KIEV, April 19. /TASS/. Kiev plans to admit Western investors to privatization of Ukrainian state assets and legislatively bar this opportunity for Russian business, Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavichus said on Sunday.
"If we start large-scale privatization, then, of course, we’ll need to make a normal roadshow, i.e. to show what we have and invite Western investors," he said in an interview with Ukrinform news agency.
"We’ll not allow Russian investors to buy the assets and, therefore, we need to expand the geography," he added.
The ban for Russian investors to participate in Ukraine’s privatization will be legislatively sealed, the economy minister said.
Russian investors will not be admitted to the purchase of Ukrainian state assets "during either the primary or secondary sale," he said.
"This response [from Ukraine] will be adequate," Abromavichus said.
The list of state enterprises and assets slated for privatization has passed the stage of its examination in a government committee but has not yet been published, he said.
"Everyone knows which assets the state owns. We have already stated that the sale list will exclude strategic enterprises in nuclear power engineering, forestry and the railway sector," the Ukrainian economy minister said.
"Many other assets that are not located on the temporarily occupied territories must be gradually put up for sale, proceeding from the fact that the state is an ineffective owner of these assets in such a situation," the minister added.
The list of assets, which Kiev plans to privatize, includes Ukrspirt alcohol producer, Tsentrenergo electric power utility and the Odessa port factory, the economy minister said.
Abromavichus earlier said the Ukrainian government planned to leave about 950 companies in the list of strategic enterprises, adding that in his view this number was still large.
Agribusiness companies will be among the first enterprises that are expected to be privatized, the minister said.