President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with World Bank President David Malpass has confirmed his intention to carry out land reform, complete the unbundling of Naftogaz, demonopolize the economy and state-owned enterprises, and respect the independence of the National Bank. Malpass wrote on his FT blog following a meeting with Zelensky that at their meeting Zelensky had confirmed several key growth measures that will be mentioned at the meetings with G7: implement the land reform, split ownership of Naftogaz’ transit assets, demonopolize the economy and state-owned enterprises, and respect the independence of the central bank.
According to Malpass, to attract investment in Ukraine, it is necessary to eliminate monopolies in favor of market competition and strengthen the rule of law.
Capital should be send to the most productive enterprises but not to influential privileged circles and oligarchs, he said.
Malpass also emphasized the importance of land reform.
The country has the largest stock of agricultural land in Europe, but the yield per hectare is only a small part of the crop in France and Germany. At the same time, one oligarch controls a group of companies that produces more than 80% of domestic output of several types of mineral fertilizers, the banker said.
As reported, World Bank President David Malpass on August 22-23 for the first time visited Ukraine after he has taken this post on April 9, 2019.
