Pavlo Sheremeta: It’s the people of tomorrow who need to carry out public administration, as the people of yesterday won’t make the changes of tomorrow happen

Kyiv, 21 August 2014 – “Working with the Department for macroeconomic forecast of the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine I checked their forecasts for 2015-2016. Economic growth in 2015 is forecast at 0,3-2% level, in 2016 – at 3% level. If the decline this year is to occur according to the forecasted 6-7% we will need 3-4 years to get back to the “0” we had in 2013, however it will not even be the “0” we had back in 2008. Bigger growth -that of 6-10% a year can be achieved only upon complete change of the paradigm,” declared Pavlo Sheremeta, Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine at a briefing in the UkraineCrisisMediaCenter. “Within the 5,5 months that I was in the government I was trying to let the wider society know that current paradigm is not working now and there are no forecasts that it will work in the future, that’s why we have to change it, that means to change the structures, processes, people. We have to engage in public administration the people of tomorrow not those of yesterday, because the people of yesterday will not be able to build the system of tomorrow,” he underlined.

“I have always stood against lustrating people, because it’s the structures and processes that need to be lustrated first of all. The Minister passes for consideration candidates for posts of deputy ministers. It’s quite an obvious management issue, stipulated by the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Management positions need to be competition-based for the candidates. It’s our future. We as Ukraine’s citizens deserve to understand who holds key posts in the country,” the Minister added. “State’s attitude to business is crucial, – noted Mr. Sheremeta. – It is not possible to advance our economy if the attitude of the state towards business will continue being predatory. Deregulation, tax reform, decreasing the number and optimizing functions as well as the number of controlling agencies – all these ideas are submitted, are on the table. They need be adopted today. It won’t help Ukraine to just cut the expenses and expenditure of the state agencies by 70%, the system needs to be changed”.

When explaining current situation Pavlo Sheremeta made a comparison to a sick child: “If a child has got two diseases, there exists medicine that can harm one of the diseases but help cure another one. In this case most critical disease needs to be treated first. Depression of business is a daunting issue for us, and we at least need to prove to the business that considerable changes in the country are happening. We need real simplification, to considerably cut pressure, remove those taxes that bring minimum revenue but are expensive to administer. We also need a dialogue with the wider society.”

When commenting on his resignation Mr. Sheremeta noted: “I think Arseniy Petrovych (Yatsenyuk) is the best Prime-Minister Ukraine has had. I thank him for the opportunity granted and wish him success.”