You're reading: Yanukovych to sign reform plan for 2012 next week

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said he will sign the national reform plan for 2012 next week and that he will make the local authorities responsible for its implementation.

"2012 is the time to implement the reforms that we started [to implement] in 2010-2011 in the regions. And you will implement them and bear responsibility [for them], so that these reforms improve people’s lives," he said at the meeting with heads of regional state administrations on Friday.

Yanukovych also said that all of the reforms in the national plan were aimed at improving people’s lives. In particular, the president mentioned the construction of perinatal centers, the optimization of spending allocated for medicine, switching to a system of medical insurance, and deregulation.

The president said that at the beginning of 2012 the local authorities would have insufficient funds to retain already built facilities in the social sphere and the housing and utility sector, and built new facilities.

"But we know how to find the money. It’s been agreed that we will probably reconsider the budget on the basis of the results of Q1," Yanukovych said.

Earlier, the head of presidential administration, Serhiy Liovochkin, said that the national reform plan for 2012 was "a very detailed and concrete" document of about 300 pages.