Top priority is eliminating corruption, says new PM (09/10/06)

Top priority is eliminating corruption, says new PM

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Echoing an Orange Revolution demand, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said Ukraine's broad coalition government has set as its top priority eliminating corruption, which he called the main hindrance to reforming the Ukrainian economy.

"We will create a transparent investment climate in the state," Mr. Yanukovych told the first meeting of the Ukrainian Parliament's fall session on September 5. "We will build a realistic and transparent tax policy, create a realistic civil code and create an independent judicial authority."

While similar promises have been made in the past, Mr. Yanukovych indicated that such goals would be achieved because a broad coalition eliminates the typical political battles that had plagued earlier governments, which placed special interests above the national interest.

For the first time, the Ukrainian government will operate on the principle that privatization is a resource for new, modern capacities, he said. Revenue from privatization won't be wasted, as practiced earlier, but will be used toward realizing serious investment projects, Mr. Yanukovych said.

The government plans to reform the tax system so that it stimulates producers and enables a transparent relationship between business and government.

Revitalizing Ukrainian industry was the other emphasis in Prime Minister Yanukovych's remarks, which stressed the need to protect and support domestic producers.

"Canceling the incentives for those who were ready to increase production, renovate technology and introduce leading technologies led to a shortage of domestic products on the market, which instead accepted imports that came through a wide open door after restraints were removed," he said.

Government-owned industries, particularly in the heating and power sectors, desperately need government investment, Mr. Yanukovych said. In three to five years, he said, safe, technical resources for the state's heating and power industries will be exhausted, and a $3 billion investment will be needed for improvement.

"Production growth opens the road to increasing wages, pension and social fund income and revival of solvent demand on the domestic market," Mr. Yanukovych said. "We are already planning for a deficit-free 2007 budget in the pension fund."

Financial reforms will develop financial markets, create new financial instruments, capitalize businesses and properly appraise various forms of ownership and capital.

The faster Ukraine joins the World Trade Organization (WTO), the better, Mr. Yanukovych said. However, he explained, "we plan to enter the WTO not hastily, but with confidence, with acceptable transition periods for our economic branches and the necessary level of defense of our domestic market."

As quickly as possible, Ukraine must harmonize its jurisprudence with the European Union with eventual integration as Ukraine's strategic goal, Mr. Yanukovych continued.

Simultaneously, mutually advantageous and good-neighborly relations with the Russian Federation will remain a special priority for the government, he said.

The Cabinet of Ministers will ask the Parliament to review the government's program of activities and its economic and social development project for Ukraine through 2011, Mr. Yanukovych said.

During the first stage, covering 2006-2008, the goal is Ukraine's stable economic growth.

In the second stage, between 2009 and 2011, the government will create the conditions for Ukraine to became an industrial economy of general prosperity.

Mr. Yanukovych called on members of Parliament not to repeat the mistakes of prior years and to steer clear of populist measures, which led to unjustifiably inflated budget expenditures.

"We simply need to work a lot, driven by national interests," Mr. Yanukovych said. "When Bismarck united German lands, he acted exclusively in the interests of Germany and not, say, Austria."

To work for Ukraine's interests, the government is equipped to cooperate with the opposition, led by Yulia Tymoshenko, which should play the role of a diligent inspector and constructive critic, he said.

"We don't view the opposition as an enemy, but as an ally in strengthening the nation's economy and democratic principles of Ukrainian society," Mr. Yanukovych added.

Following Mr. Yanukovych's speech, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz closed the brief morning meeting so that the Parliament would spend its first week working in committees.

Mr. Moroz had addressed the Rada prior to Mr. Yanukovych, calling for structural reforms and improvements in the relations between Parliament, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidential Secretariat.

He also called on Parliament to develop new legislation to strengthen existing government institutions.

Not enough laws and not fully developed laws exist regarding the Cabinet of Ministers, the president, the State Property Fund, referenda, temporary investigation committees and other government institutions, Mr. Moroz explained.

Tymoshenko remains in opposition.

Talking to reporters after the brief session, Ms. Tymoshenko rejected any offers of cooperation and re-asserted her position as firmly in opposition to the broad coalition government.

"These people need the opposition to become an inseparable part of their schemes and models, for it to become a friend and then be quiet when it's necessary to tell society what needs to be told," Ms. Tymoshenko said. "We're not going to be friends. We're going to be a real opposition which won't hide a single fact."

Among the Tymoshenko Bloc's first measures in the fall parliamentary session was submission of a bill that would cancel many generous financial benefits enjoyed by national deputies. In the first week of the Verkhovna Rada's new session the bloc submitted 10 bills for national deputies to consider.

Coalition still unclear

Meanwhile, Our Ukraine bloc leaders continue to negotiate with representatives of the Party of the Regions and the Socialist Party of Ukraine on forming a new, official coalition government.

While the Our Ukraine bloc proclaimed that it was uniting with the Party of the Regions and the Socialist Party of Ukraine to form a coalition, a formal document forming the National Unity Coalition has yet to be drafted. Their government is based on a legally non-binding Universal of National Unity signed on August 3.

The official coalition government consists of the Party of the Regions, the Socialists and the Communist Party of Ukraine, which was formed on July 11 as the Anti-Crisis Coalition.

Leaders of Our Ukraine are eager to draft a new coalition agreement, even if it involves the Communists. That has drawn the opposition of certain Our Ukraine leaders, such as Volodymyr Stretovych of the Christian-Democratic Union Party.

The Our Ukraine bloc consists of six political parties, and the Christian-Democratic Union led by Mr. Stretovych and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists led by Oleksii Ivchenko have indicated they will not join a coalition that includes the Communists.

The Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs led by Anatolii Kinakh and the Our Ukraine People's Union led by Roman Bezsmertnyi have said they would.

It remains unclear whether the National Rukh of Ukraine led by Borys Tarasyuk and the Sobor Republican Party led by Anatolii Matviyenko would join a broad coalition that includes the Communists.

In justifying a coalition with the Communists, Our Ukraine bloc leaders have told those hesitating, particularly Mr. Stretovych, that the party and its leaders have changed.

"They told me that the Communists today are different," Mr. Stretovych said.

Leaders and experts representing the four parliamentary forces will meet on September 9 as part of a working group to form the broad coalition.

"The sides have agreed to take into account the positions of the national unity declaration in the agreement to create the National Unity Coalition, which was signed by all the participants of today's discussions, including the Communists," Mr. Kinakh said.

One position Our Ukraine's leaders won't compromise on is signing a coalition agreement that bears the name, Anti-Crisis Coalition.

Our Ukraine National Deputy Yurii Kliuchkovskyi said a new coalition would have to bear the name National Unity Coalition, and Mr. Moroz said he agrees to the new moniker.

Mr. Moroz also said that he believes Our Ukraine and the Communists will be in the new government coalition and that he expects the new coalition agreement to be signed on September 9, when the leaders of the four political groups will meet to analyze the coalition pact.

Defectors from the Our Ukraine bloc, as well as certain Socialists, are likely to join a multi-faction parliamentary opposition force led by the Tymoshenko Bloc.

One of the bloc's national deputies, Andrii Shkil, estimated that between 30 and 35 out of Our Ukraine's 80 deputies would join the opposition. The opposition's main goal is to prevent the derailment of democratic processes, Mr. Shkil underscored.

Socialist Party member Yosyp Vinskyi has stated he would not join the new coalition, and others in his party would also abstain.

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