INTEGRITES together with the ACC held a round table meeting “Ukraine on the Path of Privatization”

On May 16, 2018, INTEGRITES together with the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine held a round table “Ukraine on the Path of Privatization”. The event was aimed to discuss the current state of privatization reform as well as identify further steps that are important for improving the investment climate and simplifying the privatization process.

Oleksiy Feliv, managing partner at INTEGRITES, Co-Chair of the Chamber Infrastructure Committee, was a moderator of the discussion. During the keynote speech, he noticed that “…Currently simple and effective privatization is one of the priorities on the Ukrainian agenda, which is a homework for us as for further integration into the world economic space. Therefore, one of the 5 steps for Ukraine’s Sustainable Economic Recovery developed by the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine is to carry out for qualitative implementation of the privatization reform. The new Law of Ukraine “On Privatization of State and Communal Property”, which entered into force on March 7, is very progressive. It is aimed at real large-scale privatization of public facilities and aims to attract large international investors. The advantage of the Law is the introduction of clear and simple rules of privatization and subordination of agreements on privatization of foreign law and international arbitration, which is undoubtedly a big step forward that should improve the investment attractiveness of Ukraine”.

Among keynote speakers of the panel discussion were: Sevki Acuner, Country Director for Ukraine, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine; Vodymyr Omelyan, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine; Vitaliy Trubarov, Acting Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine; Maxym Nefyodov, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine; Yuliia Kovaliv, Head of the Office of the National Investment Council under the President of Ukraine.

“A transparent privatization process is a powerful signal to investors. The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine supports the open and transparent reform of the state-owned enterprises. Accelerating this process is crucial for Ukraine’s economic growth and investment attractiveness. This will help increase the efficiency of state-owned enterprises, create new jobs, increase revenues to the state budget, and eliminate corruption”, commented Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.