Ukraine’s ninth parliament has voted in favor of appointment of Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk as the country’s next prime minister, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Ukrainska Pravda publication.

Honcharuk’s candidacy was approved by 290 votes.

The new prime minister told the parliament that every third hryvnia in Ukraine would be spent on payment of debts in the coming years. According to him, things will not be easy for the new government and corruption is still flourishing in Ukraine despite all the changes that have been made.

He expressed the belief that access to cheap credit should be the main indicator of the country’s attractiveness to businesses. Honcharuk promised to tackle credit rates and Ukraine’s image around the world. According to him, a credit rate of 12-13% per annum is realistic.

Honcharuk expressed support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s statement regarding quick and effective changes in Ukraine.

"We still have corruption. Nobody in this government will steal. An IMF mission will arrive in Ukraine within a few weeks, and we will agree a new deal. We have an insufficient living wage in Ukraine, and it is impossible to survive on it," the new prime minister said.

The draft resolution on the appointment of Honcharuk as the prime minister was published on the parliament’s website on August 29. President Volodymyr Zelenskyi submitted the draft resolution at the proposal of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, which has formed a governing coalition in the parliament.

Honcharuk is currently the deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office. A lawyer by training, he was a managing partner at a law firm. He ran for parliament as the No. 1 on the Power of the People party’s list of candidates in 2014, but the party won only 0.1% of the vote.

Honcharuk subsequently became an unofficial adviser to Minister of Ecology Ihor Shevchenko. He later served as an adviser to First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv.

Honcharuk became the head of the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), which is funded by the European Union, in 2015. The BRDO focuses on improving regulation by establishing partnership between government and businesses.

As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the government of Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has submitted its resignation to the parliament.