This information comes from the assessment conducted in country for the Ukraine report, which was published in April 1999.
Based on the results of the assessment, Ukraine ranks well behind both Poland and Romania in terms of overall development of the commercial environment. Ukraine's legal and regulatory environment can be characterized as generally hostile to legitimate commercial activity. Bright spots for Ukraine in the first dimension of this analysis – the legal framework – include collateral law and the law on foreign direct investment. Ukraine's legal framework for international trade and bankruptcy were rated lowest in the assessment. Further explanation of the methodology and interpretation of these raw scores appears in subsequent sections of the report.
The institutional framework for implementation and enforcement of the laws and regulations within the seven subject matters areas was relatively weak across the spectrum for Ukraine. For implementing institutions, the areas of FDI, bankruptcy, and trade ranked lowest, while implementing institutions for collateral and company fared somewhat better. A more detailed narrative analysis of these findings can be found in the subject-specific narrative descriptions in the report.
The third dimension of this assessment found the supporting institutions to be weakest in the areas of trade and FDI, and strongest in contract law. Given the well-known difficulties of contract enforcement in Ukraine, this result may actually overstate the importance of such supporting institutions as law firms, notaries, and bailiffs.
