Ukrainian president Yanukovych orders social
By
our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Kyiv (dpa) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday
ordered new reforms to improve social welfare and public trust in
government, the Interfax news agency reported.
“We need to re-establish the trust of society in (the) ability of
government to improve the lives of citizens. We need to recreate the
basic principle of social fairness,” Yanukovych said, in a televised
cabinet meeting.
Increases in minimum wage and labour standards, hikes to
government worker wages, modernization of state-provided health
services, and reduction of the cost of education were among the
changes Yanukovych named as necessary.
The initiatives would be financed by “better-targeted government
spending” and new taxes on the wealthy, Yanukovych said.
During his 2010 presidential campaign, Yanukovych named improving
social welfare and the country‘s average standard of living top
priorities for his administration.
The former Soviet republic has seen economic stagnation or slow
growth since 2008, along with rising inflation and falling real
wages. The quality of many government services, simultaneously, has
deteriorated.
Providing more services relies on increasing state revenues. One
way the government hopes to do so is by pushing government assistance
to big business in the hopes that, if business does well, more money
will flow into state coffers.
The policies are unpopular with many lower-income Ukrainians, who
believe the Yanukovych regime is more interested in increasing
revenues for a privileged group of industrial and energy tycoons than
improving the country‘s overall standard of living.
dpa sbk ncs
Author: Stefan Korshak
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