Kyiv, February 3, 2015 – Ukraine has climbed up 16 positions in the World Bank’s Doing Business Ranking 2015 thanks to the government actions aimed to deregulate the Ukrainian economy. Danylo Lubkivskiy, advisor to Prime Minister of Ukraine, told this during the press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. Ukraine’s plan for deregulation includes cutting the number of license procedures and inefficient regulatory bodies. “Ukrainian budget will be able to get additional 10-15 billion UAH as a result of these reforms; around 2-3 billions will come out of effective anti-corruption measures.” Mr. Lubkivsky said.
Ukraine has also improved its positions in the International Property Rights Index and the Tax Systems’ Ranking by 29 and 49 positions respectively. “This shows that the initial stage of our tax reform received positive acclaim of the international community,” Mr. Lubkivsky explained. However, he emphasized the need to further reduce the extent of state interference in the economy. Thus Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk ordered Justice and Economy ministers to cut the number of permits in order to shorten the time for registration of new business entities in Ukraine from 21 to 12 days.
Danylo Lubkivsky updated on the state of emergency regime that the Ukrainian government has introduced on January 26. The government organized civil defence course, as well as launched cooperation schemes with GSM operators to promptly inform its citizens. According to Lubkivsky, the government urges activists and civil society to spread guidelines for actions in case of life-threatening situations. “Ukrainians should be vigilant. Our policemen still find explosives masked in chocolate boxes and children’s toys on the liberated territories of Donbas, which poses a serious threat to our citizens,” Mr. Lubkivsky said.
The Government of Ukraine also ordered to inventarize all shelters and hotels that are ready by 80% to accommodate more than 1 million internally displaced persons. “Prime Minister Yatseniuk and Dr. Christof Weil, Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine, have inspected temporary settlements in Zaporizhzhia. Overall, seven temporary settlements provided by the Government of Germany will be able to accommodate 4,000 people,” Mr. Lubkivsky concluded.