NEWSBRIEFS (11/26/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kyiv reveals IMF's 'three conditions'

KYIV - Valerii Lytvytskyi, an adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, announced on November 16 that Ukraine must comply with the International Monetary Fund's "three conditions" before sending an official request to the fund to resume its $2.6 billion loan, Interfax reported. Mr. Lytvytskyi said the Verkhovna Rada must adopt, "at least in the second reading," a 2001 budget bill with a deficit not exceeding 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), according to IMF calculation methods. The Parliament must also adopt a law on banks and banking activity in Ukraine, and the government must submit to the Parliament a list of enterprises subject to privatization. (RFE/RL Newsline)

EBRD chief notes conditions for loan

KYIV - Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said on November 16 that he will recommend that the bank's board of directors give Ukraine $215 million to complete two nuclear reactors designed as successors to the Chornobyl plant, Reuters reported. According to Mr. Lemierre, the loan should be made conditional on the introduction of a program to improve the safety of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, on the establishment of an independent safety body to oversee those plants and on progress in the reform of the electric power industry. The deal should also be conditional on the International Monetary Fund's approval of new loans for Ukraine, the EBRD chief said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: transition led to 'palpable losses'

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma said on November 16 that during the past nine years Ukraine has become a fully sovereign country and "actually dismantled the totalitarian system," Interfax reported. "Ukraine's development is inseparably tied to a market economy and democracy," Mr. Kuchma said, but he added that the country has suffered "palpable losses" during its transformation. The president noted that, among other things, Ukraine's economic potential had shrunk by half, living standards fell, and the country has been confronted with "serious demographic problems." The president admitted that the making of Ukrainian statehood was impeded by a "Russian factor." He explained: "There has been stiff official and even stiffer unofficial opposition [in Russia] to asserting and strengthening Ukraine's economic sovereignty." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Whom does Kuchma want to 'sweep out'?

KYIV - "No one's got it in for the government ... but this team does have people in it whom I would have swept out of the government with a broom - I say that openly," the Associated Press quoted President Leonid Kuchma as saying at Kyiv University on November 17. "And it's impossible to understand what it is that drives the prime minister to defend these people - I do not understand that," Mr. Kuchma added, but mentioned no names. Ukrainian commentators say Mr. Kuchma is under pressure from influential "oligarchs" to fire Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose activity in the energy sector has considerably reduced their shadow deals. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Labor Ukraine set to rule?

KYIV - A congress of Labor Ukraine on November 18 elected National Deputy Serhii Tyhypko as head of the party, Interfax reported. Mr. Tyhypko told the congress that he expects Labor Ukraine to become the ruling party after the next parliamentary elections. According to Mr. Tyhypko, the party should be able to win 10 percent of the vote, form a parliamentary majority with other parties and have "as many ministers as possible" in a future coalition government. Labor Ukraine is widely believed to be an "oligarchic party" and to have considerable leverage in Ukrainian politics, as does the Revival of Regions and the Social Democratic Party (United). The Labor Ukraine's 48 lawmakers constitute the second-largest caucus in the Verkhovna Rada. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine plans to purchase grain

KYIV - By the end of the first quarter of 2001, according to Yevhen Chervonenko, the head of the State Reserve Agency of Ukraine, Ukraine plans to purchase 250,000 tons of grain from Kazakstan. He noted, however, that negotiations with the U.S. Agriculture Department on grain supply to Ukraine might change the volume of grain to be purchased from Kazakstan. "Everything depends on whether we will strike a deal with the United States and what volume of grain the United States will give us," Mr. Chervonenko said. In addition to importing grain from foreign countries, the State Reserve Agency will replenish its grain reserves by purchasing Ukrainian grain on the domestic market and taking grain from agricultural producers as payment for their debts for material and technical resources provided to them earlier, he maintained. The official also said his "agency had already purchased more grain than the reserve stock needed and continued purchasing grain actively." The State Reserve Agency plans to purchase some 1.5 million tons of grain on domestic and foreign markets. (BBC Monitoring)

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