The first results of the implementation of the program of stimulating the economy of Ukraine to overcome the consequences of COVID-19 give reasons to expect further gradual recovery of economic development. The Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported this to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting of the Head of State with representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers.
"The most pressing issue on the agenda today, in my opinion, is the assessment of the results of the government's economic stimulus program to overcome the effects of the pandemic. We urgently need to revive the economy," Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed.
The Prime Minister spoke about the three-year state program of economic stimulation developed and approved by the government to overcome the negative consequences caused by quarantine measures. He reminded that during the quarantine the Ukrainian authorities had adopted a set of decisions to support various segments of the population, in particular to reduce administrative requirements for doing business, deploy infrastructure projects, ensure social protection of low-income citizens.
Denys Shmyhal stressed that for the first time since independence of Ukraine, a large-scale construction of roads is taking place.
The government also plans to approve a draft resolution that would increase the amount of assistance for children under guardianship from two to two and a half amounts of the subsistence level.
Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko stressed that, despite the decline in business activity, there were clear signals of a way out of the crisis. This is evidenced by the growth of revenues and financing of expenditures from the state budget. In particular, the plan on state budget revenues in May was fulfilled by 100%, in June - by 105.5%. This happened, in particular, due to the effective work of the State Tax Service. In addition, customs service achieved target indicators in June.
Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna informed about the implementation of the President's initiative to increase pensions for people over 80 and to pay UAH 1,000 to citizens whose pension is less than UAH 5,000. The average pension in Ukraine is UAH 3,400, which is 13% more than in the previous year.
"We are currently preparing new pension increase programs that will be implemented in 2021," she said.
Maryna Lazebna also said that UAH 2.5 billion had been allocated from the Anti-Coronavirus Fund for the needs of the Social Insurance Fund. Almost 5,000 people have already received insurance payments, including 1,100 medical workers who are in self-isolation. In addition, three families of health workers who died in the fight against COVID-19 received insurance payments.
"An effective state is, first of all, a strict executive discipline. It's not just "talked and forgot". It is exclusively about the real execution of instructions," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.
The President set a task for the Cabinet of Ministers to deal with the problem of unfair accrual of pensions to the families of defenders who died in the area of ATO/JFO in Donbas. The Head of State heard about this problem from ATO/JFO warriors during meetings in different regions.
"There is an injustice because the soldiers who died in the war in 2014-2018 received a salary in the amount of a couple of thousand hryvnias at that time. Therefore, the pensions that now go to their parents are very different from the pensions of the parents of those soldiers who died receiving a salary in the amount of 14, 16, 20 thousand. That's why the pension there is much lower, and they talk about injustice," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the government would consider possible solutions to the given problem.