uralpolit.ru
Borys Lozhkin, President Petro Poroshenko's chief of staff, says the state should not own more than 250 enterprises, because state assets remain to be highly exposed to corruption.
"There are 3,000 state-owned companies, of which 1,600 are still working. We need to have 200 state-owned companies, or 250 maximum. The rest should be sold as quickly as possible over the next few years," Lozhkin said in an interview with EurActiv.
He reckons a lot of people, including government officials, prosecutors, members of parliament and others, are seeking to make "dirty" money.
"A lot of people are trying to earn 'dirty' money, officials from ministries, from the prosecutor office, from the parliament, and other institutions. Besides, the state is not a good manager, not only in Ukraine," he said.
At the same time, Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius stated that state-owned companies whose total number is 824 account for 10% of Ukraine's GDP.
"Ukraine still owns 824 enterprises, and this number is obviously too big, even taking into account the fact that they generate a small share of the country's GDP," Abromavicius said.
According to the minister, the government is unable to effectively manage such a number of companies.
"2016 is the year that should be marked with large-scale privatization," the minister said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian MPs on January 28 supported as a basis a draft law providing for changes in the privatization procedure. In particular, it is proposed to cancel the compulsory sale on the stock exchanges of 5%-10% of shares during the privatization of state-owned enterprises.