The majority (82%) of members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine believe that the fight against corruption is a top priority, the Chamber said in a report published on Thursday.

"Corruption is one of the largest obstacles in doing effective, transparent and fair business in Ukraine," the Chamber said.

The Chamber held a corruption perception survey among its members for the second year in a row. This year, 99 companies took part in the survey, in which 73% of respondents said that they do not believe that corruption in Ukraine has fallen since March 2014. Also, 88% of them said that they faced corruption while carrying out business activities (91% in 2014).

The key obstacles to overcoming corruption is the absence of political will (48%), resistance of power agencies to reforms (27%) and the attitude of Ukrainians (17.%).

The most common form of corruption is bribery for accelerating the process to resolve problems or receive permits, abuse of office for illegal advantage came second, and kickbacks for winning tenders came third.

Respondents said that corruption leads to larger expenses on legal services, audits and observation of procedures, and leads to foreign partners refusing to cooperate with companies in Ukraine.

Most members of the Chamber believe that current anti-corruption laws do not meet international standards and their application by authorized agencies is inefficient.

However, 51% of respondents are optimistic about the pace of the fight against corruption in 2016.