A roundtable discussion titled “Improving the Business Climate, Digitalization, and Dereulation” took place in Kyiv. The discussion focused on deregulation, digitalization of public services, overcoming barriers to entrepreneurship, and creating a more predictable regulatory environment.
The event was attended by Deputy Head of the State Regulatory Service Roman Dzhuranyuk, Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tsybort, Senior Economist at CASE Ukraine Volodymyr Dubrovskiy, economist and coordinator of the Economic Expert Platform Oleh Hetman, Head of the SUP International Cooperation Center Olena Hemusova, and Head of the SUP Analytical Center Andriy Yerashov.
Business “Pulse”: 500,000 Signals for the State
According to Oleksandr Tsybort, today the “Pulse” platform — a digital tool for collecting feedback from businesses — has already transformed from a complaint collection service into a full ecosystem for analytics and management decisions.
“To date, businesses have submitted more than 500,000 ratings, comments, complaints, and signals through the platform. This allows us to see not only individual problems, but also systemic trends affecting the economy,” Tsybort noted.
According to him, the system currently records more than 530 business-related problems at the national level, of which more than 430 are being processed, while almost 100 already have specific solutions — complete or partial.
Among the issues businesses most often report through the platform:
- excessive tax pressure;
- blocking of tax invoices;
- infrastructure problems;
- interruptions in electricity and internet supply;
- regulatory barriers;
- security risks.
Separately, the Ministry of Economy analyzes the economic effect of implemented solutions — both for businesses and for the state budget.
Business: The Main Problems Remain the Same
Economist and coordinator of the Economic Expert Platform Oleh Hetman presented the results of a series of studies and business surveys regarding the main barriers to economic development.
According to him, entrepreneurs consistently identify the following as key problems:
- labor shortages;
- declining demand;
- difficulties in accessing financing;
- excessive regulatory burden;
- the shadow economy and unfair competition;
- problems with tax administration;
- logistics and infrastructure risks.
The expert also drew attention to the issue of excessive fines for mistakes in tax administration.
“Businesses are very often fined not for real violations, but for technical mistakes that have no fiscal effect. This is one of the things the state can change quickly,” Hetman noted.
Competition for People Is Becoming the Main Challenge
A separate block of the roundtable was devoted to human capital and the staffing crisis. Participants emphasized that in the modern economy, people, innovation, and entrepreneurship determine the competitiveness of the state. According to the experts, Ukraine is already entering global competition not only for investments, but also for talent. Therefore, state policy must create conditions in which entrepreneurs, engineers, IT specialists, and innovators will be willing to stay and realize themselves specifically in Ukraine.
State Regulatory Service: The Problem Is Not Only in Regulations
Senior Economist at CASE Ukraine Volodymyr Dubrovskiy emphasized that over the years, the State Regulatory Service has become one of the few institutions that actually restrained the emergence of excessive regulation. According to him, the SRS played an important role in protecting businesses from poorly considered state decisions, but today the regulatory policy system itself has a number of systemic problems.
“There is a problem with the lack of responsibility for violating the principles of regulatory policy. If a state body does not follow the necessary procedures or fails to submit the relevant documents, there is effectively no responsibility for this,” the economist noted.
According to Dubrovskiy, one possible solution could be the creation of an independent expert institution similar to the British model — a structure that would combine the functions of the State Regulatory Service and parliamentary expert analysis.
Unified Regulatory Portal: Digitalization of Regulatory Policy
Deputy Head of the State Regulatory Service Roman Dzhuranyuk spoke about the creation of a unified regulatory portal — a digital system intended to combine all regulatory acts of the country in one place.
According to him, Ukraine currently has around 80 central regulators and more than 1,600 local authorities that adopt regulatory acts, creating a complex and fragmented system for businesses.
“We want all regulatory acts to be available in one place. Anyone will be able to review a draft act, leave comments, and the regulator will be obliged to provide a response,” Dzhuranyuk explained.
According to him, the portal should ensure:
- complete openness of the regulatory process;
- public discussion of all regulatory acts;
- centralized access to documents;
- mandatory responses from state authorities to comments from businesses and the public.
Participants of the discussion also emphasized that deregulation cannot be effective if it is carried out exclusively by the regulators themselves.
The discussion once again demonstrated that Ukrainian business is ready to be a partner of the state in the country’s recovery process. At the same time, entrepreneurs expect real reforms — fast, systemic, and understandable.
The roundtable took place within the framework of the project “Support for Business Leadership in Strengthening Economic Resilience and the Reconstruction of Ukraine (BLR II)” which the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (SUP) implements in partnership with CASE Ukraine with the support of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).