Independent International Expert Commission prepares reform program for 2010 for new president
Kyiv, February 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Independent International Expert Commission has prepared proposals for a new president of Ukraine regarding reforms in 2010.
The reform program "Proposals for Ukraine: 2010 – Time for Reform" was presented at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
The reform program, which was drawn up by a commission of 23 independent experts, foresees the creation of a new organizational structure able to carry out reforms, determine priorities for reform and cooperate with international organizations "as an anchor for carrying out reforms."
"It's very important for the government to understand these changes that are named [in the program] - they are absolutely inevitable. And the instinct of self-preservation of a new government must tell it that it will be impossible to manage without these changes in the future. Otherwise, maybe, the changes will manage the politicians," President of the Center for Economic Development and Co-Chairman of the commission Oleksandr Paskhaver said.
The program sets out ten priority tasks for a new president: to carry out gas reform, to make the National Bank of Ukraine independent, to move towards inflation targeting, to cut public expenditures, to undertake comprehensive deregulation of entrepreneurship activity, to conclude a European Association Agreement, to get privatization going again, to legalize private sales of agricultural land, to adopt a law on public information and to complete the modern commercial legislation.
A detailed list of legislation acts needed to carry out of these reforms was attached to the reform program.
Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute (Washington) and co-chairman of the commission, in turn, said that experts studied election programs of presidential candidates Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko, and the proposed program "has nothing that could be contrary to them." He also added that experts didn't take into account "political promises, but only certain principles."