Thanks for this terrific, terrific presentation. I’ll say a couple of things. I’ve said publicly that Ukraine is fighting two wars today. The ground war with Russia – the front line of that is Maryinka and Mariupol and Shchastya. The front line of the second war – the war for reform, the war against corruption – is going to be Odessa. And we want to support you in every way possible in that campaign.
I’m looking forward to signaling on in a very public way the full support of the United States for what Governor Saakashvili and his team are doing to try to change the ground situation.
I will be there with my anti-corruption team looking at some of the initiatives that we will – that we the State Department – will be prepared to put our weight behind, building on what you’ve done with Eka Zguladze here with the Ministry of Interior and the Patrol Police and beyond, and using Odesa as a laboratory for American support to radical anti-corruption reform.
I’m also delighted that I will be joined by Andy Hunder, the Chairman of the AmCham, and Andy and I will use the opportunity to highlight in a public-private way the support of the American business community also. And certainly, you have a very large American business footprint already in Odesa and southern Ukraine. But it’s also one of the areas where there’s the greatest headroom; because whether it’s Cargill or ADM, all of the food processing guys, everyone who’s involved with agriculture, they’d like to be doing more here. And they are not doing more because of the prohibitive investment climate.
by materials of U.S. embassy in Ukraine
As Odessa based company and true patriots of Ukraine we are looking forward for aid and support of US government and we highly appreciate the attention paid by Geoffrey Pyatt to Odessa region and initiatives of governor of Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili.
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