On
Friday, 4 December, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Ambassador
of Japan in Ukraine Shigeki Sumi inked the Agreement between the
Government of Ukraine and the Government of Japan on Economic Reform Development Policy Loan.
The
signing ceremony was attended by Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko and
Vice-President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Kenichi Tomioshi.
Under
the Loan Agreement, the Government of Japan provides financial assistance to
Ukraine worth ¥36.969
billion yen (approximately US$ 300 million), as co-financing tied to the World Bank’s 'Development Policy Loan (DPL-II)';
Arseniy
Yatsenyuk expressed gratitude to the Government of Japan for granting to
Ukraine the financial support. He noted that this loan is provided for a term
of 20 years with a six-year-grace period and under 1% interest rate
per annum.
The
Prime Minister of Ukraine emphasized the funds were provided as Ukraine fully
complies with theprogramme of cooperation with the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank and other international donors: "A condition of
further support in the first place is the stay of Ukraine in the program with
the International Monetary Fund, which absolutely coincides with the programme for
the Government and a coalition agreement".
"Over
the period of 21 months, we have demonstrated political will for real reforms,
which were highly assessed by our international partners and G7, in which Japan
will be the chair next year", he stressed.
"It
is hard to gain trust, but easy to lose. I therefore call on all political
forces part of the coalition to pursue the right path of reforms that meet both
our internal commitments to the people of Ukraine and our external obligations
to foreign creditors," accentuated Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
For
this purpose, according to the Head of the Government, the adoption of a new
budget and new tax system "should be simultaneous processes". He
reminded that the Government had developed a draft Tax Code and a draft law of
Ukraine on the State Budget.
"We
look forward to the active participation of members of the Parliament in the
work on these bills. In the last five days we have been working with MPs, and
within these five days there were not more than five MPs who took an active
part in discussions on the budget and tax reforms," he stressed.
Further,
the Government is ready to hold substantive discussions with members of
Parliament “to urgently adopt two basic draft laws on budget and the tax
reform."
He
reminded about one of the largest projects of bilateral cooperation with the
Government of Japan - for the ‘Bortnychi Sewage
Treatment Plant Modernization Project’ worth US$ 1
billion.
The
Prime Minister stressed that Ukraine highly appreciates the support of the
Government of Japan in providing technical advice to stabilize Ukrainian
financial and banking sector.
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