Ukrainians consider corruption the main obstacle for business – survey

Corruption is considered to be the biggest obstacle for the development of business in Ukraine – 47% of Ukrainians surveyed by sociologists have expressed this point of view.

Source: results of the survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation jointly with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Meanwhile, 37% of responders said that the damage caused by the war was the biggest obstacle to business, 36% said it was inadequate systems of tax administration and control, and 36% blamed weak state support.

"It is telling that the problems that directly depend on the quality of state governance take up three out of four top factors that impede the development of business, according to Ukrainians.

The next negative factors are the outflow of specialists and businesspeople abroad (29%), and outflow of employees abroad (28%)," the report reads.

At the same time, corruption as an obstacle to business development was mentioned more in the east (55%) and a bit less in the west (43%) of the country. Likewise, the west (30%) of Ukraine is less critical of tax control than the east (43%).

"The respondents of the eastern (40%) and southern (33%) oblasts mentioned the outflow of specialists and business owners abroad than those in the western (22%) and central oblasts (27%), with the latter two being less affected by combat actions. The situation is similar with outflow of workforce: this factor was mentioned more often in the east (37%) and south (31%) of Ukraine than in the west (25%) and in the centre (24%)," the results of the survey indicate.

The authors of the survey also remark that Ukrainian society does not trust Ukrainian agents of post-war economic and infrastructural reconstruction of Ukraine.

In July 2023, only 17.5% of the participants agreed with the opinion that Ukrainian state companies and banks can effectively and without corruption reconstruct the country.

The level of trust afforded to private Ukrainian companies and banks is even lower – 8%.

"At the moment western companies and banks have the highest levels of trust (28%), although still not that high in general, on par with international financial organisations like the IMF and the World Bank (19%).

Large non-Western companies and banks (China, UAE, Saudi Arabia) have the lowest level of trust of only 3%," it is stated in the report.

The survey was conducted by a face-to-face method from 3 to 17 July 2023 in all regions of Ukraine besides occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson oblasts and Crimea.

In Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv Oblasts, the survey was conducted in Ukraine-controlled areas where there is no combat action. The survey includes 2,011 respondents over 18.

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