Portinvest Holding’s General Director Oleksandr Smirnov has proposed creation of a council of experts under the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Communications, the holding company has announced. According to the proposals, representatives of industry associations, international consultants, and representatives of international financial institutions should be permanent members of this council of experts and the heads of companies whose businesses are linked to the operations of ports should be invited to participate in the work of the council.
The proposal was made at a roundtable that the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Communications first deputy chairman Konstiantyn Bondarev initiated on April 2 to discuss the draft law No. 4431 with businesses and the public.
According to Smirnov, development of the sector requires the Ukrainian legislation on ports to be supplemented with the provisions that were previously removed from the draft law "On Seaports" during the process of its approval by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2012.
"All changes to the port legislation should be based on industry-wide positions that are formulated, and the council of experts is a platform for their formulation and a platform for collaborative work by the legislative and executive branches of government, as well as by representatives of the real economy,” said Smirnov. “Ukrainian legislation allows creation of such associations under parliamentary committees and similar council of experts are already working successfully, for example under the Committee on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship."
In particular, Section 1 of Article 15 and Section 4 of Article 42 of the law of Ukraine "On Committees in the Parliament of Ukraine" allow creation of such council of experts within parliamentary committees. Smirnov urged all the participants in the process to move from discussion to real action in the legislative area.
"The discussion should have a practical continuation in the form of understandable and clear laws, in the creation of which all the parties operating efficiently in the port industry should be involved. In addition, discrepancies in operating rules for businesses are often the reasons for corruption. By eliminating ‘gray zones’ from the legislation, we will obtain a clear regulatory framework for reform of the industry. This is an industry-wide task and, in this case, the council of experts under the sectorial parliamentary committee can become an effective instrument for achieving it," said Smirnov.
Portinvest Holding engages in strategic management of the port assets of the SCM Group, and it is implementing a number of investment projects in the transport sector in Ukraine. Portinvest Holding was established in 2010. SCM (System Capital Management) owns 100% of Portinvest Holding. The holding company consists of Portinvest Logistics LLC, the Avlita Stevedoring Company (Sevastopol), the Marine Industrial Complex (Sevastopol), the Yuzhny Sea Terminal LLC, and Mariupol Marine Terminal LLC."
