$30 Million To Upgrade “Business Inventory”

The Head of the World Bank Mission to Ukraine Gregory Jedrzejczak has characterized last Sunday parliamentary elections as the first elections that revealed the “maturity of voters and parties.” According to him, one more positive feature is that unpopular groups have been winnowed out and only serious politicians and parties have remained. Jedrzejczak said he hoped that Ukraine would continue to move toward a parliamentary majority as accepted in Europe.

The primary subject of the press conference, however, was a decision adopted by the World Bank Board of Directors to disburse a $30 million loan to Ukraine for a private sector development project. This project, Jedrzejczak said, aims primarily at solving social problems. Its first stage, to last four years, will involve the Volyn, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi and Khmelnytsky regions. According to project coordinator Andriy Mikhniev, the regions were not selected at random: a questionnaire revealed that their authorities and enterprises were better prepared (also financially) for the restructuring process. If the regulatory reforms are suspended in any of these, it can be replaced by another region. Among the basic tasks of the project Mr. Mikhniev named enhancing the competitiveness of Ukrainian enterprises through their successful reorganization, upgrading the qualifications of the managers who are engaged in restructuring, and improving the environments for business activity. The World Bank plans to help restructure a total of 200 Ukrainian enterprises, with the main emphasis placed on internal resources. The enterprises that have been preliminarily selected for the project include former defense, agricultural, wood-processing, mechanical and electricity engineering enterprises. About 100 consulting companies, mostly Western, are already willing to take part in the project. The second stage (worth another $30 million) is supposed to embrace the major part of Ukraine’s territory.