The president sincerely promised Ukrainians a better life

President Petro Poroshenko has taken on a huge task

Photo: UNIAN

Yesterday, President Petro Poroshenko presented his reform plan for the country for the next five years. As Capital learned, these plans are so far merely a statement of intentions and exist only in the form of issues for discussion in the working groups in the Presidential Administration. Moreover, in the opinion of experts, the feasibility of many of the prospects announced by the president remains questionable.

Big ambitions

President Poroshenko personally presented the 2020 Strategy within the framework of which he announced eight reform priorities of the country. They are revamping of the leadership and anti-corruption reform, reform of law enforcement bodies, decentralization and reform of public administration, tax reform, deregulation of entrepreneurship, reform of the security and defense system and judicial reform. “The main one among them is judicial reform,” the president underscored.

Moreover, under the presented strategy by 2020 the per capita GDP will double, foreign direct investments will amount to US $40 bn and Ukraine will make it into the top 20 countries in the world in terms of the easiness of conducting business. Besides reforms, the head of state promised to implement two programs over the next five years: popularization of Ukraine in the world and guaranteeing energy independency. The latter should reduce the share of Russian gas on the domestic market to 30%. The country will become stronger from the military vantage point. Indeed, expenditures for the army will increase from 1.02% to 5% of GDP and the number of professional military servicemen will more than double.

The president also promises that 70% of the state apparatus will be replaced. “I personally assign the intellectual reform center, namely the Presidential Administration, and the Cabinet of Ministers to draft a package of bills to begin priority reforms in time for the opening of the first session of the newly elected Verkhovna Rada,” Poroshenko pointed out.

He said that the successful implementation of the promised reforms will allow Ukraine to submit an application for membership in the European Union by 2020. The conflict in the east of the country earlier was an obstacle to conduct such changes. “Why reforms are not being conducted is a question often voiced by public activists, civil servants and entrepreneurs and even Ukraine’s international partners. The main reason was glaringly obvious to all – the conflict. It has been 100 days that the leadership of Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens have been waging the war for peace. These events have indeed distracted our attention, strength and energy,” the head of state said.

Overdue reforms

A source of Capital in the Presidential Administration admitted that many of the announced reforms are not ready for implementation. “Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmytro Shymkiv is responsible for this. Economists of the Easy business group and others are working with him on this matter. At the moment, all these proposals are being developed. We only gave the direction,” said an interlocutor of the publication.

It is clear that many of the figures the president voiced will be reviewed. Executive Director of the International Bleyzer Foundation Oleh Ustenko believes the doubling of the per capita GDP is a rather ambitious statement. He explained to Capital that in order to achieve such a result a more than 7% annual growth of GDP is required and without de-shadowing of the economy achieving such a goal is not realistic in the current conditions. “We do not have time to conduct long-term reforms up until 2020. Reform of public administration should be conducted now together with deregulation and the judicial system should be reformed,” Ustenko presupposes. He also noted that US $40 bn in investments over five years is not a significant amount seeing as the agricultural sector, which is a priority for Ukraine, requires US $50 bn in investments over ten years.

President of the Economic Development Center Oleksandr Paskhaver believes that the issue is not about planned reforms, rather who will conduct them. “We need to significantly renew the bureaucratic machine and hire people that have a new way of thinking. The state apparatus needs new blood. Without renewal of staff the process of reform, I believe, will come to a standstill,” Paskhaver told Capital.

Lawyer Tetyana Montyan says staff reshuffling is the main reason slowing down the start of reform. She assumes that there are no people in Poroshenko’s team that know how the state machinery operates and the unwillingness or inability to conduct reform today is hidden behind the intentions of getting down to brass tacks for the future. Moreover, Montyan stressed that taking measure that will produce results in the short term is totally realistic. “We need to formalize ownership, open a register and a cadastre of property rights and conduct reform of civil legislation with the aim of implementing an algorithm of collective decisions on the management of common property,” she told Capital.