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11 June, 2020
Panaiotidi: MIC Development Not Possible without OECD Standards
On June 11, NAKO Online Defence Talks welcomed key policymakers in Ukraine’s defence and security sector to discuss selected burning issues such as possible new defence industry ministry. The keynote speakers were Deputy Minister for Economy Svitlana Panaiotidi and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Yehor Bozhok. The other issues discussed were the current status of the reform of Ukraine’s defence industry, including the corporatization of Ukroboronprom and legislative initiatives, the results of the first-ever review of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and developing a new defence industry strategy. The key messages supported by all the participants were the following ones:
  • OECD standards should be an integral part of the further Ukraine’s MIC development;
  • Ukroboronprom’s corporatization according to OECD standards is the priority step for Ukraine’s MIC, the corresponding draft law could be presented for the parliament to consider this summer;
  • A transparent MIC reform in accordance with the OECD standards and with due respect to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic path will be an important signal for the international partners about the opportunity to attract private investments in the sector and creating joint ventures. The corresponding draft projects have been already developed, and some agreements reached;
  • The MIC reform should be implemented along with adopting the Law on Defence Procurement and the corresponding secondary legislation;
  • Transparency in discussion and implementation of the reform and its potential consequences is of high importance, this is why it’s so important to engage the civil society, business representatives, and international partners to the broad discussion. We do already have a positive example such as the draft law on defence procurement which was developed in such a way when all the stakeholders were involved.
We are grateful to all the speakers and participants for joining our discussion. We also express our gratitude to Ukroboronprom for the technical support of the online events.