Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for being here today.
This committee had the privilege of visiting Ukraine recently, among other countries, and witnessed a great story. Ukraine is not perfect, but no country is perfect, and the strides you have made over the past few years and continue to make are nothing short of quite impressive. Thank you for the work you're doing and for sharing your insights here today.
I want to ask a question about the recent creation of the office of business ombudsman. I was reading in the Financial Times that this is a new development. The article describes the office in this way:
...a forum for the business community to file complaints about unjust treatment by the state or municipal authorities, state-owned or controlled companies, or their officials.
I went to the website for this business ombudsman, the Business Ombudsman Council. It seems quite detailed. Already it lists a number of complaints, over 1,800, of which 40 are in review, 184 are open, more than 500 have been rejected, and 1,029 have been closed.
This is a very interesting development. Again, I say that no country is perfect. Countries that are well-developed democracies deal with corruption.
The question is certainly not a criticism, but I'm intrigued by this. Could you talk about your view of its potential in helping to combat issues of corruption. That's something we heard as a committee when we visited Ukraine, this idea that corruption could hold back Ukraine's future economic prospects. It was something that was emphasized particularly by the youth business leaders with whom we sat down.