Ukraine. Parliament makes first step towards sale of land from 2013
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted at first reading a bill on the land market. The document has been posted on the website of the Ukrainian parliament.
The bill that was finalized by the concerned parliamentary committee proposes cancelling a moratorium on the purchase and sale of agricultural land starting from January 1, 2013.
According to the document, only the citizens of Ukraine and the state may be the buyers of land. It is envisaged that one person can buy no more than 100 hectares of land. It is also planned to create a state land bank.
It is also proposed to restrict the lease of land in districts and regions. An individual or company can rent in one district no more than 6,000 hectares of land and in one region no more than 5% of agricultural land.
The opposition did not vote for the document. Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense MP Anatoliy Hrytsenko said that this law would set no "market" and that several well-known families would buy up all of the land.
"This is the only strategic resource that has remained in Ukraine," he said, adding that in the current economic situation in the world when all currencies are depreciating, it is impossible to sell land in any case.
At the same time, Hrytsenko said that the law created loopholes for the purchase of Ukrainian lands by foreigners.
Earlier, World Bank Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Martin Raiser said that the World Bank feared the cancellation of a moratorium on the sale of agricultural land before the creation of conditions for the proper functioning of the land market.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said earlier that in general, it would take at least ten years to conduct the land reform.
As UKRINFORM reported, on August 2, Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych signed the Ukrainian law on the state land cadastre.
