U.S. Department of State 
96/12/20 Statement: Intl Community Supports Ukraine's Economic Reform 
Program Office of the Spokesman 
 
 
 
Press Statement by Nicholas Burns/Spokesman 
December 20, 1996 
 
 
 
  International Community Supports Ukraine's Economic Reform Program 
 
 
 
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the 
international donor community met to pledge approximately $3.5 billion 
to support Ukraine in 1997 as it pursues a bold new economic reform 
program.  The IMF will be providing approximately $1.1 billion, and the 
World Bank will provide another $1 billion, with the remainder from 
others in the international community. 
 
Furthermore, this support will not stop in 1997.  It will continue in 
parallel with Ukraine's ongoing commitment to economic reform.  In fact, 
Ukraine could very reasonably expect to receive more than $5 
billion of balance of payments assistance over the next three years from 
the international community.  This figure becomes even larger when 
including critical multilateral project loans and bilateral trade 
credits. 
 
In the context of shrinking assistance budgets worldwide, this level of 
financial support is significant.  It reflects the international 
community's deep commitment to support Ukraine as it pursues the 
economic reforms begun by President Kuchma back in 1994.  Since them 
Ukraine has already accomplished a great deal: inflation has gone down 
from over 10,000 percent in 1993 to less than 50 percent; thousands of 
state-owned enterprises have been turned over to private hands; and a 
relatively stable new currency has been introduced. 
 
Ukraine is now about to launch a new, more ambitious phase of 
fundamental reforms which, after five years of economic contraction, 
should lay the groundwork for sustained economic growth.  The package 
aims to induce businesses to move from the shadow economy to the open 
economy and attract foreign investment through deregulation as well as 
serious fiscal and pension reform. 
 
The international community has now removed any doubt over whether 
Ukraine will have sufficient external financing to support their bold 
reform effort.  Much of this support comes from the IMF and World Bank 
and will be disbursed only as reforms go forward.  Thus, the 
international community is not the most important factor in Ukraine's 
economic future; Ukraine is.  Now it is up to the leaders of Ukraine 
to adopt and fully implement this package to take advantage of this 
extraordinary window of opportunity. 
 
In addition, we urge the leaders of Ukraine to recognize the critical 
contribution to economic recovery that the private sector can make by 
taking immediate, concrete steps to improve the investment climate.