Government of Ukraine should finish issuing deeds for land this year

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko says that the Government should finish issuing state deeds for land title in 2009.

The President made this statement during dedication ceremony at the National University for Bioresources and Nature Studies in Kyiv on September 1.

“Completing the establishment of a land market is one of the special priorities of the Government’s work. And the hope is that, this year, the Government will finally manage to finish the issuing of land title deeds,” the President told students.

Mr. Yushchenko once again underscored that he, “as President and as a private citizen can no longer support the policy of banning the sale of land.” The Head of State reminded his listeners that the Verkhovna Rada passed a fourth ban on sales last winter.

The President says that the countryside needs to see owners, but they cannot appear until they have the full right to own their land. “When people lack ownership over their land, they will never husband it properly. Without the movement of land, no one will ever invest in it properly,” he added.

Mr. Yushchenko also noted that the top economic priority for the nation was the farm sector. Ukraine needs to return to its status as “breadbasket of the world,” he said.

According to the President, for this to happen, Ukrainian farmers need to have their say—independent farmers. Growers and livestock breeders need to be provided with the conditions necessary to work freely and these conditions need to be provided, at least in part, by the government, he said. “There can be no modern agricultural policy unless there is effective government policy as a whole,” said Mr. Yushchenko.

He concluded that the country’s agricultural complex needed to be reformed.

President Yushchenko ended by saying that the Government needs to establish a serious policy of reforming the farm sector.