Shmyhal says new Ukrzaliznytsia head will be appointed next week

"In general, the reform of corporatization of state-owned enterprises taking place in Ukraine is designed to protect these enterprises from any political influence in order to prevent political corruption against them, to manage them as a business. Ukrzaliznytsia has set up such governing bodies, and there will soon be a new manager who has won a serious personnel competition. The person is currently undergoing a special inspection and, I think, will be appointed by a government decision next week," Shmyhal said.

According to him, the Ukrzaliznytsia head will face the task of internal reform, because the crisis related to the coronavirus has hit the company hard. Passenger traffic has practically stopped. When they were unprofitable, they covered most of the fixed costs of the enterprise. However, Ukrzaliznytsia cannot continue to exist in such a complex business model with passenger and freight transportation as it is now. "We need to identify areas and bring order there, attracting investors and foreign experience," he added.

Some 38.5 million passengers used the services of Ukrainian railways in January-July 2020 (58.2% less than in the same period of 2019). Passenger turnover amounted to 5.9 billion passenger kilometers (almost three times less than in January-July 2019).

op