On May 16 during his working visit to Lviv Minіster for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko met with representatives of civil and business circles of Lviv.

The meeting was attended by Chairman of the Lviv Regional State Administration Mykhayilo Tsymbaliuk, City Mayor Andriy Sadovyy and CEOs of more than 50 enterprises of the Lviv region, as well as representatives of civil organizations and higher educational institutions.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in his speech informed those present about foreign policy priorities directed at improving the welfare of the Ukrainian people, strengthening the economics, opening new market opportunities. “We need to keep pace with the rapid changes of the global world. Ukraine itself as a country of the transition period must conduct crucial internal changes… Building the state through deeds not words is the only way to success. This new philosophy fully corresponds to the foreign policy of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister underscored that significant results were reached in the relations with the USA, Russia. According to him, the process of integration with the European Union speeded up and became more dynamic. “In these relations we abandoned the language of declarations. We have made the dialogue with Brussels more pragmatic, strengthened it with concrete deeds, which had been long expected from us. The European integration is not a motto. This is a huge, laborious everyday homework to approach the life in Ukraine to EU standards”, Minister said, noting that “finally the foreign policy of the Ukrainian diplomacy received the main component – the reformation work inside the country, aimed at creating the competitive economics.

In his speech K.Gryshchenko outlined key priorities of economization of foreign policy within the framework of the program of economic reforms for 2010-2014, including the completion of talks on a free trade area with the EU and improvement of trade conditions on external markets for Ukrainian producers.

One of the topical tasks, according to the Minister, is enhancing the geographic and commodity diversification of the domestic export, first of all at the expense of goods with high added value, as well as promoting the export potential of the agrarian sector.

K.Gryshchenko noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine takes steppes to facilitate investments. Among the Ministry’s priorities in this sphere the Minister listed “the need to be more persuasive in explaining the advantages of investments into Ukraine, to actively promote the interests of a Ukrainian producer in scaled investment projects and tenders, to effectively advertise not only Ukraine in general but also its regions in particular”.

One of the practical steppes in this direction is an initiative to create a Council of Exporters and a Working Group on Cooperation with the Regions of Ukraine under the Ministry, which constituent sessions will be held on May 17 in Kyiv.

During the meeting the Minister for Foreign Affairs answered numerous questions of business representatives. The participants in the meeting exchanged opinions on topical issues of development of Lviv region enterprises and discussed key foreign policy priorities of Ukraine.