The government should not be able to influence the activities of state –owned enterprises (SOE), which should be transferred to a separate holding that will be headed by a person with a "strong personality," Ukraine's new Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said. He added there are already preliminary agreements with this person, the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency has reported.
"We are now thinking of creating a public holding company that would remove all these SOE and municipal enterprises from coordination of the ministries. So that each minister does not have these bunches hanging on his balance sheet. This needs to be taken away from the Cabinet of Ministers. Politicians should not do this at all. It should be a separate management. And we have a preliminary agreement with a strong personality who will lead the process of creating this holding," Honcharuk said at a meeting with reporters in Kyiv on Friday.
The prime minister also considers it necessary to carry out "large-scale privatization," but at the same time leave strategic enterprises in state ownership. The government already has a candidacy for the post of head of the State Property Fund, he said.
Honcharuk also announced the possible transfer of the head of Ukrposhta Ihor Smelyansky to a new, more ambitious post.
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