An important achievement of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine in 2016 is the adoption of the law on the Road Fund. This is practical implementation of European experience in Ukraine.

This was stated by Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan on 6 December, 2016 during a meeting with representatives of international financial organizations, ambassadors of European States and the community.  Slavomir Nowak, CEO of Ukravtodor, Igor Smilyansky,CEO of Ukposhta, Oleksandra Klitina,Director of the Reform Support Team (RST) also attended the event.

The Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine provided a glimpse of the Ministry’s vision for 2017.

"The first good sign is that finally the Road Fund law has been adopted. The law on decentralization of Ukravtodor has been endorsed and we have had first reading of the new law on the electronic ticket, which is a part of a public transport reform in Ukraine", Volodymyr Omelyan said.

He also noted that there was organized a  National Round Table to collect public opinion on problematic issues, including multimodal transportation, transit safety, ecological issues, etc. which are under revision right now.

“Every strategy will be only useless paperwork without implementation. Besides every strategy has costs for its implementation at the moment. Compared with the EU countries, Ukraine has limited resources for the implementation of the projects. Currently, the Ministry is working on the approval of the EU-funded technical assistance projects for 2018-2020 to support transport strategy. Also the negotiations with the Ministry of Finance are underway to receive EU budget support in 2017", Volodymyr Omelyan told.

The reform of public administration is the most important issue today. “I’m proud that our Ministry was the first one to carry out an audit of functions and development of intermediate structure to implement EU best practices. The new structure will be introduced in the beginning of next year and it is considered to improve internal efficiency. In my personal opinion we should have a transparent efficient system not only in the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, but in all our state enterprises.”

Volodymyr Omelyan also noted that the Ministry of Infrastructure had launched operation of the Anti-Corruption Department that showed it effectiveness.

Separately Volodymyr Omelyan stressed that the procurement system for public companies should be improved: "We understood that ProZorro does not help to avoid all the abuses in the Ukrzaliznytsia and USPA (Ukrainian Sea Ports Administration). Therefore, the work in this area must be significantly intensified. "

The Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine also noted that his Ministry with the support of international partners can improve and stimulate growth of transit.

Volodymyr Omelyan also stressed that the Ministry engages in elaboration of a mechanism of public-private partnership in Ukraine, so in 2017 it is planned the concession of two pilot ports:  SE “Kherson Sea Commercial Port” and SE "Stevedoring Company Olvia", as soon as the new law will be ready for that.

Among the priority objectives are a reform of the USPA planned for next year, the development of inland waterways. “It is a tool to transport goods and I am very happy to welcome here Ambassador of the Netherland and for their help to work in this area. The next step is approval of law on inland waterways by the Parliament, which will be considered this Thursday. It is also a program of reconstruction of water locks and dredging. This is first time in recent years, when the Ministry has allocated UAH 100 million for the reconstruction of 5 water locks along the Dnipro river and it is possible due to the EU support program.”

Volodymyr Omelyan also raised an issue of development of airports and added that in the framework of relevant strategy there will be reconstructed the runways at regional airports in 2017.