State-owned land to be leased at land auctions – 2017 budget

According to the law on the national budget for 2017 posted on the Verkhovna Rada's website, executive power agencies are to ensure the leasing of state-owned land parcels, as well as the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences and national sectoral academies of science. As reported, referring to a memorandum of cooperation signed by Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, the Ukrainian government sought adoption of a bill on farmland turnover by late December 2016. Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada extended the moratorium on the sale of farmland imposed in 2002 until 2018. The parliament ordered its committees and the profile ministry to draw up required bills within six months. Later several lawmakers from the parliamentary coalition submitted bill No. 5535 on farmland turnover to parliament. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that the land reform in the agro-industrial sector must be finished by 2020.