KYIV. Sept 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The absence of the farmland market in Ukraine hinders investment in agriculture, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
“The absence of the right to freely sell and buy farmland hinders investment into agriculture, narrows and violates rights of farmers and sets artificially low rent rates, drawing the last kopecks out their pockets. This is axiomatic. I know the public opinion in Ukraine on the issue and the position of the majority of parliamentary factions. I appreciate and respect them. This is your competence, dear lawmakers, how to resolve the problem: to hide head in the sand and change nothing or to work on the creation of the land market in Ukraine, but with all possible safeguards from any negative consequences,” he said in his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The president said that the agro-industrial complex remains a key source of currency income to the country.
He said that now the agriculture’s share of total exports reached the highest indicator in the past 25 years.
“The leading role of agriculture in the context of building the innovative economy looks slightly contradictory. It is important until the process of boosting high-tech ‘muscles’ by the economic complex continues,” Poroshenko said.
