OREANDA-NEWS. April 5, 2011. Dragon Capital, Ukraine's largest investment company, gathered leading Ukrainian politicians, businesspeople and international financial organizations at its 7th Annual Investor Conference.

"A year ago, the promises of the newly elected government sounded optimistic, and frankly speaking few people believed in them”, Tomas Fiala, CEO of Dragon Capital remarked in his opening address. He added, “When the unpopular reforms and measures began to be implemented, the international community was pleasantly surprised; fiscal policy was tightened, that led to a reduction of budget deficits, public debt is stable and an aggressive tax reform has just been set up".

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov reassured the audience, "Despite all the difficulties we now face, Ukraine will grow rapidly because the Government has demonstrated it is determined to pursue sound economic policies".

President of the Republic of Poland from 1995-2005 Aleksander Kwasniewski made special mention of Ukraine's recent reforms, "Finally you say not so much about the plans to do something but about how you can implement reforms and what you are doing in this direction."

During the panel discussion, representatives of the European Business Association, IMF, EBRD and the National Bank of Ukraine discussed economic reforms in Ukraine, in particular the energy efficiency of Ukrainian enterprises.

Another major speaker was Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Tigipko. He explained to the audience what the government is doing to improve the investment climate in Ukraine, what has been done and what reforms are planned for implementation in the near future. "If the system can’t exist normally, it must be reformed, even if many of these steps may seem unpopular. We see the flaws and work on current problems, modifying every detail". Serhiy Tigipko said that government is open to an active dialogue with business and expects several key initiatives to significantly improve Ukraine’s business climate. As an example of productive cooperation Mr. Tigipko referred to the government's work with industry associations in the real estate and information technology sectors.

Dragon Capital’s 7th Annual Investor Conference was attended by about 200 fund managers and bankers representing institutions investing directly in Ukraine and across the region, collectively managing about USD 1bn in the Ukrainian equity market and over USD 5bn in bonds issued by local corporates. This year’s conference participants included leading global and regional mutual funds and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Julius Baer, BlackRock, Pictet, East Capital and others.