Yanukovych unhappy with land reform

KYIV, February 21 /UKRINFORM/. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said that he is dissatisfied with the slow pace of preparations for the land reform in Ukraine.

He announced this at a meeting of the Council of Regions on Tuesday, an UKRINFORM correspondent said.

"There's an extremely slow pace of preparations for the land reform at all levels, first of all, at the regional level," Yanukovych said.

He said that in this context it was necessary to ensure the drafting of schemes on the management, use and protection of land that will help predict the use of land resources. "Unfortunately, such schemes have currently been drafted only in Donetsk and Odesa regions," Yanukovych said.

He said he was indignant at the fact that virtually no attention is being paid to the issue of land protection, and this, in his opinion, leads to an annual increase in the area of degraded land.

"We must not forget that the ultimate goal of the reform is not the delimitation of land, especially on paper, and an increase in the standards of budgetary calculations. The purpose of the land reform is to ensure the real right of land ownership and the development on this basis of modern agricultural production," Yanukovych said.