KIEV: The World Bank and Ukraine are currently passing the important phase of cooperation – the revision of the project portfolio, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said in a video blog from Washington in early hours of Monday, presenting the results of his visit to the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
“We will close some that are old and outdated and release the resources to invest these funds to [settle] urgent problems and [projects] important for the development of the country’s economy,” he said. According to information at the website of the World Bank, at present the project portfolio for Ukraine includes 12 projects under implementation. The total sum of financial liabilities under them for 2016 is $1.56 billion compared to $1.346 billion a year ago.
The finance minister also said that he discussed the current state of cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF. He held meetings with finance ministers of other countries. He put an increased focus on the meeting with Finance Minister of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble.
“Along with other issues we have also discussed how to effectively use the EUR 300 million loan [from Germany] to make it work for the economy’s as effectively as possible,” Danyliuk said. He said that he also met top managers of the U.S. customs service and discussed the next steps of the Ukrainian customs reform. “[U.S.] has positively assessed the bill amending the Tax Code aimed at combating corruption in the tax and customs administration and relaxing tax procedures which would improve business climate,” he said.
