"I'm confident that this is only the first step. The reputation of General Electric is very high and it comes to those countries where it is confident in zero tolerance for corruption. It comes to the countries, in the prospects and development of which it believes. And today's signing of our contract is a very important sign of confidence in Ukraine and its future," Petro Poroshenko said before the ceremony of signing the agreements that stipulate the establishment of a long-term partnership between PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia and General Electric for the purpose of updating the fleet of locomotives, which amounts to 1 billion U.S. dollars.
According to him, this is a clear recognition of what has already been done and confidence in what we are going to do. The President noted that in a short term, Ukrainian-American cooperation had increased fourfold. He also emphasized that Ukraine continued reforms.
"I express my firm conviction that the bill on the Anticorruption Court will be adopted in the first reading in the near future. And the creation of anticorruption infrastructure will be completed. It is already independent and works effectively," the Head of State stressed.
Petro Poroshenko also noted the continuation of decisive steps to increase investment attractiveness and improve the investment climate in Ukraine. "We believe that the 76th place in the Doing Business rating is not enough," he said, recalling the preparation of proposals to replace the income tax with the withdrawn capital tax, as well as the establishment of the National Bureau of Financial Investigations, which will remove any pressure on business.
The President also recalled the signing of the law prohibiting unreasonable inspections at the enterprises, the adoption of the privatization law, which establishes completely new rules for transparent and effective privatization. According to the Head of State, important steps are taken in the telecommunication sphere, including the completion of the 4G competition. "I want to emphasize that literally 2.5 years ago we did not have 3G. All these steps, to my deep conviction, testify to the fact that we are moving forward resolutely," the President said. He added that the law on limited liability companies had been approved, the drafting of the bill on concessions had been completed, the position on the deregulation bill had been completed.
In turn, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch supported the words of the President of Ukraine and said: "This is a great day. We waited and worked hard for that". At the same time, she stressed that "today's $1 billion contract is really a huge deal".
"This agreement is a powerful message to the whole world that Ukraine is changing its way of doing business. Mr. President, we very much welcome your commitment and readiness to carry out anticorruption reform, privatization. This is the correct signal not only for foreign investors, but also for domestic investors. This is very good for the Ukrainian population, for the economy as a whole," the Ambassador noted, expressing confidence in deepening the Ukrainian-American trade relations.
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