Chamber News (#05 May 2015)

Chamber News

High Council of Justice should restore credibility of the judiciary in Ukraine 

The High Council of Justice shall ensure the effectiveness of judicial reform as well as independent and professional selection of candidates for judges. This was stated by Yuriy Zalusky, Chamber Legal Committee co-chair during the roundtable discussion with candidates for inclusion into the High Council of Justice. “It is very important for us because the Chamber represents the business community operating in Ukraine, contributing to the state budget, providing jobs and creating new opportunities for the country’s development, and security is very important for such business. It can be ensured only by fair justice. Therefore, reform of the judicial system is one of the most important things and it is required by society”, said Mr. Zalusky. The Chamber’s experts note that as the High Council of Justice is one of the bodies responsible for the assignment of judicial manpower, the level of independence and competence of Ukrainian courts will largely depend on its new members.

Within this framework, the Chamber expects assistance from the new members of High Council of Justice to restore confidence in judicial authority. David Vaughn, Chief of Party, USAID Fair Justice Project highlighted the main challenges that the High Council of Justice faces at the present time. The majority of the High Council of Justice should consist of judges elected by judges, not by other authorities. The second problem is the delay in appointing members of the High Council of Justice, because only three of its members have so far been appointed by the Congress of Judges.

 

Improving the Program of Financial Market Development in Ukraine 

During the Chamber’s Round table devoted to the Program of Financial Market Development in Ukraine for 2015-2020, Vladyslav Rashkovan, a member of the NBU Council and deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, discussed with business representatives their specific suggestions on strategic documents, published by the National Council for Reforms.

Vladyslav Rashkovan explained that the Comprehensive Program will define the direction of further development of the financial market until 2020. According to Mr. Rashkovan, the Program will enable better structuring of the market. Each section of the reform will be accompanied with a specific action plan and assigned with a project team to fulfill the plan. Mr. Rashkovan pointed out, that in order to strengthen interagency cooperation and to implement comprehensive solutions, the NBU remains closely in touch with all government institutions represented by the National Council of Reforms.

Taras Kyrychenko, co-chair of the Chamber’s Banking & Financial Services Committee, chairman of the Board of Pravex Bank, drew the attention to the goals of the Comprehensive Program regarding liberalization of the financial services market. Liberalization should foresee the creation of preconditions for decreasing corruption as well as interaction between public and private sectors if it does not involve risks for the state and its citizens. We are regulated to the extent when doing business in the country is very tough. The issue is not the exchange rate, as we do realize that the measure is dictated by the military operation in East Ukraine. It is about restrictions hampering the development of separate business branches. The more notable the liberalization the more attractive our country is for investors. In the financial sphere, especially in the banking sector, liberalization is far more complex task, but the attractiveness of the investment climate should be guaranteed. In Ukraine, for example, the insurance market has colossal potential that could provide significant income for the country.  New decisions by the government should be converted into the investors’ desire to enter the Ukrainian market.

Generally, representatives of business community welcome the intentions and achievements of the NBU and other members of the working group of the National Council of Reforms concerned with development of the Comprehensive Program of Financial Market Development.

Market participants emphasized the necessity for further development of the Program in the following aspects: bringing clarity with regard to measures for protecting creditors/investors rights; creating a single mechanism for grouping and removing problem loans from the balance sheets of banks; creating the pool for financial savings’ guarantees covering all contributing financial institutions; creating the possibility to purchase separate licenses for banks with a diverse structure of assets and operations; clarifying issues of de-monopolization of financial services, in particular transferring the function of social insurance to the market; introducing to the Comprehensive Program such areas of development as bills, promissory notes, factoring, leasing, etc. 

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