TRUSKAVETS, Ukraine — The ruling Servant of the People faction has unveiled its reform plan for 2021-2023 at the party’s convention in the western Ukrainian resort city of Truskavets, some 600 kilometers west of Kyiv, on Oct. 2. However, not many details have been made publicly available.
The party hopes to progress towards NATO membership, overhaul the Security Service of Ukraine and reintegrate occupied territories in Donbas and Crimea.
The party’s press service said the plan is supposed to hit important milestones in human capital development, the green transformation and energy security. The plan also proposes to address technological development, market transformation, the development of infrastructure, local economies, food and digital hubs. Finally, the party also hopes to make progress in implementing stronger rule of law.
“Shortly, the reform plan will be finalized taking into account the proposals and comments of the President, government officials, lawmakers, and then it will be revealed to the public,” the party said in a statement.
Before presenting their proposals to Zelensky, the lawmakers had been working on the agenda for the next two years in eight task groups.
“It was a strategic session, the practice successfully used by many companies. Different ideas of development were discussed, everyone gave their offers, and then all participants of the discussion chose the most of current interest,” Servant of the People lawmaker Volodymyr Hevko told the Kyiv Post at the convention.
The 2021-2023 reform plan is a part of a massive 5-10 year roadmap, consisting of over 80 projects requiring $277 billion in investment, to transform Ukraine into a “security outpost” and a “digital and infrastructure hub”, that President Volodymyr Zelensky presented during his U.S. visit in September.
The details of the roadmap weren’t publicly available. Even the Servant of the People members first saw it on Oct. 1, when Tymofiy Mylovanov, the former economy minister and currently a top aide to Zelensky’s chief of staff, presented it at the convention.
“This is a very ambitious story. The Transformation Plan of Ukraine has just been presented for the first time to the lawmakers, and, accordingly, we have two years, in fact, four parliamentary sessions, to start certain processes,” head of the Servant of the People party, Oleksandr Kornieko, told the media on Oct. 1.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, the former economy minister and currently a top aide to Zelensky’s chief of staff, presenting the Transformation of Ukraine roadmap to lawmakers in Truskavets on Oct.1, 2021. Photo by the Servant of the People press service. (Press Service of Servant of the People party)
Mylovanov told the reporters that the transformation plan includes four areas: security, energy security, inclusive economy, and the rule of law. According to him, the roadmap is being constantly developed, and is written by “everyone”.
“The plan is kind of a living creature, meaning it’s constantly being supplemented,” Mylovanov said. “The total investment required is $277 billion, which the president spoke about in the United States. The $277 billion will be realized.”
The aide admitted that the roadmap is “quite an ambitious program,” but he believes that finding the investment for it during 5-10 years is crucial. Otherwise, the development of the country will be slow and might take 15-30 years, Mylovanov stated.
According to Mylovanov, several parts of the Transformation Plan of Ukraine will not be public since they include “sensitive moments.”
“The security aspect is partly in the plan. And one of the priorities is that Ukraine is NATO’s southeastern flank.”
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This is not Ukraine’s first development plan.
In 2019, then-Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk released a similar action program that established many optimistic targets for Ukraine, many of which have not been attained, partly due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
