Ukraine national recovery council secretary announces establishment of govt recovery agency

MOSCOW. Aug 4 (Interfax) - A Ukraine recovery plan has started being implemented, several laws have been adopted, and a special state development agency will be set up to improve coordination during its implementation, National Council for the Recovery of Ukraine Secretary Danylo Hetmantsev said.

"This will be an executive body performing a comprehensive function of restoring the country," Ukrainian media quoted Hetmantsev as saying at a meeting with the European Business Association on Thursday.

"The government is inclined to make this a government institution on the model of InvestUkraine," he said.

The Council is finalizing a draft plan, but it cannot issue instructions to government agencies and monitor their implementation, Hetmantsev said.

Therefore, it has been proposed that an agency be set up as an executive body authorized to coordinate the work of ministries, maintain contacts with foreign partners, propose amendments to the plan, and address other issues, he said.

In commenting on critical remarks that this function could be performed by the Economy Ministry instead of increasing the number of government bodies, Hetmantsev said that "the country's recovery implies not only the economy, this also includes culture, education, medicine, security."

The first part of the plan is what can and needs to be done immediately, and this work has already been started, particularly through the adoption of the necessary bills by the parliament, he said.

As reported earlier, the expenditures for implementing the Ukraine recovery plan designed for ten years and comprising about 850 projects have been estimated at about $750 billion. The plan envisages close cooperation between the state, the business community, and Ukraine's international partners.