On Friday, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman met with Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Alain Pilloux and discussed the bilateral cooperation and touched the issue of implementation of the EBRD projects in Ukraine.
Groysman congratulated Mr. Pilloux on the appointment as the Vice-President of the EBRD and thanked the EBRD "for its systemic work in Ukraine, implementation of different projects allowing Ukraine to change in different fields." At the same time, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada expressed hope that the bilateral cooperation will deepen.
The Chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament informed that despite the complicated situation in the country, the Ukrainian Parliament shows ability to take important decisions. He also recalled about holding the financial decentralization, which, according to him, allows sending more resources to the local level. He added that such funds can inter alia be used for further cooperation with different international organizations, in particular, the EBRD.
The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada also pointed out the importance of holding transparent, open privatization of state-run enterprises. He noted that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had adopted the Law that can trigger the process and work on the list of enterprises subjected to privatization.
"We are interested in open, transparent privatization, we are interested in the most effective privatization possible," Groysman said. "The privatization is positive for Ukraine in all aspects: both from the point of view of finding effective owners, and decrease of the state expenditures and elimination of corruption," he added.
At the same time, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada notes that certain protraction of the adoption of the Law was related to the fact that "the Government did not give the details of its vision of how transparent would the privatization be, of the mechanisms that would be used, etc."
In turn, Mr. Pilloux thanked the Verkhovna Rada for the efforts allowing the Bank to cooperate with Ukraine. He said that in 2015, the EBRD attracted about EUR 1 billion for 30 different projects in Ukraine. In 2016, the EBRD will continue similar assistance to Ukraine. He added that the EBRD hopes for speedup of reforms in Ukraine.
Mr. Pilloux also drew attention to the problems that hinder activity of the EBRD in Ukraine. In particular, the barriers in crediting small and mid-sized business and toughening of requirements to investment projects. The Vice-President of the EBRD expressed hope that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will support joint projects and simplify the bilateral cooperation.