PM at Ukrainian-German Economic Forum: "Justice and economic growth in the country is best protection of human rights and freedoms

"The path of economic reforms stipulated by the Agreement on the free trade area, political will and unity of the country are the preconditions for undertaking these difficult reforms," stressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk, opening together with German Chancellor Angela Merkel the Ukrainian-German Economic Forum in Berlin on Friday, October 23.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine has underlined that the today's Forum is a clear signal of political and economic support for the Ukrainian people. He has expressed gratitude to Angela Merkel for the leadership and firm support for Ukraine: "The Ukrainian people as well as the Ukrainian Government know and appreciate this."

He noted that democracy and political freedom are correlated with economic freedom: "The country cannot be politically free and democratic, if she has no developed and transparent economy. The best protection of the rights and freedoms of a man and citizen – that is when the country is subject to justice, economic growth and the presence of jobs. This is when populists neither intercept nor destroy the right reforms being implemented in the country."

"Our people have proved that we are a democratic state. On Maidan Ukrainians won their political freedom. And this political freedom was confirmed by the fair and transparent presidential elections and parliamentary elections," Arseniy Yatsenyuk pointed out.

He noted that in two days Ukraine would hold local elections that should be held in the same way as the parliamentary and presidential ones": "The time will come when local elections will be also held in Donetsk and Luhansk, because Donetsk and Luhansk were, are and will be part of the Ukrainian state, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that the history of the previous 20 years of the Ukrainian Governments and the history of the last 18 months of this Government differ a lot, "first of all, in making decisions that this Government was obliged to accept."

"When after the parliamentary elections my party got the first place according in terms of party lists, I clearly realized what challenges the new Government and personally I had faced. My political rating didn’t matter and does not matter for me, as well as the political rating of any member of the incumbent Ukrainian Government. What really matters for us is the rating of Ukraine. It is a goal for the Government which wants to make changes," the Prime Minister emphasised.

The Government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed, was obliged to take unpopular and difficult decisions", which should have been taken 20 years ago: "First and foremost, these decisions were committed to introduce social justice and the revision of the whole social policy of the country. It is difficult, when, reviewing the social policy, there is no opportunity now to improve the standards of living as people expected. But we have finally introduced fair pensions, abolished special pensions, reduced the deficit of the Pension Fund. And two months ago we managed to find a resource in order to raise the standards of living for Ukrainian citizens by 19%. Of course, this is not enough. But this is the first step."

We have taken steps aimed at financial stabilization, "which had been not taken over two decades," the Head of the Government underlined: "Hundred of pocket banks in the country must have been "cleaned up". And the National bank together with the Government took responsibility to bring the banking system to the highest European standards". He noted that several dozen banks had already been eliminated.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk highlighted that the Government works with vigour to stabilize the banking sector: "Finally, in the last two months we have experienced positive dynamics in investments into the Ukrainian banking sector. This means that the situation is stabilising".

He also noted that the Government had introduced an entirely new system to operate the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that for the first time in last two decades the Ukrainian Government had fulfilled all the assumed commitments to the international partners which is a program of Ukraine with the IMF – "a program of Ukrainian reforms, which are vital for the country to prosper."

The Prime Minister also reminded that 18 months back when he had taken over as the Prime Minister, the accounts in the State Treasury had had EUR 10 thousand. But presently, the Treasury's accounts make up US$ 5 billion. Gold and foreign currency reserves have grown from US$6 to about US$13 billion: "Budget revenues amount plus 50% against the previous year’s showing. This is another sign of efficiency and transparency of the whole government machine and a result of de-shadowing the economy."

According to the Prime Minister, the agenda of Ukraine contains further serious steps to upgrade the Ukrainian economy: "The reform process has the beginning, but it has no ending. After all, Germany also undergoes reforming and is constantly changing. Hence, we have to do a lot in synergy in order to make our nations strong and successful”.

The Prime Minister appealed to German partners: "To pursue these reforms we need your support. We have a common goal". He recalled that the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and the EU would enter into force since 1 January 2016, and "it’s no question that Ukraine will be part of the European economic area": "This deal is the way towards modernization of the Ukrainian economy".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that the Ukrainian economy should strive to achieve those standards and quality Germany has: "Then the Ukrainian economy will become really competitive, de-monopolized and strong."

"We have showed pragmatism, have embarked on and will further pursue rather hard reforms that require political support. And we believe that together with our German friends we could build our countries together," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

In the framework of the economic forum, in the presence of Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Angela Merkel there was signed a Guarantee agreement worth US$ 300 million for the purchase of about 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas for the coming winter by NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. It was inked by Finance Minister Natalia Jaresko and Philip Bennett, First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

Another deal signed between the Government of Ukraine and the Federal Government of Germany was to establish the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The corresponding Agreement was inked by Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius, Secretary of State to the German Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs Markus Ederer, Secretary of State to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Matthias Machnig.