Ukraine Announces Ambitious Privatisation Plan, Focuses on Growth

The confrontation between Ukraine and Russia took a mild twist on Thursday, with the two countries focusing on their growth strategy rather than on open-faced accusations.  

Ukraine’s Prime Minister announced an ambitious privatisation plan, saying that state-owned and holding companies are inefficient and are “stealing money received under the state guarantees.”

"We are going to announce the most ambitious privatization for all 20 years. State-owned companies, which are a subject of corruption rather than development, should be privatized," Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Thursday, as reported by a note published on Thursday.

On the other hand, Russia renewed its commitment to invest in oil and gas projects to maintain the current level of production. 

‘It is obvious that the era of cheap and easily accessible resources is over: the country has been developing natural resources for centuries. We have started developing resources which have always been considered hard to access and thus not profitable, especially with regard to the equipment that was used, say, 100 or even 50 years ago. That is why investment and the technology used in the extraction industry are constantly improving. As a result, more effort and money are needed to maintain current volumes,’ Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, gas transportation remained in normal mode, according to Slovakia’s Eustream.