Ash: Progress has been made with gas price reform, e-declarations, reform of VAT refunds, prozorro, but much more needs to be done, and perhaps the ACC [Anti-Corruption Court] could be the game changer.
LONDON, Feb 22, 2018: Transparency International has released its latest Corruption Perceptions Index that rates 180 countries. From his vantage point in the City of London, Timothy Ash of Bluebay Asset Management offered his comments on the index and Ukraine’s place on it at 12:00 Noon today: Interesting read, underlines the problems/challenges. Ukraine's score is a one point improvement YOY, and +4 since 2014 and the Euromaidan, but ranking still only 130/180, on par with Iran, Myanmar and Sierra Leone, but five notches higher than Russia. And of Transition countries only Russia, Tajik, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Turkmen rank worse. I guess of its closer comparables Turkey ranks 81, Serbia 77, Bulgaria 71 and Belarus 61. The top ranked transition economy is Estonia at 21, Slovenia at 34, Poland 36, and Saakashvili's Georgia at 46 rank, albeit its "score" has deteriorated from 49 in 2013, to 56 this year (a lower score means a lower ranking, I.e. Towards the 180). https://www.transparency.org/news/feat ... ceptions_index_2017#table Guess for Ukraine the score/ranking just underlines the challenge, and the slow progress still being made. Much more needs to be done, if Ukraine is going to be able to challenge to attract foreign and domestic investment when corruption is a key factor undermining the business environment. Progress has been made with gas price reform, e-declarations, reform of VAT refunds, prozorro, but much more needs to be done, and perhaps the ACC [Anti-Corruption Court] could be the game changer. ### ** Please note that any views expressed herein are those of the author as of the date of publication and are subject to change at any time due to market or economic conditions. The views expressed do not reflect the opinions of all portfolio managers at BlueBay, or the views of the firm as a whole. In addition, these conclusions are speculative in nature, may not come to pass and are not intended to predict the future of any specific investment. No representation or warranty can be given with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the information. Charts and graphs provided herein are for illustrative purposes only.”
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