Opening of the land market, legalization of the gambling business, adoption of laws on derivatives and on inland waterway transport, as well as completion of the first stage of the decentralization reform can be considered historic achievements of the Verkhovna Rada in 2020, head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
“If we analyze our own expectations and implementation, we have fulfilled our program by about 70%. Achievements that can be considered historic are, first of all, the opening of the land market, which no political force could have done for 30 years. This is also the adoption of the law on inland water transport, since this issue was not settled in our country: the river in Ukraine was loaded by only 5%, while in neighboring countries it is 30-35%, and in general, navigable rivers throughout the world are a fairly large transport hub, through which a huge amount of cargo passes, which also preserves roads, since this is the cheapest type of transport,” the MP said.
Among the important decisions of the parliament in the outgoing year, according to Arakhamia, is the adoption of the law on derivatives and financial markets. The politician said that “for ten years Ukraine could not adopt this law, which is little understandable to an ordinary citizen, but we will see the consequences of its adoption in 2021.”
At the same time, he drew attention to the law on the legalization of gambling business in Ukraine.
“It existed in the shadow, without any payments at all, and stimulated corruption. Finally, it is coming out of the shadows and people start to acquire licenses,” Arakhamia said.
Also, the MP focused on completion of the first stage of the decentralization reform. For example, Servant of the People is convinced that the enlargement of the districts envisaged by it will allow the state to save about UAH 10 billion, which will go to merged territorial communities, that is, “not for the maintenance of officials, but for specific projects that they can implement for citizens.”
Arakhamia also mentioned the “failures” of the Verkhovna Rada in 2020.
“We didn’t manage to reform the SBU, didn’t manage to create the Bureau of Economic Security instead of the fiscal service, didn’t have time to pass the law on referendum in the second reading, didn’t have time to carry out the capital amnesty. Of the major reforms, this is perhaps all: in the program they are almost at the exit, there are 95% readiness, but they had to be postponed due to coronavirus,” he said.
At the same time, the head of the faction believes that in January 2021, the parliament will begin to implement the plans.
“I think that in the first quarter we will try to catch up with this. And I hope that we will even exceed the program for next year in order to tie up the loose ends of 2020,” Arakhamia said.
