President Volodymyr Zelensky is attempting to increase the pace of liberalization. On Nov. 5, he gathered all the ministry heads together and tasked them with ambitious goals for the end of the year.
He said that his aim is to improve Ukraine’s position in the Doing Business ranking. Doing Business is a report released by the World Bank every year that rates countries according to their investment attractiveness. Ukraine currently ranks at 64th place for 2020. Zelensky considers this unsatisfactory.
To improve Ukraine’s rating and prepare the country for historic large-scale privatization, he assigned each ministry specific duties to fulfill before Dec. 31.
Ministry of Economy
The Ministry of Economic Development, Trade, and Agriculture is at the forefront of these reforms. Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov has been put in charge of increasing Ukraine’s place in the World Bank ranking. His tasks also include the transfer of 500 state-owned enterprises to the State Property Fund for their further privatization. More than 40 small-scale properties should be sold before the end of the year, and five major ones are already on the for sale list.
Mylovanov also has to come up with a plan for the land market reform and create an electronic register “to legally fix the storage of land management documents exclusively in an electronic form,” Zelensky said. Implementing a government program of job creation and best corporate governance practices for the top 10 state enterprises is also on Mylovanov’s to-do list.
Ministry of Finance
Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova has been entrusted with creating “favorable conditions for entrepreneurs.” Zelensky asked her to draft a bill on introducing a two-year moratorium on finance inspections for business.
Markarova’s assignment also includes creating a new program to simplify customs procedures.
Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining
Oleksiy Orzhel, the Minister of Energy and Coal Mining, has to complete the procedure for the unbundling of Naftogaz. The unbundling plan — a key step to implementing the European Union’s third energy package of market regulations — will create a gas transmission system that is separate from the Naftogaz company.
Orzhel’s ministry must also simplify the processes for new enterprises to get electricity and gas from state-owned enterprises. He is also charged with reforming the coal industry by April 30, 2020. Moreover, the energy ministry has to prepare “the legal framework to take inventory Ukraine’s forest resources,” Zelensky said.
Ministry of Infrastructure
Zelensky has also repeated his call for the Ukrainian government to exclusively use electronic forms to grant permits to foreign vehicles transporting goods into Ukraine and also to oversized vehicles. Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kriklyi must establish effective weight control for the vehicles, and approve a list of concessions by 2023. The concessions will allow private-public partnerships and boost privatization in the infrastructure sector.
