Kyiv, Ukraine — Addressing the nation during the celebration of the 21st Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, President Viktor Yanukovych singled out a number of positive developments over the past year. They include infrastructural adjustments, conducted to accommodate EURO 2012, further deregulation of the state economy, as well as advances in the ongoing medical reform.

European football championship 2012 became the first major sports event Ukraine hosted in the 21 years of its independence. EURO 2012 attracted nearly 400,000 tourists to Ukraine, estimated the experts of the Ukrainian Youth Tourist Association. The foreign guests were able to visit the renewed stadiums in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Lviv, use upgraded airports, 3,455 kilometers of new or renewed roads, 1,700 kilometers of railroads, and 902 new vehicles of public transport across the country, as well as stay at 290 renovated and newly opened hotels.

In preparation for EURO 2012, Ukraine renovated airports in all host cities, increasing their channel capacity, improving the runway and infrastructure. In May 2012, Ukraine expanded its main air gateway – Boryspil airport, allowing it to service up to 15 million visitors per year.

Additionally, Ukrainian government reported on achievements in economy deregulation and reduction of administrative impact on business. Ukraine cut the total number of state taxes in half. Corporate income tax was reduced from 25 to 21 percent. In 2014, it will go down to 16 percent.

Moreover, starting January 2013, enterprises producing software are exempt from paying value added tax (currently – VAT is 20 percent) on software supply operations. Since January 2013, the corporate tax for IT companies will be reduced from 21 percent to five percent. Ukraine also offers tax incentives to green energy companies, including corporate tax exemption on sales for 10 years starting January 1, 2011.

Another important step for Ukraine is medical reform. It will introduce five-stage medical assistance in Ukraine, featuring first aid, followed by primary, secondary, and tertiary aid, as well as palliative care. At the moment the reform was introduced in four pilot regions. So far, the Ukrainian government opened 21 new and renewed hospitals. Furthermore, Ukraine launched six state of the art perinatal centers under the National Project “New Life.”

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The United Nations International PPP Center of Excellence in Ukraine will soon open in Ukraine to facilitate state-business cooperation, reports the State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe will help create the center that will contribute to providing a better environment for investors in the country.

The Public Private Partnership Center (P3C) will be created as part of the investment reform currently underway in Ukraine. The government of the country seeks to improve the efficiency of its dialogue with the private sector with the help of the P3C. On July 1, 2010, Ukraine adopted the law on public-private partnership, which provides for the delegation of public-private cooperation managing duties to a special body within the structure of the state executive branch.

The objective of UN’s Center of Excellence is to assist governments in implementing best practice in public-private partnership policy, according to UNECE report by Tony Bonnici of February 8, 2011. The Center’s headquarters in Geneva coordinate activities of units in various countries.

A number of governments confirmed their intention to host components of the Center: Germany, Greece (department for cooperation in the field of seaports), India (roads), Malaysia (sustainability), The Philippines (health), Saudi Arabia (water and waste water), South Korea (power), and Turkey (airports).

The agreement to create the Center emerged when a Ukrainian official Ihor Zhovkva, the Director of Department for National Projects at State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine, visited PPP Days 2012, jointly hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the World Bank Institute, and the Asian Development Bank, on February 21-24, 2012, in Geneva.

Ukraine is currently working on its investment attractiveness with the World Investment Report 2011 (issued by the UN trade and development body) listing Ukraine’s FDI flow rate at 23 percent of gross fixed capital formation. Notably, the average rate of FDI flow for the CIS is 15,1 percent, while the global rate constitutes 9,1 percent.

In December 2011, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine Jorge Zukoski named agriculture, fuel and energy complex, financial services, and production of consumer goods as the most appealing sectors of Ukrainian national economy for foreign investments in 2012.

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