yuzhny.in.ua
Economic Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavicius says Ukraine's largest state-owned companies that are included in the list of state property subject to privatization must be sold to foreign strategic investors.
"I am absolutely sure that most of businesses that are not strategic ones should be transferred to private owners. Major non-strategic [assets should be sold] to strategic investors from abroad so that they could create jobs and invest," he said at a business forum in Kyiv.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers allowed that expert advisers could be involved in the privatization process of a number of key state-owned facilities, including Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant, PJSC Sumykhimprom and state-run holding Centrenergo.
The Cabinet jointly with the State Property Fund has repeatedly advocated the involvement of advisors to the privatization of the most important state assets in Ukraine in a move to avoid corruption when carrying sale auctions. At the same time, the government admitted that the involvement of advisors would delay the privatization process, and would unlikely contribute to budget earning of UAH 17 billion in projected revenues from the privatization. Earlier Abromavicius stated that large-scale privatization in Ukraine would not start before 2016, and it would be "extremely optimistic" to expect it in 2015.