Ex-Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius has joined the board of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (UUE).

According to an UUE press release, Abromavicius' activities in the UUE will strengthen the position of the union in developing and defending legal initiatives directed at improving Ukraine's business climate, as well as facilitate feedback to the UUE board from all stakeholders and bring additional independence to the UUE.

"It is a great honor for me to be invited to join the UUE board, which defends the honest and transparent Ukrainian business. I bring my previous experience of raising ethics standards in all forms of business and improving corporate management," Abromavicius was quoted as saying in the press release.

The UUE board has diminished from 18 to 12 members. Management representatives are also included. The changes have been made to improve the effectiveness of the UUE, the press release says.

The UUE was registered on January 29, 2016. Its president is Nova Poshta co-owner Viacheslav Klymov. The companies represented at the UUE paid more than UAH 5.2 billion in taxes in 2016 and accounted for more than 115,000 workers. In April 2017, the UUE opened branch offices in Dnipro, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odesa.