World Bank Supports Reforms in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine, March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

World Bank supports the program of reforms in Ukraine, stated the World Bank Vice President for the Europe and Central Asia Region Philippe Le Houérou at his meeting with the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Philippe Le Houérou visited Ukraine on March 5-6 to introduce the new World Bank Director for Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova - Qimiao Fan - to the Government of Ukraine and development partners.

"We [the Board of the World Bank] recently approved the new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Ukraine for 2012-2016, which promotes Ukraine's plan for conducting reforms," notified Philippe Le Houérouat the meeting with Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday, March 6. Le Houérou stressed that the Board was enthusiastic about the new Strategy, when it was presented in mid-February. Le Houérou pointed out that Ukraine and the World Bank have reached the record high level of cooperation: the financial institution has increased the volume of loan disbursement for Ukraine from 8 to 18 percent.

The new CPS focuses on improving business environment and physical infrastructure; creating an appropriate policy framework and attracting private investment in agricultural sector of Ukraine in order to let the country benefit from growing international demand for agricultural products. "The strategy aims to demonstrate how open public dialogue on reform formulation, accountability in implementation of the policies, and transparency in the monitoring of their impact can yield better development results. Our financing will depend on significant and consistent progress by the country in tackling governance issues and implementing the reforms," reads the World Bank official Web site.

The President Yanukovych commented that within the last two years the country has secured the steady economic growth through launching economic reforms, as well as reforms in the legal area, judiciary and area of human rights. In 2011, Ukraine managed to increase the volumes of the export of goods to the world markets by 37 percent. The country also boasts the betterment of investment climate, as well as improvement of the situation concerning VAT refund. Earlier, the World Bank has evaluated Ukrainian economy as "recovering".

The cooperation between the country and the financial institution boasts the history of 20 years - since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991.