Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky referred all issues related to investments in the country to Livan Varshalomidze, an associate of ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was previously involved in construction in Batumi and led Adjara.
Zelensky stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I can talk about the investment office, which we will open at the end of September. We took the head there, Mr. Varshalomidze, who built Batumi,” Zelensky said.
The president also added that the authorities have lowered the bar for investors who will be assigned the so-called “investment nanny” - if earlier this required pouring 100 million dollars or more into Ukraine, now this figure has dropped to 30.
At the same time, Zelensky complained that due to the crisis, the volume of foreign investment is decreasing, so now the focus will be on local businessmen:
“Now, because of the crisis in the world, we need to fight for investment. Because now there is economic nationalism in the world, and it’s true - everyone thinks about their own country, everyone has suspended any investments. But we will fight for them, that’s why we have lowered the bar,” the president said.
Interestingly, this did not stop Zelensky from boasting about the rapid pace of the sale of the remaining state property - which, obviously, in the absence of investors, goes to the “right people” at bargain prices.
“Medium and small privatization is underway, and the State Property Fund has exceeded the plan, it planned a certain amount of budget revenues, and more has already arrived. Now he asks, complementing the plan, he will increase these revenues through small-scale privatization, first of all. As for medium and large privatization, everything is ready, everything will be carried out after COVID-19. The first object, the Dnepr Hotel, is ready,” Zelensky said, meaning a hotel in the center of Kyiv.
Let us recall that last year Zelensky promised that in the fall of 2019 Ukraine would begin reforms, as a result of which the country would develop at an unprecedented pace. Then he guaranteed growth of 5-7% of GDP per year. However, in reality, the promises of a breakthrough as a result of reforms turned into an economic swamp, experts noted.