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The International Labour Organization (ILO) is launching a large-scale project in Ukraine designed to help to improve the business climate in the country and make social dialogue more effective. Partners thus rely on cooperation with national employers' organizations that are representative, have information resources at their disposal, maintain contacts and work with government agencies and others. This was discussed at a meeting of Chairman of the Association of Employers Organizations of Ukraine (OORU), First Deputy Chairman of the Joint Representative Body of Employers, President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatoliy Kinakh with representatives of the International Labor Office, Christian Hess (Geneva) and Dragan Radic (Budapest).
Anatoliy Kinakh informed the counterparts that Ukraine is currently seeing a greater role of social dialogue and employers' stronger influence. An agreement has recently been signed on a joint representative body that has united all organizations that have confirmed their representation. Now, employers in Ukraine have a common voice and a consistent position, which is extremely important in the context of dialogue with the government and other social partners in addressing key economic challenges.
"Our country is facing a demographic crisis now : last year it became one of the top four countries with the highest mortality rate, its population has been aging at a significant pace: there are 11 retirees per 10 employees. Another problem is labor and business migration. Up to one million Ukrainians work in neighboring Poland alone, they include highly qualified personnel," the OORU's head said.
According to him, employers, industrialists and businessmen planned a meeting of the National Tripartite Social and Economic Council with the government in late May to discuss ways to solve these problems.
Christian Hess said, in turn, that the ILO expects national employers will demonstrate the high level of partnership and it will work closely with them to implement the future project. This project is supposed to become a certain contribution to solving the above mentioned problems in the labor sphere of Ukraine. The project will be funded by the government of Denmark and is designed for five years. Around EUR 10 million in total is expected to be allocated for this purpose.
"A greater part of the project is the promotion of entrepreneurship and the development of the business climate. And here we'll need your assistance as Ukrainian businesses are better aware of the problems of the domestic market and ways to solve them," Dragan Radic, who will be one of the supervisors of the project, has said.
The parties agreed to maintain constant contacts and jointly work on the program for the implementation of the future project in Ukraine.