The latest survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, released on Jan. 29 showed, unsurprisingly, that corruption remains the top obstacle to doing business in Ukraine.
“Fight against corruption together with the creation of an Anti-Corruption Court remains a priority for 2018,” Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post on Jan. 29. “The business community’s expectations of eliminating corruption are seen a key to economic growth and a foreign direct investment attraction.”
Almost 9 in 10 respondents — 89 percent — said that the fight against corruption should be the main priority for enhancing the country’s business climate. Almost all agree that creating an anti-corruption court is essential to uproot corruption and almost all respondents said that they faced corruption while doing business in Ukraine, which is 10 percentage points more than last year.
Another 71 percent of the respondents consider the courts to be the most corrupt while 54 percent consider tax and customs authorities to be the main source of corruption, while 34 percent blame local authorities, which is 8 percentage points less than the previous year.
As for the most widespread forms of corruption, 68 percent of respondents named “misuse of official position” and 67 percent named “demanding a bribe.”
This is the chamber’s fourth year of compiling such a report. Its latest survey features 184 respondents from 147 international companies represented in Ukraine. Some 91 percent of respondents indicated that they had faced corruption while doing business in Ukraine, which is 10 percentage points more than in 2016.
Only 36 percent of business representatives said that the level of corruption in Ukraine decreased in 2017.
However, businesses’ trust to anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine and its compliance with international standards have grown from 20 percent in 2015 to 36 percent two years later. Also, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine was named as the most effective anti-corruption institution by 50 percent of the respondents which is by far more than any other institution.
President Petro Poroshenko said on Jan. 26 that 2017 was the most successful year of reforms in Ukraine and that the business climate significantly improved in 2017.
Ukraine has slightly raised its business climate according to the World Bank’s 2018 Doing Business ranking, moving up from 80th to 76th place.
