On Tuesday Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman met with experts and civil society members to discuss the Report of activities of the Government in 2016.

The Government promptly approved the Report on the progress and results of implementation of the Programme of Activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2016, and submitted it to the Parliament, said Volodymyr Groysman.

"We are quite critical about the real state of affairs, but what we can talk about these days is that we achieved a 2.2 per cent GDP growth [on the outcomes of 2016]. Of course, it is insufficient, but it is our achievement", stressed the Prime Minister at the beginning of the session.

Referring to the progress, the Prime Minister noted the Government's decision to raise the minimum wage. Notably, the country sees the reduction of unemployment rate, increase in the number of registered employees and the number of those who receive higher wages.

In the framework of the decentralization reforms the local budgets grew by UAH 50 billion. Along with this the responsibility of local authorities enlarged.

Speaking of energy issues, Volodymyr Groysman announced that Ukraine hadn’t been consuming Russian gas for more than 450 days.

In this regard, he emphasized that the Government had provided high-quality preparation for the heating season, in particular unblocked the accounts of "Energoatom". Moreover, the Government took "very seriously" an issue of accumulation of coal and the formation of its strategic reserve to mitigate any negative consequences in energy sector.

The Cabinet of Ministers engages in development of hydropower, increases capacities of nuclear power industry. Among the achievements are the completion of two transmission lines from the Khmelnytsky and Rivne stations, the construction of a power grid from Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.

The Prime Minister and experts considered topical issues on the agenda of reforms, in particular in the energy sector, banking system, management of public enterprises, healthcare.

Volodymyr Groysman informed the interlocutors on the Government's priorities for the next year, among which the key ones include economic growth, building of a just pension reform, and a land reform.

"We believe that in 2017 we will be able to achieve greater stabilization, and in my opinion, the situation within the country should improve significantly", said Volodymyr Groysman.

Experts praised the efforts of the Government, which resulted in improving economic performance in the 4th quarter of 2016 at a rate of 4.7%.

So, coordinator in the public platform Nova Krayina Taras Kozak said that "the growth of 4.7% in the last quarter means 7.8 % per annum. That's rather a lot. And a positive sign is that rate of GDP growth increase on quarterly basis".

"I regard the growth of the economy this year as an outstanding success. As it happens during the war, we have appeared in rather peculiar circumstances", said President of the Center for Economic Development Olexander Paskhaver.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, NGO "OPORA", group "RPR-Kyiv", public initiative Reanimation Reform Package, VoxUkraine, the International Renaissance Foundation, Tech Bridge International, East Europe Foundation, Institute for Social and Economic Research, Association "Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine", IC Concorde Capital, Centre for Economic Development, Center for Economic Strategy, Kyiv School of Economics, CF "Patients of Ukraine", Eidos Centre for Political Studies and Analysis, Civil Society Institute, IC Dragon Capital, the Coordination Council of All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and the NGO Transparency International Ukraine.