OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2010. Chaired by President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych the Committee on Economic Reforms meeting was held.

Opening the meeting, the President said that during the implementation of the reforms introduced in May this year, the Committee has done a great job in not only modernizing the national economy, but also other important areas of life of our country. The President thanked all those involved in the implementation of reforms.

Speaking about changes in the country, Viktor Yanukovych said that in the process of reforming it is sometimes necessary to make painful decisions, but there is no other way.

"The time has come. I have said that and would like to say it once again: the country cannot continue living in this condition. We have united in order to change this situation, bring order to the public administration system, which must be much more effective in fighting corruption and implement the programs, we have been declaring in our country for nineteen years," he said adding that these programs have not been implemented “not because we did not want them to, but because the political situation has been an obstacle to them.”

Speaking about the pension reform, the President said that he considered the situation, when Ukraine minimum pension is 740 UAH and the maximum is 60 thousand UAH unacceptable and unfair. "We must build an efficient and fair country. When it comes to pension reform, it is critically unfair that one pensioner’s pension is 740 UAH and the other’s is 60 thousand UAH,"he said.

President Yanukovych said that the situation is caused by the fact that in previous years the Parliament “pushed through the appropriate laws."

"There was a time when some laws were ‘pushed through’ in the Parliament – we know it all well, and we openly say that," he said expressing confidence that the policy "leads to nowhere."

Viktor Yanukovych repeated that government funding should be used efficiently for the benefit of the society, to ensure equitable distribution among the people living in our country. "This is not being done," he said.

"Let us make another step today: let us optimize public finances that we spend on maintenance of our ministries and departments through deregulation and administrative reform in order to create an efficient system of power and overcome corruption. And local administrations will be next on our agenda," Viktor Yanukovych said, referring to those present at the meeting.