Today, the U.S. Secretary of
Commerce Penny Pritzker and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk issued the following statement regarding discussions on October 26th
in Kyiv to accelerate economic reform and increase the U.S.-Ukrainian bilateral
trade and investment.
In the spirit of the close
partnership between our two countries, we continued our fruitful dialogue on
Ukraine’s ambitious economic reform efforts and the important role of the
American private sector to increase business ties with Ukraine. Both sides
noted with satisfaction the U.S. announcement of the Obama Administration’s
intention to work with Congress to move forward with a third $1 billion loan
guarantee designed to support progress on Ukraine’s anti-corruption and
economic reform agenda. This new support builds upon two previous $1 billion
U.S. loan guarantees and nearly $570 million in U.S. security, technical, and
programmatic assistance provided since February 2014. Both sides affirmed that
meeting all of Ukraine’s commitments in its International Monetary Fund program
is essential to both near-term economic recovery and long-term economic growth.
Despite Russian aggression in
Eastern Ukraine and the occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea, the IMF
supported reform progress continues. In the last year, Ukraine has doubled its
foreign currency reserves to more than $12 billion and signs of economic
stabilization are emerging.
Ukraine has also taken active steps to create a
Business Ombudsman, pursued deregulation through a decrease in licensing and
permitting and has launched an electronic VAT reimbursement system to improve
tax administration. The Ukrainian side including the President, the Parliament
and the Government confirmed its strong commitment to continued economic
reforms.
The United States will remain
a full and committed partner in this effort. Recognizing the importance of
private investment to Ukraine’s long-term prosperity, we were pleased that six
high-level executives from the U.S. financial, technology, agricultural, and
energy sectors joined our meetings to provide private sector views as to how
Ukraine can retain and attract American private sector capital. During a
meeting hosted by President PetroPoroshenko and an Executive Business
Roundtable hosted by Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and his economic cabinet, the
leaders of Cargill, Citibank, Dupont, Honeywell, NCH, and Westinghouse
expressed their views on broad, overall reform measures that can further
improve the business climate and attract more foreign direct investment to
Ukraine. The U.S. Executive Business Roundtable was organized by the Government
of Ukraine and demonstrated the importance of a strong public-private
partnership in support of Ukraine’s courageous and essential economic reform
efforts. Deeper and accelerated economic reform will ensure Ukraine's success
as a modern European state with a flourishing economy led by the private
sector.
As a result of our
consultations, both sides developed a roadmap featuring several short-term,
actionable steps that will further increase business confidence and attract
private capital. Both sides underscored the urgency of such steps and the
importance of actions by both Ukrainian government officials and the Rada to
deepen said reforms. With the support of the United States, Ukraine will
intensify anti-corruption efforts through reforms in the Prosecutor General’s
Office and implementation of judicial reform; improve tax administration to
ensure a level playing field for all companies; reduce gas royalty rates to
encourage investment by world class firms; continue deregulation and eliminate
unnecessary licensing and permitting; approve and implement anti-piracy
legislation to support intellectual property rights; fully execute an
e-procurement system and complete accession to the World Trade Organization’s
Government Procurement Agreement. Ukraine also underscored its commitment to
move forward on putting in place agricultural standards that will attract
investment; development and implementation of a thoughtful and transparent
privatization plan that provides genuine opportunities for international
investors; and civil service reform.
The Department of Commerce
continues to work with the Government of Ukraine to ensure that the U.S.
business community is fully informed of Ukraine’s progress in implementing
these critical reform priorities. We built on the success of the July 2015
U.S. – Ukraine Business Forum in Washington, a joint effort of the
Department and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which attracted more than 150
leading U.S. and Ukrainian private and public sector officials. Through
conferences, webinars, seminars, and other fora with leading U.S.
executives, the Department of Commerce will continue to strengthen U.S. -
Ukrainian business ties. The Department of Commerce will also continue to
provide Ukraine with technical assistance on intellectual property rights
protection, government procurement and trade facilitation.
At the conclusion of our
October 26th consultations, both sides agreed that while much work remains,
Ukraine is pressing forward on reforms that will help it modernize, integrate
more fully with the global economy, and create the broad based prosperity the
Ukrainian people want and deserve.
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