Overview

The new government has started implementing wide-ranging reforms to improve the investment climate by increasing transparency in state-owned enterprises, eliminating unnecessary regulations, revamping procurement processes, and simplifying the tax code. However, its immediate focus is stabilizing the weak economy which has necessitated measures like increased import tariffs and administrative currency controls that are not business-friendly. The ministers of the economy and finance have acknowledged that 2015 will be a year of transition and reform and hope to see a stabilization of the situation and increased FDI in 2016. To support this goal these ministers have brought in a new team of reform-minded deputies, many of whom hail from the private sector, to be agents of change in the government. Instability in the East continues to cast a shadow across the Government of Ukraine's reform efforts as many would-be investors remain on the sidelines waiting for a sustainable resolution to the conflict.