Media: IMF ready to close eyes to land reform in Ukraine
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is ready to leave the adoption of pension reform as the main condition for the allocation of the next tranche of the loan to Ukraine. This means that the adoption of land reform will be excluded from the requirements, reported by Interfax-Ukraine, citing a source that is close to the negotiations.
According to the news agency, the IMF made this decision in view of the fact that there is no agreement between the Fund and the Ukrainian government with regard to some important elements of the future land reform, and the relevant project has not been developed yet.
At the same time, it noted that the pension reform bill has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada after a preliminary agreement was reached with the IMF.
However, another of the news agency’s sources in the government said that to date, the IMF has not officially confirmed its readiness to remove from the requirements this beacon reform concerning land reform in Ukraine.
“In order to say that the beacon has been removed, it is necessary to obtain official written confirmation from the Fund, but that, as far as we know, has not yet been received,” he said.
According to him, land reform, along with pension, medical and judicial reforms as well as reforms in public sector companies remain one of the highest priorities in Ukraine, and international partners are paying close attention to this. However, the international community is not making suggestions as to how these reforms should be made and, as before, this remains entirely at the discretion Ukraine.
The agency’s source added that consultations at the government level and discussions with market participants and agrarian associations are continuing at the same pace as before, and when an agreement is reached, it will be reflected in the bill on the distribution of land, which will be submitted to the parliament.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the IMF postponed the allocation of the fifth tranche to Ukraine until the end of this year. The reason for this is that the Ukrainian parliament will not have time to vote for the necessary reforms before the summer break. And the main problem was the matter of land reform.
Initially, Ukraine expected to receive the fifth tranche of $1.9 billion in May this year. But in order for that to have happened, it was necessary to meet several important conditions set by the IMF.