WIIW The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies - Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche

Ukraine’s Economic Development and the EU Association Agreement

22  October 2018    6:00 pm CEST

Panel discussion

In cooperation with Vienna School of International Studies, Ukrainian Embassy in Austria, International Renaissance Foundation, Centre for Economic Strategy, CASE and VoxUkraine.

Venue

Diplomatische Akademie Wien (Favoritenstraße 15a, 1040 Vienna)

Description

Since 2014, Ukraine has been facing the double challenge of overcoming a severe economic crisis and implementing economic reforms at the same time. So far, the track record on both has been mixed. Since 2016, the country has started recovering, and the currency has been reasonably stable. Also, Ukraine has started implementing its Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU (as part of a broader Association Agreement), which helped re-orient its trade flows towards the EU. At the same time, institutional improvements - and in particular the progress in fighting corruption - have been generally modest, constraining the inflows of foreign investment. Other major challenges include stubbornly high inflation and unemployment - the latter despite the increased outflow of labour force abroad.

These issues will be debated by a range of economic experts, including the advisor to the Ukrainian government (and former finance minister of Slovakia) Ivan Miklos and representatives of three Ukrainian think tanks: the Centre for Economic Strategy, CASE and VoxUkraine, as well as of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw).

Tentative agenda

18.00 Welcome and introduction by
Emil Brix, Director, Vienna School of International Studies and
Olexander Scherba, Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria
Elisabeth Hagen, Executive Director, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)

18.15 Keynote speech by
Taras Kachka, Strategic Advisor, International Renaissance Foundation (IRF)

19.00 Panel discussion with
Olha Stefanishyna, Director, Government Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Maria Repko, Deputy Director, Center of Economic Strategy (CES), Ukraine
Dmytro Boyarchuk, Executive Director, Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE), Ukraine
Boris Davydenko, CEO, independent analytical platform VoXUkraine
Vasily Astrov, Economist, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)

Chaired by Peter Havlik, Economist, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)

Keywords: Ukraine EU Association Agreement