Projects for pooling state resources under a single professional management, such as the state company Forests of Ukraine or the land bank, are showing their effectiveness, and a similar project is planned to be implemented in relation to state water resources, said Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma.

“We are working on a similar project with water, because today we have the State Water Agency. I won’t comment on the state there, the volume of losses of electricity, water, inefficiency,” he said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

Shurma added that the budget subsidizes this area by billions of hryvnias every year.

“We are now also working on concepts to turn this into an effective infrastructure company, which, on the one hand, will provide high-quality service and normal pricing for water consumers, and on the other hand, will significantly increase operational efficiency both in terms of energy efficiency and in terms of profitability,” he emphasized.

He added that it is also envisaged that such resource and infrastructure companies, in turn, would be managed by a state mega-holding, following the example of the National Wealth Funds in a number of countries.

“Our understanding is that the Cabinet of Ministers and executive authorities should be focused on rule-making activities, on regulation, on establishing specific rules, and, according to the experience of many countries, there should be a single large economic entity - a single mega-holding, where economic functions will be concentrated,” Shurma explained.

According to him, the maximum number of economic functions that can be transferred to private owners should be transferred, including through privatization.

He reported that the state enterprise Forests of Ukraine posted UAH 2 billion in profit for six months. In his opinion, the unification of state land in a single land fund, which was previously owned by more than 100 different entities from the Academy of Agrarian Sciences to state-owned enterprises such as Ukrliktravy or Horse Breeding of Ukraine, will also bring the state “billions of profits annually” thanks to a transparent digital procedure provision of this land for long-term lease at market price.