Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has again come out swinging against his critics.
Talking in broken Ukrainian, Klitschko spoke in front of around 200 members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine on March 11 in the Column Hall at Kyiv City Administration.
Delivering his speech, the mayor chose not to sit next to Chamber President Andy Hunder. Instead, he opted to prowl around the stage, as if he were in a boxing ring.
“If we’re talking about investments, I’m sure I’ll be able to convince you that Kyiv is the best city you can invest in,” Klitschko said in an optimistic opening to his speech.
Klitschko, who has been mayor for nearly two years, was reelected in October, beating 28 other competitors, including Volodymyr Bondarenko, the former head of Kyiv City administration and a member of Batkivshchyna Party, and a former Kyiv mayor, Oleksandr Omelchenko.
The mayor spoke in broad terms, emphasizing the need for more investments and anti-corruption measures.
82 criminal cases
“We must create such a system that will not give an opportunity for corruption,” Klitschko said. His administration has submitted “100 kilograms” of documents to the prosecutor’s office on 82 criminal cases, he said.
“We understand that openness, transparency, gives us a chance to destroy corruption,” Klitschko said. “We’ve opened all of the doors, all of the (city) commissions, we invite journalists, civil activists, experts to join us in the development of the city.”
He said the city administration has released an annual report through PricewaterhouseCoopers, a leading international audit company, and the city’s revenues and spending can now all be viewed online. This transparency measure, Klitschko claimed, saved the city $100 million.
Kyiv’s budget increaed by 30 percent in 2015 despite the 10 percent drop in the gross domestic product of the country, Klitschko said. This is not necessarily because Kyiv’s economy is performing much better than the rest of Ukraine; rather, it is because money “is not disappearing anymore,” he said.
The mayor went on to confuse his audience by first saying it was “impossible” to steal money from the city’s budget, and then saying that tackling corruption in Kyiv was paramount. “It still exists, and we have much more to do, it is only the tip of the iceberg,” Klitschko said.
For example, monopolies need to be destroyed, giving opportunities to work to small- and medium-sized businesses, which are the backbone of developed economies, he added.
Small achievements
One of the first steps of the Kyiv City State Administration under Klitschko was to create an investor’s portal called the Kyiv Investment Agency, which provides services for investment proposals.
Last year Kyiv received Hr 1.7 billion in investments, but Klitschko sees his city’s potential being closer to double-digit figures – in 2016 he expects the city to receive Hr 10 billion. He said that he will do everything in order to make investors feel confident that their businesses would function properly, and make a profit.
Another step was launching Smart City, a platform for creating more efficient transportation and energy systems.
The mayor has also launched an English-language program, which provides English lessons to 6,000 people for free. “The next question is for Kyiv’s police to also take lessons,” Klitschko said, in English.
Plans and more plans
The mayor is not short on plans.
The city administration is planning to create an independent group of administrators that will concentrate on reforming various aspects of the city.
The mayor also has ambitious plans to extend Kyiv’s metro system to Boryspil International Airport, and wants to make sure that Kyivan’s can drink water straight from the tap, as people can in most developed countries.
And Klitschko called for investors to actively give advice to the city administration on how to further change the city.
“You have great world experience in the realization of businesses… we need your experience, your knowledge, we need your collaboration,” Klitschko said, adding that Kyiv cannot successfully fight corruption if more investments don’t come in.
More problems
But some critics say that it has already taken Klitschko too long to implement even basic changes in the city, and that many of his big plans just remain plans, never implemented.
After the mayor finished his 22-minute speech, the audience raised concerns covering everything from land lease rights and illegal gas stations, to the need for more sporting and cultural platforms.
Unfair competition
PepsiCo Ukraine representative Iurii Roshchyn complained about difficulties with fair competition, whereas Serhiy Pidhorodetsky, general director of Atlas Jet Ukraine, complained about the delay in getting an Open Skies agreement at Kyiv’s low-cost Kyiv Zhulyany International Airport.
“During September last year I had the opportunity to hear you voice intentions to open the skies at Zhulyany airport,” Pidhoretsky said. “Do your intentions still remain strong, or will we continue to see the growth of new private villas?”
Pidhoretsky said the monopoly of one aviation “clan” was too difficult to overcome. Nearly all aviation experts blame billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky’s Ukraine International Airlines for nearly monopolizing air travel in Ukraine.
The development of Kyiv’s infrastructure has an important role, Klitschko replied. “I see considerable development at Zhulyany airport,” the mayor said. “I know about these problems, I agree with you with the points that you have made and propose… that we develop together.”
Illegal gas stations
Another complaint came from Maxim Minaev, director of the development department of Shell Ukraine, regarding the roughly 300 illegal gas stations still operating in Ukraine. Ones that were supposed to have been dismantled are still operating, he said.
“This is three times more than the legal ones,” Minaev said. This makes competition unhealthy, as the illegal market players don’t pay taxes to the city budget. This also has to do with the quality of gas, as well as money going to the city’s budget, he says.
“Shell doesn’t see the possibility of investing in this business in such conditions,” Minaev said.
Klitschko said that 77 illegal gas stations have been demolished, and that all gas stations must be legal and pay taxes to the budget.
Then Klitschko’s deputy Ilya Sagaidak took over.
“Because of the absence of rules, there are abuses of power,” Sagaidak said. The transportation department is making a plan for where gas stations can be located, after which there will be an auction for specific locations, he said.
