Prime Minister at a meeting with WB Group President: World Bank is a reliable partner of Ukraine and we are ready to offer many joint projects
The World Bank
was and remains
a trusted partner of Ukraine, and
despite all challenges which our country is
facing, we have a lot of
common projects that are already
being shaped and implemented. This was stated
by Prime Minister of Ukraine
Volodymyr Groysman during a meeting with World Bank
Group President Jim Yong Kim.
The visit of
the President of the World
Bank Group marked the 25th membership anniversary of Ukraine in
the organization, and also became
an acknowledgment of the reforms
progress that are taking place,
including with the advisory and
financial support of the World
Bank.
The Head of
Government stressed an economic situation
was stabilized, and today the
issues at stake are restoration
of capacities and maintenance of stable economic
growth.
"Our priorities
for the next
year are the introduction of changes in
the education system and in
the judicial system. I am convinced
that an Anti-corruption court will be created.
An essential question is the
implementation of medical reform, and here we
would be very grateful for
the possibility of establishing a program for implementation
of the reform
jointly with the World Bank,"
the Prime Minister stated.
Volodymyr Groysman underlined
that the next things on
the agenda are further changes
in the pension
system, large-scale privatization, the transformation of Ukraine from the
importer of energy resources to an exporter and the formation
of a powerful agricultural sector. The Prime Minister
stressed that next year the
Government forecasts a GDP growth at the
level 3%. And this performance figure can increase in case of
a consistent implementation
of the planned
reform actions and improvement of investment climate.
In turn, Jim
Yong Kim emphasized that the World Bank
was and remains
committed to Ukraine's supporting policy. "There are now
tremendous opportunities for transformations and reforms in
Ukraine," said World Bank Group
President.
He added that
the World Bank specialists are ready to
accompany an official Kyiv with
the formation of a land reform
model, the construction of a new system of
health and education, the completion of the
formation of the Anti-corruption court and of
the entire vertical of anti-corruption authorities.
"These are
the steps that are of
critical importance for the economy
and the future
of Ukraine. We note the
desire of your Government to implement the
far-reaching reforms. We are inspired
by what has
already been done. And we
are ready to give our
best practices and experience to continue these
processes," noted WB Group President.
The Prime Minister
thanked for the great appreciation
of the Government’s
endeavors and added that Ukraine
is not going
to stop. "Looking at our
potential, we have multiple opportunities
to ensure the economic upturn,"
he emphasized.
Following the outcomes
of the meeting,
a Memorandum of understanding on the support of
the privatization (sale) of the
state bank Ukrgasbank between the Ministry of
Finance of Ukraine, PJSC "Ukrgasbank"
and the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) was signed. This
document will be a crucial step
in the Government's
policy on denationalization of state-owned banks and
leverage investments in the banking
sector of Ukraine. The Prime
Minister of Ukraine and World
Bank Group President took part in the
signing ceremony.
Background
The World Bank
is one of
the largest institutional investors in Ukraine. At
present, 7 investment projects with a total value of
more than 2 billion dollars are being implemented
in synergy with the World
Bank. At the same time,
the WB is one of the
key reform advisers. Among the international financial institutions, the World Bank
is the second,
after the IMF, the creditor of
Ukraine. Over a period of 25 years,
the World Bank has allocated
funds for investment projects which were aimed
at institutional developing of state
authorities and supporting
for projects in promising areas
and spheres in Ukraine to
the tune of USD 11.065.billion.