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infrastructure is being renewed, social payments are being made, and a system of effective information resistance is being worked on, he said. “I want to believe that these steps, with the support of the international community, will give the opportunity to open a new page in the process,” he said.
Zelenskiy aides are drafting laws that would pay whistleblowers up to 10% of the value of state corruption they expose, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, deputy presidential chief of staff, has told NGO leaders, reports Public Finance International. “Whistleblowers who report large-scale corruption schemes that cause significant damage to the state will be encouraged by material remuneration,” he told anti-corruption activists on Monday. He said safeguards would protect whistleblowers from ‘persecution’.
Ukrainian state holding, Chinese firms strike deal to jointly control Motor Sich
Ukrainian state military industrial corporation Ukroboronprom and Chinese firms Skyrizon Aircraft and Xinwei Technology Group reached an agreement to jointly control Motor Sich (MSICH UK), Interfax-Ukraine reported on Aug. 19, citing anonymous sources in the government. The Chinese firms will control a more than 50% stake in Ukraine's largest producer of aircraft engines, and will grant USD 100 min to Ukraine’s aviation industry, while Ukroboronprom will have a more than 25% stake. The deal is yet to be The Chinese firms were planning to construct an engine assembly plant on Chinese territory with the use of Motor Sich parts and technologies, which Ukraine’s law enforcement bodies considered to be a threat to the country’s security. approved by Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee, Interfax-Ukraine reported. “The acquisition of Motor Sich would boost China’s military buildup and civilian aviation capacity, which Washington has taken pains to retard in a near-total Western embargo on selling military goods to China,” writes the Journal of a deal now before Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Commission. A US company reportedly is in talks with the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to get financing and insurance for a joint venture. Notoriously slow-moving, OPIC gets a facelift Oct. 1, rebaptized as the U.S. International Development Finance Corp.
Dmytro Vovk becomes first political exile under Zelensky, alleging persecution. Vovk, among the key suspects in the Rotterdam Plus criminal case, confirmed that he’s abroad in an Aug. 19 Facebook post, adding that he won’t return to Ukraine because he doesn’t believe in a fair trial. Law enforcement authorities, anti-corruption investigators and prosecutors and the judicial system as a whole are not independent and being directed by the President’s Office, Vovk wrote. He said he doesn’t have any courts or authorities in his pocket to protect him. “I would come to court with satisfaction, but I’m not ready to participate in a show trial,” he said.Vovk headed the National State Energy Regulation Commission in March 2016 when it adopted the Rotterdam Plus formula for electricity pricing, which law enforcement authorities allege was a corruption scheme that illegally benefitted, among others, Ukraine’s leading power producer, DTEK Energy (DTEKUA), at the expense of the public. Vovk is among eight suspects named in the criminal case being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. Two of the suspects are confirmed to be abroad, Bureau Head Artem Sytnyk said on Aug. 16, and will be placed on international search.
The World Bank estimates that a functioning land market would double land prices, would draw $1.5bn in new investment annually into agriculture, and would increase Ukraine’s GDP growth up to two percentage points a year.
17 UKRAINE Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com