This 17th, unlike the 17th of the last century, will stay with a positive charge in our history – the year of introduction of visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine to the countries of the European Union. The visa free regime, gained thanks to the implementation of the groundbreaking reforms, and the entering into force of the Association Agreement herald the final goodbye to post-Soviet period and our irreversible break-up with the empire.
Our roadmap for further fundamental changes is the Association Agreement, and it brings Ukraine closer to the Copenhagen criteria for membership in the most prestigious Union in the world. At the 2017 Eastern Partnership Summit, I outlined the next steps – association with the Schengen area, and integration to the EU Customs Union, the Energy Union and the Digital Single Market. In fact, it is our sectoral integration, which is to transform our country's eastern borders into the EU borders even before we de jure join the EU.
No doubt, membership in the EU, as well as NATO accession, will remain our strategic goal to achieve one day. Since this prospect is clearly beyond 2018, and it is not for us to know the times and dates, as the Holy Bible reads, I will just point at that I am convinced that this goal is achievable.
This 17th, unlike the 17th of the last century, will stay with a positive charge in our history
The year of 2017 became the year of recovery of economic growth: as the result of the last 12 months, our GDP is to grow by over 2%. This is despite the fact that the economic blockade of Donbas, initiated by the “hurrah-patriots”, has resulted in near $2 billion of net losses in trade balance. We lost around 1% in GDP growth and faced stagnation in our industry. Nevertheless, we managed to secure the positive trend.
The good news is that we have managed to break up with the long-term trend of fall caused by the war, the loss of a significant part of our industrial potential, and the economic aggression of the Russian Federation. But, there is no reason for celebration. It is clear that such a pace could not be satisfactory as from the standpoint of steady development of economy and restoration of standards of living. That is the reason why we look for non-standard, non-trivial and liberal receipts to improve investment climate, to accelerate economic growth, and to create new jobs.
For instance, I suggested introducing a tax on withdrawn capital to replace the tax on profit. This will unleash resources for business development because the taxation is meant only for the part of profit, which is not subject for expansion or establishment of production capacities. I hope the novation to enter into force as from January 1, 2019. But before we are there, we will introduce VAT payment by installments for the imported equipment aimed at expanding and modernizing the production capacities.
I also called on the government to extend the duration of moratorium on the verification of small and medium enterprises. The big business and the richest citizens managed to survive the crisis due to the margin of safety accumulated over the years passed. By means of subsidies, the State supported the poorest ones. And the middle class paid for everything from its own pocket. Its recovery from the severe challenges of recent years is my priority. It is exactly about this social layer that secures irreversibility of the European and democratic course, and therefore it must be numerous and influential.
With a view to improving the investment climate, I signed the law that prohibits ‘mask shows’ by law-enforcement agencies at enterprises. At the same time, we will establish a State Bureau of Financial Investigations with analytic methods to prevail in its activity as regards countering crimes in economy and finance.
Legislative initiatives as regards putting in order the land cadaster, as well as decentralization of land relations will bring us closer to the main battle for the launch of a transparent land market, for the right of millions of private owners for disposition of their lands at will.
On December 15, 2017 the new Supreme Court was established, and within this year we will launch the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Court. The State Budget has already foreseen appropriate expenses for this institution, but one has yet to pass through the adoption of the law and selection of judges.
The events of late 2017 proved that the anti-corruption infrastructure requires more active protection on behalf of the President. My particular focus goes to the guarantees of independence of NABU. Of unacceptable I consider any kind of pressure on this institution. Be it from the political establishment and from its ‘support group’, which aggressively imposes lists of ‘clients’ with politically motivated ‘verdicts’.
However, it is not only by means of insecticides and mosquito nets that one can get rid of mosquitoes. Sometimes they are so many that it is better to drain the swamp. We have eradicated the most widespread schemes of corruption having reduced shadow flows by tens of billions thanks to the ProZorro procurement, system of automatic VAT refund, refusal of Russian gas, and cease to subsidize Naftogaz.
Positive changes have yet to be felt by tired and almost frustrated a society. What shall the government do in such a situation? It shall work better and fix mistakes, and express gratitude for critical remarks of those who hired us for the job. When the election campaign begins, I hope, the government could say: ‘although not every our promise is fulfilled and not every your wish came true, but our country is in a better shape today than it was in 2014, and together with you we are on the right track’.
Meanwhile, the enemy keeps destabilizing the situation inside the country. For the sake of what then does our army hold the front? The question is rhetorical. We fight back these attempts. The opponents of the government have already entered into an active phase of the electoral campaign, and some of them even do not mind taking money from Moscow.
In the year 2018 the country will continue to develop with decisiveness. Serious investors will come to Ukraine. United territorial communities will harvest ever more generous benefits of decentralization. The renewed courts will issue their first verdicts as regards high-ranking corrupt officials. You will see even more roads renovated and rural health posts modernized within the framework of the project on reanimation of rural medicine. And new weaponry for the army. Having fed and equipped the army, we could afford ourselves to make use of one fifth of military budget for weaponry and military vehicles. The budget of the Armed Forces has been increased additionally by 25 % and makes up UAH 86 billion.
For over four years, we have been combining implementation of reforms with defensive efforts to protect the country against Russian aggression. There is no other option. So let’s make our way through 2018 be guided by the words: Peace and Development. To this end, it is not the internal struggle of all against all, but consolidation of the efforts of government, civil society, and international partners that we need. This is the only possible way for a successful Ukraine.
The original article is written in Ukrainian. The translation is made under the license agreement with the Economist