The reform policy being pushed forward by the Government allows to expand the economic potential of the country and to leverage investments in various sectors from agriculture to space technologies. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during a meeting with business circles of Latvia.

The Prime Minister placed a peculiar emphasis on the fact that four years ago, due to Russian aggression, Ukraine lost 20% of the economy and traditional markets. Despite any strong challenges, the state is gradually switching to new markets and is carrying out a large-scale modernization of the public administration system and economic regulation.

"Today we are committed to kicking off modernization of the country. The situation is changing, economy sees a growth for eight consecutive quarters. According to forecasts, we will receive 3% growth this year. But this figure does not correspond to our potential, we can achieve 5 % upturn and more per year," the Prime Minister claimed.

According to the Head of Government, the introduction of smart regulation in key areas of the country's life, the abolition of obsolete legislative norms, and the harmonization of the regulatory framework in line with the EU standards, with which Ukraine has an effective instrument of cooperation - the Free Trade Agreement, will give an impetus to transformations.

"We engage in monopolizing the markets and simplifying the procedures. The decision on simplification of the issuance of permits in the extractive industry was approved. From February 1, there are single windows at the customs. We are shaping a plan to modernize customs work by installing modern scanners, Volodymyr Groysman emphasized, We have introduced an electronic register of VAT refunds, we adopted efficient legislation on privatization... At present, 32 legislative initiatives, in particular on deregulation, concession, and other aspects were submitted to the Parliament for consideration. This year we want to make a significant leap in the ease of doing business index."

Apart from that, the Head of Government touched upon the issue of counteracting the lawlessness of controlling and law enforcement authorities. He informed about the latest decisions in this area, including the establishment of a commission to verify cases of pressure on business. Government decisions on simplifying the certification of products and production lines, as well as the possibility to import equipment in Ukraine with installment payment for VAT are of utmost importance.

The attendees stressed  Ukraine and Latvia can significantly step up their cooperation, both at the bilateral level and in the international arena. "With Latvia we have growing mutual trade indicators – we are reaching a sum worth USD 500 million. But it can be more", the Head of Ukrainian government underscored.

In turn, representatives of business circles have underlined that trade is just part of the cooperation. Thus, the managers of the agrarian enterprises and cosmetics industry of Latvia expressed their interest in the development of joint ventures that are already operating in Ukraine and of new production which can be brought to the markets of third countries. Promising areas are the use of joint transit facilities, namely, cargo handling from the ports of the Black Sea to the Baltic ports. As business persons stressed two countries can become important links of the global project New Silk Road. Moreover, the CEOs emphasized the need for training, thus cooperation in education, primarily in engineering and manufacturing specialties is as relevant as ever.

"Meetings with the business shape our agenda, then we implement it", Volodymyr Groysman underscored.

Background

March 1-2, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman  made a visit to Latvia. The Head of Government held a series of meeting, inter alia, with the President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis and Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis. The two countries agreed to intensify political dialogue and increase economic cooperation in the context of mutual trade, as well as joint projects on the markets of third countries.

On the outcomes of the talks, two international documents - the protocol of intentions between the Ministries of Education and Science of Ukraine and Latvia on the work of Ukrainian school in Riga, as well as the main agreement on cooperation between Riga Technical University and the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" were signed.