Losses of the Ukrainian economy from the unsatisfactory quality of motor roads in the country in the period from 2001 to 2013 have soared by 2.7 times, to Hr 55 billion a year, Head of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), Yevhen Prusenko, said at the public debates entitled "Quality Roads are Luxury for UKRAINE " organized by the Foundation for Effective Governance (FEG).
“Everyone understands that quality roads cannot be cheap. Let’s ask the question: how much costs a lack of good roads? In 2001 we defined that the losses amounted to Hr 20 billion a year, or 3.5 percent of GDP, and today the losses have grown to Hr 55 billion,” he said.
Director of the Center for Transport Strategies, Serhiy Vovk, said that the international experience shows that the normal level of financing of roads is 4 percent of GDP.
“What do we have in Ukraine? Let’s take 2012, the most successful year from the point of infrastructure: the financing was slightly over Hr 15 billion. If we compared the indicator with GDP, we’ll receive 1.1 percent – the obvious large gap,” he said.
Vovk said that the situation is mainly linked to the fact that the main sectors that form a lion’s share of GDP are metal, agriculture and chemical industry, cargo flow of which is formed on railways, so large business is not very interested in quality roads, the expert said.
“However, there is a large customer – medium class, as it wins from roads,” Vovk said.
