Gov't members presented a report of activites of the Cabinet of Ministers in 2015 at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Policy

On 10 February, members of the Government presented a report of activites of each particular ministry for 2015 during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Policy.

At the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Policy were participating Vice Prime Minister/Minister of Culture of Ukraine Viacheslav Kyrylenko, Vice Prime Minister/Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Hanna Onyshchenko, Minister of Health Care Olexandr Kvitashvili, Minister of Youth and Sports Ihor Zhdanov, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Minister of Social Policy Pavlo Rozenko, Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, Minister of Finance Natalie Jaresko, Minister of Infrastructure Andrii Pivovarsky, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Oleksii Pavlenko, Minister of Education and Science Serhii Kvit.

The Ministers took part in the meeting of the Committee, reported on guidelines of their activities and answered questions of MPs.

Vice Prime Minister/Minister of Culture Viacheslav Kyrylenko informed that outcomes of activities in 2015 include ratification of the Agreement "Creative Europe", thereby the Ukrainians got a chance to apply for participation in two sub-programmes the Culture and the Media with a budget of around €1.5 billion. "Our creative people and our art managers, after the National Bureau of the Program is established, will get access to the project grants estimated between €100 thousand and €2 million", he said. The adoption of the law on state support of cinematography has provided additional opportunities for leveraging domestic and foreign investments into Ukrainian film production.

Vice Prime Minister/ Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko informed about a number of crucial reforms the Government of. In particular, it is a public administration reform in Ukraine should root out the Soviet system. "Therefore, the decentralization reform is a core reform, which will allow Ukraine to integrate with the European Union and guide by the democratic principles to ensure taking decisions and outlining priorities by the communities, inter alia: how to develop a particular community, particular region, which industries need investment flows, how to improve the quality of life", stressed the Vice Prime Minister. He thanked the Parliament for voting for the laws on decentralization which enabled the launch of the process of association of communities" and to form 159 amalgamated communities in 2015. Hennadii Zubko stressed the importance of amendments to the Constitution regarding decentralization. In addition, according to him, an important achievement of last year’s was fiscal decentralization: "Additional funding worth UAH 24 bn were directed to local budgets in order to promote the development of local communities". Another achievement was the launch of deregulation process in SACI (State Architectural and Construction Inspection of Ukraine).

Minister of Social Policy Pavlo Rozenko noted that through the programme of providing subsidies to citizens to compensate for the housing and communal services, social workers promote energy savings. "As, by the end of the season, those who are saving will have on their personal accounts a certain amount of subsidies, then the Government will make a decision: either to allow citizens to further use this subsidy or there are options to monetize the relevant sum and to afford the people to invest these funds into energy saving the following seasons", he stressed.

Minister of Finance Natalie Jaresko emphasized that despite the difficult financial and economic situation in the country in the beginning of 2015, in the end of the year the Government had managed to stabilize the financial and budgetary system of the country and prevented a financial collapse. In particular, the State Treasury accounts are full, and the Government has enough cash to duly transfer all social welfare payments. Moreover, in December 2015 pensions were even paid in advance for January 2016. Apart from that, the reserves of the National Bank, which could only cover one month supply of import goods critically needed for the country (USD 5b), were increased and can now cover three months of critically needed imports (USD 13b). «Last year, our joint efforts helped us cope with the most critical economic challenges and stabilize the situation. However, this stability is still fragile, which is why we will continue our structural reforms and stick to the prudent budget policy to lay a solid base for a sustainable economic growth», the Minister of Finance said.

Oleksii Pavlenko pointed out that this year the Ministry of Agriculture and Food had achieved unprecedented results in the agrarian export - 11 billion, in the grain export - 35 million, in the export of meat and dairy products - 253 thousand tons. "Almost 100 Ukrainian dairy companies are able to export their products to nine countries," noted Oleksii Pavlenko, commenting on the achievement in the development of new markets.

Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko noted that the Ministry had conducted the audit, personnel reform, abolished unusual functions, as well as recruited new employees through competitions. The Ministry of Justice pioneered in applying the ProZorro system in its work. According to Pavlo Petrenko, in 2014-2015 the Ministry spent five times less money on public procurement compared to 2013. In addition, it introduced an online service for businesses.

Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov told about the key stages of the reform of its Ministry. The structure of the Ministry currently meets the European principles.

"The reform of the national police was the key reform for the past year," noted Arsen Avakov. Today patrol police successfully operates in 12 Ukrainian cities, by the end of the first half of 2016 it would work in 17 towns, i.e. in all large cities. The following parameters determine the success of the police work: street crime fell by 8% and public confidence in the police patrol makes up 60-80%.

According to Infrastructure Minister Andrii Pivovarsky, the Ministry prevented Ukrzaliznutsia from bankruptcy, managed to overcome the crisis. It carries out repairs and purchases new passenger carriages.

"Our Ministry is a leader in open data policies, any can go to the website of the Ministry from the gadget and see who, what and at what price buys, in order to compare with the market indicatives," the Minister emphasized.

He prioritized the adoption of three bills: the two on the establishment of a road fund and the decentralization of road management.

The Minister noted that the Government adopted the concept of Ukravtodor’s reform in May last year. Andrii Pivovarsky noted that it was singed a lot of memoranda regarding investment, which will not come without a decision on mass privatization.

Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn said that there would be no prospects to balance the coal industry without an increase in power generation at thermal power stations, which is the main consumer of Ukrainian coal.  

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Demchyshyn believes that electricity exports could save the situation: "I mean the exports to the EU, which is currently carried out as well as export to Moldova, Belarus and Lithuania."

According to him, it is necessary to intensify the legislative work that will allow gas and electricity markets to start functioning fully.

The participants of the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy stated that the Government led by Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk managed to stabilize the situation in the country and lay down the groundwork for qualitative changes.