The Ukrainian State Road Agency (Ukravtodor) has announced that it has joined CoST and will commence a CoST Ukraine programme shortly.

In becoming the twelfth country to join CoST, Ukraine’s membership of CoST is supported by the Word Bank, who believes that it will play a vital role in driving greater transparency in the public construction sector. Over the last year, the CoST International Secretariat (IS) has worked in close collaboration with Ukravtodor to develop an implementation plan.

By adopting CoST principles and engaging both public and private stakeholders, Ukravtodor hopes the CoST Ukraine programme will help strengthen transparency and accountability of public works administration, specifically to address poor governance and mitigate corruption, reduce risks and increase public safety, create fair competition in industry and increase the potential for foreign direct investment.

The M-03 Kiev -Kharkiv- Dovzhansky highway reconstruction project between Lubny and Poltava, co-financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, was selected as a pilot project for testing the implementation and effectiveness of CoST principles in the country. Implementation is likely to commence in early 2014.