainian-German working group on the selection of projects to be financed by KfW held in Kyiv on Thursday.
Zubko also said that on September 16, negotiations between Germany, the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry and Infrastructure Ministry on the provision of loans by KfW in the amount of EUR 150 million and EUR 60 million to realize transformer substation reconstruction and electric locomotive modernization projects respectively were held.
He said that the projects approved on September 17 concern reconstruction and modernization of facilities in the essential services area, in particular, this concerns investment of EUR 48 million into the water supply station in Dnipropetrovsk.
Projects on switching 257 budget-funded institutions to use alternative energy in Zaporizhia, projects in the water supply area in Izium and Chuhuyiv (Kharkiv region) and in the heating supply area in Lysychansk (Luhansk region) and Mariupol (Donetsk region) were also approved.
KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Over 200 companies from 10 countries will present their products during the Arms and Security 2015 international exhibition, which will be held in Kyiv on September 22-September 25.
Beside Ukrainian companies, 21 foreign companies from nine countries will take part in the exhibition, the organization committee of the exhibition has told Interfax Ukraine. The U.S., UK, Israel, China, India, Bulgaria, Estonia, the Netherlands and Poland have confirmed their participation in the exhibition.
“Considering the fact that the Arms and Security 2015 is held under the conditions of continuing Russian aggression against Ukraine, its main events are focused on meeting the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine and other Ukrainian [military] forces. However, under the current conditions, Arms and Security 2015 is considered as a serious instrument for extending military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and foreign partners and increasing orders for the national military-industrial complex,” the organization committee said.
The total exhibition area is 18,000 sq. meters where over 40 full-scale models of national and foreign military and special equipment, including aviation models, will be presented.
As part of the military exhibition, arms and individual equipment for soldiers on battlefield will be presented, including equipment and weaponry for ground forces, law enforcement agencies, border control, and military aviation.
The capabilities of the national military-industrial complex at will be represented by 32 companies of Ukroboronprom state concern, including the leaders – PrJSC Motor Sich, PrJSC AvtoKrAZ, Makarov Pivdenny Machine Building Plant (Pivdenmash), Pivdenne State Design Office, PJSC Leninska Kuznia, and Arsenal State Enterprise of Special Instrumentation.
Ukroboronprom will be the central Ukrainian company at the exhibition and will present advanced armored vehicles, including the BTR-3E1, the Dozor-B APC, the Ovod APC, new artillery equipment, high-accuracy missiles and radio equipment. UAVs and small arms developed by Ukrainian manufacturers will also be presented.
KYIV. Sept 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – VISA International has expressed its desire to cooperate with Ukrposhta postal company, which has a network of 12,000 departments.
The press service of Ukrposhta has reported that a delegation from VISA International has arrived in Kyiv to discuss the future steps and conditions of cooperation.
“The expansion of its possibilities in the financial service area, both in towns and rural areas, especially in those corners of the country where no bank operates is a very important issue,” acting Ukrposhta Director General Ihor Tkachuk said.
VISA is one of the largest global payment systems and its cards are accepted in stores in over 200 countries.
KYIV. Sept 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Japan’s Fujikura electric wire and telecommunications systems corporation plans to receive EUR 40 million of revenue from an electronic element and wire plant in Lviv region which is being created as part of an investment project, Fujikura Managing Executive Officer Ichiro Kamada said at the presentation of the project in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He said that at the first phase of the realization of the project, which has assessed investment of EUR 5-6 million, will create 300 jobs and will eventually increase the number of employees to 3,000 within the next three years.
“Now we’re to decide for what global automobile manufacturers we will produce goods. We plan to transfer our production facilities from Romania to Ukraine and at the first phase the products will be made at existing facilities with a gross area of 12,000 square meters,” Kamada said.
He said that if the first phase is a success, Fujikura will decide on its expansion and further construction of a plant. He assessed total investment in the project at EUR 60 million for three years.
Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavicius said at the presentation that a month ago Fujikura made the decision to resume the realization of the project on the creation of the plant in Lviv region which was frozen in November 2013 due to political events in Ukraine.
“The arrival of these companies makes us feel optimistic. Those reforms concerning deregulation, improvement of investment climate, reforms of the State Fiscal Service being conducted in our country should be more communicated, as actually along with the DCFTA agreement with the EU other opportunities are opened to create production facilities with the purpose of exports to the EU. If they manage to do everything, they would create jobs and bring investment, and their colleagues, rivals and friends would come to our country and would invest with the purpose of exports to the European market. This investment is an important signal for the government and other foreign investors that reforms bring positive effect,” the minister said.
Kamada said that Fujikura started searching for the location to realize the project in 2011.
“We’ve almost decided to come in 203 and signed the office and production facilities leasing agreement in October and November 2013, but, unfortunately, we had to freeze the project. Now we again decided to come, hoping that nothing bad would happen in Ukraine,” Kamada said.
Fujikura was founded in 1885 in Japan and gradually transformed into an international corporation providing innovation solutions. Its turnover exceeds EUR 5 billion a year.
