Ukraine expects Further Fruitful Cooperation with the International Monetary Fund
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of The
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, made
this statement on Wednesday, meeting Paul Thompson, International Monetary Fund
(IMF) Deputy Director for Europe.
"We are interested in further cooperation with the IMF, which requires plenty of efforts", Mr Lytvyn stated. The importance of common work with the President and the Government is evident, thus, serious decisions should be adopted and decisive actions should be taken with account for the credit of confidence to the authorities."
Mr Thompson commented upon ‘the close cooperation´ between the IMF and the Ukrainian Government, stating that Ukraine faces the necessity of implementing economic reforms.
The International Monetary Fund Deputy Director for Europe highly appreciated the economic reforms plan announced by the President of Ukraine, calling it ‘a comprehensive document´. He called on the Parliament to support its implementation. Mr Thompson declared that the common action plan of the IMF and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine would also require support on the part of The Verkhovna Rada.
The Head of the Parliament supported
this standpoint, stating that "we should work on a permanent basis, refusing
from the practice of hasty decisions." Mr Lytvyn explained that any legislative
decision in the framework of economic reforms should conform to "the general scheme
of processes in Ukraine",
be understandable, transparent, and supported by the public. "The Verkhovna
Rada has a political will to adopt such decisions," he stated.
Mr Lytvyn also stressed that he is ‘in a continuous dialogue´ with the Government concerning drafts of the new Budget and Tax Codes for the sake of immediate adoption of these documents to provide a new basis for the next-year budget. Mr Thompson expressed his concern with the rapid growth of the external debt of Ukraine, which currently totals 40% of GDP and can bear negative influence on the economic life of the country. He called for reducing the amount of debt.
In his turn, Mr Lytvyn assured that Ukrainian leaders realized this problem. He stated that any steps in the economic sector should be supported by the public. "Understanding that not all decisions will be smooth, we should work transparently, otherwise, we will not achieve a normal way of development", he summed up.