The event was attended by the experts of the project, representatives of think tanks, NGOs, government institutions, Apparatus of Verkhovna Rada and Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, independent experts, honoured workers of the oil and gas industry and the representatives of mass media.
Experts of the project presented their practical work on the idea of creating a National Development Fund as an additional tool for the transparent use of the state share of oil and gas revenues in favour of the society.
Participants of the event held a discussion on the improvement of the current legislation and regulatory framework to increase production volumes and consequently the generated financial flows.
The audience also discussed possible risks, which may occur while establishing the National Development Fund. It is difficult to estimate the potential risks, but the participants of the round table agreed that in order to change the situation for better, it is necessary to accept challenges and to move forward.
However, taking into consideration the difficult times in 2014—2015 due to Russian aggression against Ukraine, when the extractive sector suffered from lack of investments and the state budget barely obliged to cut and contrive, it can be too early to talk about the development of the National Development Fund, nevertheless it is important to launch the public dialogue now.
Representative of the European Delegation to Ukraine noted, that the European Union has already launched the dialogue with Ukraine on the development of a fund for energy efficiency. Yet, Ukraine has to be ready to create transparent and fair rules in line with European standards.
A press conference was held after the end of the round table. During the press conference, the analytical bulletin with expert practical work on “National Development Fund as a tool for responsible use of natural and financial resources” was presented.
The brochure presents expert practical work on the following issues:
• Current state and perspectives of the gas producing sector
• Hydrocarbon production in Ukraine: statistical evaluation and evaluation of statistics
• Investment climate in the energy sector
• Analysis of tax and budget procedures to manage revenues from hydrocarbon production
• Analysis of the effectiveness of investment management in the context of budgetary procedures with regard to financial revenues and expenditures by hydrocarbon extraction
• Legal analysis of financial legislation and legislation on mineral resources
• Researches on state of the gas producing sector in the regions of extraction
Mykhailo Gonchar, director of the project, noted that the methodology of practical work on establishing the National Development Fund is universal, as it can be applied not only in the hydrocarbon extraction, but also where significant resources and financial flows are generated.
