Businessmen react painfully to the worsening of the situation in Ukraine and demand more significant changes from authorities, according to Ukraine's Investment Attractiveness Index calculated by the European Business Association (EBA) on the basis of a poll conducted among top managers of companies which present largest foreign and Ukrainian investors.
Ukraine’s Investment Attractiveness Index for the third quarter of 2014 was presented in Kyiv on Nov. 13.
“Compared to the results of the previous periods we could see a slight decline in the index, which today is 2.65 out of five points. If we remember the assessments of business in the first and second quarters, the decline is linked to the fact that optimistic forecasts have not come true and the situation in the country has worsened,” EBA Executive Director Anna Derevyanko said at the presentation.
The association said that in the third quarter business reacted painfully to the new requirements of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the currency regulation area and its attempts of banning payments under imports transactions without imports of goods to the territory of Ukraine – 28 percent of respondent believe this is a negative factor. 27 percent of respondents said that the absence of real reforms and the reorganization of the operation of certain agencies hinder their operation. Another 11 percent of top managers pointed at growth of corruption and the existence of earlier appeared shadow schemes.
Around a half (44 percent) of experts said that there were no positive changes at all, although they hope the situation will improve. EBA said that in the second quarter only 30 percent of respondents stuck to the said point of view. 18 percent of respondents said that the holding of parliamentary election is a positive moment, and another 13 percent of top managers point at deregulation processes and the reduction of fiscal pressure as a positive thing. Only 8 percent of respondents felt the establishment of a dialog between business and authorities, pointing at large transparency in relations with representatives of authorities.
The Investment Attractiveness Index was conducted by the EBA with the support of InMind research company. The EBA Investment Attractiveness Index is assessed as the mean value based on five questions. 121 CEOs of companies that are members of the EBA were polled.
