Yushchenko Makes Plea for Growth

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko urged his new government on Wednesday to create favorable conditions for business to kick-start slumping growth and bring back reluctant foreign investors.

Cabinet of Ministers Meeting
Chairing a meeting of the team assembled after last month's dismissal of former Orange Revolution ally Yulia Tymoshenko, he told ministers to concentrate on the economy and steer clear of politics ahead of March's parliamentary election.

"If we want to provide proper European wages and pensions we have to ensure economic growth," Yushchenko told the session.

"To ensure economic growth we must mobilize financial resources in the form of investment. And to mobilize them we need to have clear procedures for Ukrainian business."

Yushchenko said the ousted government, riven by months of infighting, had done little to improve the business climate. "Two-thirds of the measures which impeded business were in fact government orders," he said.

Foreign investment in the first quarter had totaled a paltry $300 million. "You cannot dupe the economy. Just what can one expect to do with $300 million in investment?"

Under Tymoshenko's stewardship, growth in the ex-Soviet state sank to its lowest rate in five years, with forecasts for 2005 scaled back to 4 percent from 6.5 percent and more.

Source: Moscow Times