Next day, April 12, when speaking on local TV channel 11, Pavlo Lazarenko said that he was not going to answer President's new criticism and that he would seek to cooperate with the new leadership of the Oblast State Administration. According to Mr. Lazarenko, as long as the Kuchma-Lazarenko fighting continues in Ukraine, no positive changes are expected to occur in the country. Currently Mr. Dudnyk is on his working visit to Iran and Mr. Bronnykov has come back from there already. Prior to the refusal, the Kharkiv-based TurboAtom had been going to manufacture turbines for the APS in Busher. Ukraine's President signed a decree on major measures to reform the country's pension system.
Insurance is to play a bigger role in the pension system.
The decree relives the Pension fund of many marginal payments, primarily, of payments which, under the existing legislation, must be made from the national and local budgets. According to the decree, at the initial stage of the pension reform the present structure of agencies involved in pension allocation is to be preserved. Following the introduction of the personified accounting of payments into mandatory state pension insurance, the Pension fund will take over these responsibilities. The decree points out that due to the low birth rate in 1997 for every 1,000 able citizens there were 400 pensioners. According to the forecast, this proportion will grow to 446 pensioners for every 1,000 able Ukrainians in 2016, and to 561 pensioners to every 1,000 able Ukrainians in 2026.