PM Honcharuk sees 40% GDP growth within five years as realistic goal

Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk says the growth of the country's GDP declared at 40% within the next five years is "absolutely realistic."

"We've carefully analyzed risks, opportunities, and concluded which ambitious, but realistic goals we can set for ourselves as a country. Therefore, a declared growth of 40% within five years is an absolutely realistic result we must achieve together with you," he said at Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) on November 8, according to the Ekonomichna Pravda news outlet.

However, he added: "To do this, we, of course, will have to work hard."

"I wouldn't speak about any radical things now. I would say we need to do our homework. We have a country with fantastic potential. Foreign investors here can do much more than in their jurisdictions. It's interesting to invest in here, the only question is that risks here are very high. They were very high," he said.

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"And our task is to prove that they can trust us. We'll just have to start fulfilling contracts as a country and as society. Both inside the country and outside. There must be trust," he added.

According to him, "traditionally there have been many groups of influence [in Ukraine] that are used to parasitizing in the country."

"This can't last longer. Yesterday [November 7] I introduced a new head of the State Service for Geology and Subsurface Resources – Roman Opimakh. In my opinion, this is a professional, decent person with a right mindset. He has two months to clean up this service. According to my information, 80% of personnel at that agency got salaries 'in envelopes' (i.e. unofficially). How can one expect that an investor will come if they fool everyone? Therefore, I would start with doing homework," he said.

He also stressed that it is necessary to change the business model.

"The business model that many have used here does not work, this is like going nowhere," he added.