A day after returning home from the EU-Ukraine summit in Brussels, President Viktor Yanukovych instructed his government to ensure that the Association Agreement gets signed later this year at a general meeting he called on Feb. 27.
He also called on the business climate to be improved and
demanded a clamp down on corruption.
“I demand that the
government secure the certain implementation of agreements that were reached
with the European Council and European Commission. We have to make all effort
to ensure the signing of the Association agreement during the Eastern
partnership summit,” Yanukovych told a room full of officials that included
ministers, regional governors, and the parliamentary speaker.
Prior to Yanukovych’s conclusional speech, key
government officials gave progress reports on fulfilling the president’s economic
reform program for 2010-2014. In typical Soviet-style, many accounts lacked
facts and the event merely resembled an apparatchik bureaucratic gathering.
During the meeting, Yanukovych looked unimpressed and
appeared dissatisfied.
“The government has been hesitant to carry out active
actions, I was forced to repeatedly intrude in this situation,” complained
Yanukovych.
He added that his reform program is the “test of their
ability to act effectively. The year 2013 can be a key year of implementing these
goals,” said Yanukovych.
Yanukovych has set the goal of Ukraine being ranked in
the first one hundred countries of the World Bank’s ease of doing business
report, among other targets. In 2012 Ukraine ranked 137th in the report.
“Any pressure on entrepreneurs and unnecessary
intrusion in their activity is unacceptable,” stressed Yanukovych.
The president also demanded a stop to corruption: “Ukraine
is paying a high price for corruption. According to modest estimates, Ukraine
loses approximately Hr 20 billion ($2.5 billion) every year in funds that did
not make it into the budget or were stolen via corrupt schemes. This definitely
has to stop.”
He added that he will next meet meet with judges and
bankers to address issues that “justice is being administered in the courts with
banks and creditors.”
“If these issues will not be cleared from…unacceptable
corruption which we have and which is an obstacle to investments in the economy
and banks would be suffering from this corruption – we will take extraordinary
steps,” Yanukovych said.
He also pointed to the progress he expects the government
to make on agrarian reform, including the creation of an openly accessible land
cadastre.
“I’m personally waiting for your action. We have to exert
all effort and to give the big push for the development of the economy and for
every Ukrainian family’s wealth to grow,” Yanukovych concluded as the hall erupted
in applause.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
