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Ukrainian PM says it’s up to Ukrainians to conduct reforms in Ukraine

Vladimir Groisman noted that Ukraine’s government used to invite many foreigners for consultations but now Ukraine is gaining its own experience

KIEV, July 16. /TASS/. Reforms in Ukraine are the matter of Ukrainians rather than foreigners, Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman said on Sunday.

"At some point, we tended to abuse that [the practice of inviting foreign specialists]. I think that it is up to the Ukrainians to build Ukraine. I am profoundly confident in that, now even more than before. However we can invite these or those specialists who are well-known," he said in an interview with the 112 Ukrainia television channel.

He noted that Ukraine’s government used to invite many foreigners for consultations but now Ukraine is gaining its own experience. Thus, he said he maintains contacts with many Ukrainian and foreign specialists, including a team of strategic advisers on reforms led by Slovakia’s former Finance minister Ivan Miklos.

Following mass protests in Ukraine in 2014 and the subsequent change of power, Ukraine’s authorities plunged into the practice of inviting foreigners to take top positions in the Ukrainian government. Thus, Georgian citizen Alexander Kvitashvili was appointed Ukraine’s health minister, US citizen Natalie Jaresko became fianc· minister, Aivaras Abromavicius of Lithuania was minister of economic development, Georgia’s former president, Mikhail Saakashvili was Odessa region governor, and Khatia Dekanoidze, also a Georgian citizen, served as chief of Ukraine’s national police. By now, they have resigned from their positions.

However, the practice of inviting foreigners to manage Ukraine’s leading companies continues. Thus, in June 2016, Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers appointed Polish citizen Wojciech Balczun as CEO of state-run company Ukrzaliznytsya (Ukrainian Railways). Four out of the company’s board members are foreigners.

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