New Georgian, nannies, sale during the crisis: Ukraine is once again promised an economic miracle
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky referred all issues related to investments in the country to Livan Varshalomidze, an associate of ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was previously involved in construction in Batumi and led Adjara.
Zelensky announced this at a press conference in Kyiv, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I can talk about the investment office, which we will open at the end of September. We took the head there, Mr. Varshalomidze, who built Batumi,” Zelensky said.
The president also added that the authorities have lowered the bar for investors who will be assigned the so-called “investment nanny” - if earlier this required pouring 100 million dollars or more into Ukraine, now this figure has dropped to 30.
At the same time, Zelensky complained that due to the crisis, the volume of foreign investment is decreasing, so now the focus will be on local businessmen:
“Now, because of the crisis in the world, we need to fight for investment. Because now there is economic nationalism in the world, and it’s true - everyone thinks about their own country, everyone has suspended any investments. But we will fight for them, that’s why we have lowered the bar,” the president said.
Interestingly, this did not stop Zelensky from boasting about the rapid pace of the sale of the remaining state property - which, obviously, in the absence of investors, goes to the “right people” at bargain prices.
“Medium and small privatization is underway, and the State Property Fund has exceeded the plan, it planned a certain amount of budget revenues, and more has already arrived. Now he asks, complementing the plan, he will increase these revenues through small-scale privatization, first of all. As for medium and large privatization, everything is ready, everything will be carried out after COVID-19. The first object, the Dnepr Hotel, is ready,” Zelensky said, meaning a hotel in the center of Kyiv.
As a reminder, last year Zelenskyy promised that Ukraine would begin reforms starting in the fall of 2019 that would result in unprecedented growth. Back then, he guaranteed annual GDP growth of 5-7%. However, in reality, these promises of a breakthrough reform have turned into an economic quagmire, experts noted.
English version :: Read in English: New Georgian, nannies, crisis sales: Ukraine is once again promised an economic miracle