Yatsenyuk wants new laws for launch of land market

Therefore, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry jointly with the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry and the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre should develop a package of bills to facilitate the launch of the land market, the prime minister said during a visiting government meeting in Poltava.

"With the existing current legal framework, the land market will not start working in a well-organized manner in 2016 [when a moratorium on the sale and purchase of farmland expires in Ukraine]. We'll have to develop economic and political positions on this issue. I am the first one who is interested that investment is made in the agricultural sector. But we have no right to allow the squandering and careless sell-out of land resulting in the creation of new nouveau riche landlords."

Yatsenyuk stressed that in addition to forming a new legislation base, it is necessary to carry out an inventory of land, and hold negotiations with investors and the public to determine the most pressing and sensitive issues of land relations.

"There should be the package of laws and the formation of a real basis for full-fledged land market relations – and only then we'll launch the market. There is no alternative," Yatsenyuk said.

He also added he supported an experiment when state-owned land is sold through auctions. "Prior to lifting the moratorium [on the sale of land] we need to settle some issues. Firstly, it is the inventory of land. The second problem is limitations on land owned by one entity – be it directly or indirectly. There should be no new oligarchs on the land market. Thirdly, rights to own land at this stage – and this is my political position – should belong to the citizens of Ukraine. The fourth issue is how the land buyback procedure should work. The value of land should be determined, and the state, acting through a government agency, should be ready to buy the land back and sell it to another owner. This means, there would be a state agent on the land market. And the fifth issue is to carry out an experiment by selling state-owned land at an auction before the moratorium expires. We'll determine an algorithm and value, and see how it works," he said.