THE ROBBERS DEMAND MONEY OR LIFE, AND AMBER TAKES IT ALL

Oleksandr Chebanenko, the UIF expert on the law enforcement and judicial systems reform programme, spoke about the reform, the main tasks of which are liberalization of access to the right to extract amber, elimination of local councils from the process of issuance of permits (in exchange for a significant increase in rent payments to local budgets), real steps to restore nature. The main goal is to stimulate not just production and circulation, but processing of amber in Ukraine.

We hope that our Parliament will take up this initiative and introduce the long-awaited legislative innovations.

About 30-40 thousand people are involved in the amber business in Ukraine. If Ukrainian amber saved the whole Polish city — Gdansk, where about 20 thousand people are employed in the amber industry, why not save the Ukrainian miners, crippled Ukrainian nature and restore the faith in the future of at least a subset of people?

At this stage, the main thing is to introduce legal, transparent and equal conditions for all participants. And then everything will be up to them. And up to us as well.

First published: Censor.net