Yushchenko promotes business development at International Economic Forum in Lviv (10/16/05)

Yushchenko promotes business development at International Economic Forum in Lviv

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

LVIV - President Viktor Yushchenko visited Lviv on October 6 to encourage business and economic development, as well as to promote the Our Ukraine People's Union for the March 2006 parliamentary elections.

The Lviv Chamber of Trade and Industry held its fifth annual International Economic Forum "Ukraine - EU" on October 5 through 8, with more than 120 representatives of business interests in nine European nations attending.

More than 500 Lviv business projects worth several hundred million dollars in investment, were displayed at the forum.

Mr. Yushchenko urged international businessmen not to give bribes in Ukraine. He also assured them that his government would adequately prepare itself to pass the remaining 14 amendments to Ukrainian law that will pave the way for Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization.

"I will do everything so that this second step will be made and Ukraine will become a member of the WTO in December," Mr. Yushchenko said. The first step is attaining market economy status, he said.

The United States will grant Ukraine market economy status by the end of the year, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department Eric Stewart said earlier this year.

The same day in Lviv, Mr. Yushchenko signed a memorandum to construct BrodAgroOil, an oil-refining, agro-industrial integrative complex in Brody, a city directly east of Lviv in the same oblast.

The construction's projected cost is $3 billion, and carries enormous potential to boost the Lviv economy,

Currently, 7.5 million tons of light oil products are manufactured at the plant. Once the oil refinery is constructed, it will produce 8 million tons of gas per year, Interfax reported.

Investors plan to expand production to include asphalt, plastic and food items, creating almost 20,000 new jobs, according to Uriadovyi Kurier, the official newspaper of the government's executive branch.

Also signing the memorandum were representatives of the investing companies, Naftohaz Director Oleksii Ivchenko and Lviv Oblast Administration Chair Petro Oliinyk.

Following his visit to the economic summit, President Yushchenko addressed an audience of about 20,000 supporters in Lviv, where he defended his decision to fire former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

He blamed her for Ukraine's economic difficulties, citing a decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth from 6.5 percent in January to just 1.6 percent in August.

"Why is investment declining?" Mr. Yushchenko asked. "Because if hunting is announced against every enterprise, and if a list of thousands of enterprises is announced to revise what happened to them, then the first label applied to the political powers is: this government came to divide assets."

President Yushchenko then echoed Ms. Tymoshenko, who said he struggled with firing his Cabinet until the very last minute because he realized it would disappoint millions of Ukrainians.

"To exhaust a nation is unallowable, and to cause a nation suffering because you couldn't and don't want to find agreement is a very expensive political path that would only lead to ruin," he told the crowd.

The Our Ukraine People's Union will run for the March 2006 parliamentary elections separate from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, a coalition of several parties, including Ms. Tymoshenko's Batkivschyna Party.

Recent polls show that the most popular parties or blocs are the Our Ukraine People's Union, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Volodymyr Lytvyn's People's Party of Ukraine and Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions.

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