Ukrainian sovereign wealth fund can unite 76-77 strategic companies – SPF head
The State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine continues to promote the idea of creating a Ukrainian Sovereign Fund (USF), which could unite 76-77 key strategic companies and become the only management entity in the state property market, the acting head of the SPF, Oleksandr Fedoryshyn, said at a conference in Kyiv "Reforms of state and municipal property: transparency, efficiency and opportunities for the private sector."
"Today we have almost 90 management entities. The State Property Fund is only one of 90 entities, there are other ministries and departments that also manage, each has its own different styles, its own different approaches, and the result is a rather unbalanced situation. In this situation, we want there to be a single management entity, the Ukrainian Sovereign Fund, which will unite key strategic companies under its umbrella; we have identified them for ourselves - these are 76-77 companies that will be managed according to the best standards," Fedoryshyn said.
According to him, the USF will be analogous to the Norwegian Pension Fund, which manages 74 state-owned companies, while in Ukraine there are still 1,600 state-owned enterprises.
The head of the SPF also said that at one of the last meetings with the Ministry of Economy, as a result of the triage, 107 companies were identified that were not subject to privatization, and a corresponding bill was being prepared to consolidate this.
"We are focusing directly on this list, we will ask to join the discussion so that these companies could potentially enter the management of the Ukrainian Sovereign Fund," Fedoryshyn said.
Among other things, the head of the SPF informed that thanks to the government, it became possible to create a land bank, which would become one of the first assets that would come under the management of the USF.
"In addition, we are simultaneously considering the Real Estate Investment Fund product..." Fedoryshyn added.
The conference was organized by the Verkhovna Rada and the USAID/UKaid project State-Owned Enterprises Reform Activity (SOERA).
"Privatization and liquidation have very practical consequences. This is an opportunity for private entrepreneurs to recover losses from the war, meet the needs of the population and actively support the post-war economy. Reducing the number of state assets means reducing the potential for corruption. And this is one of the priority issues for international and Ukrainian investors, donors and citizens of Ukraine," John Tokolish, deputy head of the USAID/UKaid project, emphasized at the conference.