March 26 2004, 13:35 APK-Inform

Kuchma opposes extending the ban on land trading

President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma opposes to extension of the moratorium on land trading till 2010. He considers that it will stop the land reform. According to him, extension of the moratorium would lead to a loss of banking credits by farming industry in the amount of some 8 billion hryvnias a year (5.33 hryvnias =$1), to a decline of agricultural economy and machine building, and to exhaustion of the Ukrainian black earth.

Since early 1990s Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has set the ban on land trading three times, Kuchma said. "The further away land market introduction is delayed, the more voluptuously the illegal "land bazaar" flourishes", - he said.

According to President, some foreign experts have estimated the value of Ukraine's arable lands in 400 billion hryvnias.