IFC managing director urges Ukraine to continue land reform

MOSCOW. Jan 20 (Interfax) - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, will keep supporting Ukrainian agribusiness companies, while the continuation of a land reform would make this support easier and provide companies with access to different financing, Ukrainian media quoted IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop as saying.

Speaking at the Ukraine House on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland's Davos, Diop suggested it is time to continue working on the necessary decrees and other documents to put the relevant laws into effect.

The IFC has signed a consultative agreement on public-private partnership with the Ukrainian Finance ministry, which is important in that it would help attract a lot of private investment in the Ukrainian agrarian sector and provide a legal basis facilitating such investment, he said.

The IFC also stands ready to provide trade financing and working capital and work on payment and IT solutions, which enhance the sector's efficiency by taking advantage of Ukraine's very high IT potential, he said.

Rostislav Shurma, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said the Verkhovna Rada has registered legislation to be passed within two months at the longest, which would make it possible "to transform land from agricultural into industrial using just one electronic application to make this process very simple and not requiring any clearance."

At the present time, if a land owner wishes to build even a small facility to produce meat, biofuel, or oil, they need to have an industrial plot of land, while the procedure of converting lands from one category to another is very complicated, Shurma said.