There was a presentation ceremony of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) portfolio of programmes and activities (USAID) held in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The event was attended by the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy, members of the Ukrainian Parliament, and representatives of the Parliament Administration.
The participants learned a lot about the USAID activities in Ukraine and familiarized with the local programmes in its portfolio.
In the course of the occasion, there have been outlined the USAID’s priorities in Ukraine, and the future collaboration with the Verkhovna Rada was discussed.
‘Whatever reform is done by the Parliament, it must work for betterment of people’s life,’ Andriy Parubiy
It was said by the UA Parliament Chairman at the presentation ceremony of USAID programs and activities.
In his opening speech, the Chairman touched upon the importance of the (US) partners’ support during these times of hardship for the Parliament and for the country on the whole, the times of hybrid war and comprehensive reforms. According to him “we ought to make nearly no mistake in reforming the country as the challenges we face are quite enormous. We must have high skills and extensive knowledge in keeping up the process of the reforms by the Parliament as each and every of them is to better the people’s life”.
There was a special gratitude expressed to the international partners for their consultations and continuing support of the reforms adopted this fall by the Verkhovna Rada.
The current agenda contains large-scale structural changes in education, judicial branch, and medicine.
“My stance is quite firm, now and then -- each reform ought to go the full ride, be seen by the Parliament separately and at large, through the entire discussions due,” stressed the Chair. “We have managed to successfully pass through all the amendments to the education reform – over two thousand items, judicial reform – some five thousand one, and the pension one – nearly 3000 different changes”.
The next week brings the much talked-of medical reform to the Parliament to be widely discussed. As per the Chairman “the health care system in Ukraine is completely obsolete and old-fashioned – it needs badly to be re-launched with no delay”. The new medical laws will allow it to optimize the branch spending and ramp up its performance in Ukraine. The medics will be offered a due and worthy pay depending justly upon the number of the cases treated. A fixed list of services and medications covered by the state budget is to be set under the law. Free of any charge for the people. Billions of the state allocations are supposed to be mindfully streamlined, whilst the people get a bettered health care. “I do hope the chamber will take it on time. I want Ukraine to have quality medicine. I want Ukrainians to be healthy,” underscored the Chairman A. Parubiy.
The Parliament’s
head thanked the USAID mission for its valuable contribution into the democratic
development of Ukraine and the Parliament, which have been rendered over many
years of cooperation.
“Our state is now
having a very trying time but at the same time it is the moment of great
changes, hopes and prospects. This is the historic period when we change our
country, reconciling it to the European laws, lifting it up to a new level of evolution.
It is obvious, we now need to be bolstered and backed by our real friends and
partners,” underscored the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Chairman Andriy Parubiy
concluding his speech.