OREANDA-NEWS. On Thursday, June 9, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman met with State Secretaries of the Federal Ministries of Germany. The sides discussed areas of enhancing cooperation between the countries, the progress of reforms in Ukraine and visa liberalization prospects for Ukraine.

Volodymyr Groysman called for deepening cooperation between Ukraine and Germany in different areas. In particular, he stressed the need to create a German-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister told his interlocutors about the directions and priorities of the Government’s activities as to carrying out necessary reforms. In particular, the Government concentrates its efforts on the infrastructure development and road economy of the country as well as further decentralization of power, which "makes it possible to create an effective system of governance, involvement of communities in the decision-making process and bring a completely new quality in management."

"We have undertaken fiscal decentralization, delegated all possible powers to the local level, but we still have one important issue – to create of a self-sufficient community. This is the most important challenge for us at the moment," he said.

One of the important priorities of the Government is to achieve energy efficiency. In this context, the Prime Minister said that the Government had introduced a market-based price for gas. He also called for enhancing cooperation with Germany in this area.

Volodymyr Groysman pointed out that the Government is working on improvement the coordination system of technical and financial assistance and cooperation with international organizations. It has already been developed a solution on enhancing such cooperation, he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that Ukraine met criteria of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan of the EU and is looking forward to an appropriate positive decision of the EU.

Moreover, the sides discussed the implementation of the Minsk agreements and prolongation of sanctions against the Russian Federation. In this context, Volodymyr Groysman briefed his interlocutors on the situation in Donbas.