Fostering Favorable Change

Ukraine has been struggling to attract foreign investors for decades. Dozens of investment barrier reports, commitments within the Association Agreement and bilateral treaties, truly advanced laws have, in recent years, only slightly provided a meaningful environment to meet the  preferences of investors. In Davos President Zelensky announced the launch of the "Investment Nanny" program, which was perceived with both skepticism and enthusiasm at the same time. The Covid crisis postponed these plans, but from the global perspective also revealed opportunities to compete for investments traditionally allocated to Asian states. At the local  level it facilitated urgency in the hope of getting a fast recovery response. Still, many things need to be considered – such as specific local regulatory and infrastructural barriers, the limited openness of certain markets, investment screening in sensitive sectors. The positive step forward comes with ambitious plans to reload the privatization course, explicitly discussed with our cover story speaker Serhiy Piontkovsky, managing partner of Baker McKenzie – Kyiv.

As expected in a crisis like this one, political tensions can bubble over. We hope that in their coming fight for power at the end of October, all political parties focus on creating an environment that can truly foster favorable change.