Arakhamia names Rada’s key achievements and failures of 2020

Land market opening, legalizing the gambling business, adopting laws on derivatives and waterway transport, and completing the first stage of decentralization reform can be considered historic achievements of the Verkhovna Rada in 2020.

The head of the "Servant of the People" party Davyd Arakhamia stated this in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine.

"If we analyze our own expectations and implementation, then we've fulfilled our program by about 70%. The achievements that can be considered historic are, first, the opening of the land market, which no political force has done for 30 years. It's also the adoption of internal water transport law, as this issue has not been resolved in our country. The river in Ukraine was loaded only by 5%, while in neighboring countries, it's 30-35%, and worldwide navigable rivers are a fairly large transport hub. Through them, a vast amount of cargo passes, which saves, in particular, roads, as it's the cheapest type of transport," the deputy said.

Among the important decisions of the parliament in the past year, according to Arakhamia, there's the adoption of the law on derivatives. The politician stressed that "Ukraine could not pass this law for ten years, which is not clear to ordinary citizens, but we will see the consequences of its adoption in 2021."

He also drew attention to the law on the legalization of gambling in Ukraine.

"It existed in the shadows with no payments at all and stimulated corruption; finally coming out of the shadows, people buy licenses," Arakhamia said.

The parliamentarian also emphasized the completion of the first stage of decentralization reform. Thus, the "Servant of the People" party is convinced that the planned consolidation of districts will allow the state to save almost UAH 10 billion, which will go to the united territorial communities, i.e. "not for the maintenance of officials, but for specific projects that they can implement for citizens." 

Besides, Arakhamia focused on the "failures" in the work of the Verkhovna Rada in 2020.

"They didn't have time to reform the SBU, didn't have time to create the Bureau of Economic Security instead of the fiscal service, didn't have time to pass a referendum law in the second reading, didn't have time to carry out a capital amnesty. That's it. All large reforms are underway. They're 95% ready, but because of the coronavirus we had to postpone it," he said.

The head of the party believes that in January 2021, the parliament will implement the predetermined plans.

"I think we will try to catch up in the first quarter. And I hope that we will even exceed the program for next year to catch up with the loose ends of 2020," Arakhamia added.

Earlier, in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine, Arakhamia predicted that the Rada would be able to adopt the law draft №3613 on democracy through a referendum in February in the second reading.