The anniversary celebration, in particular, a state independence anniversary suggests summarizing some results of the state's independent life. People working and closely related to the maritime sector, namely, the lawyers specialized in maritime law cannot stand aside from celebration of such remarkable date as 20 years from declaration of independence of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, not all of such results can be recognized as positive ones.

The merchant fleet

In times of the former USSR the Black Sea Shipping Company, set up yet in 1833 and based in Odessa, was one of the largest shipping companies in the world and the largest in Europe. By 2006 the number of the vessels owned by that company became 20 times less and in the short run the company practically ceased to exist as a ship owner. The deadweight of the fleet under the Ukrainian flag for 20 years of independence shrank by 6 times. In the long run, according to the data of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) the fleet flying the Ukrainian flag took the 72nd place in the world whereas in the beginning of the 90-iesof the last century the Ukrainian fleet was on the 25th position. Thus, at the beginning of 1993 the total deadweight of the merchant fleet of Ukraine was more than 6 million tons and in 2010 was less that 1 million, 904 000 tons only. But a great number of small private shipping companies have been set up on the territory of the present Ukraine instead of not numerous state ship owners. The major companies are Ukrrichflot, Ukrferry, Commercial Fleet of Donbas, Transship and Chernomortekhflot.

Certainly, Ukrainian ship owners have the vessels registered in off-shore jurisdictions. They fly the convenient flags of the Russian Federation, Moldova, Georgia, Slovakia and the Kingdom of Cambodia, not to mention such popular jurisdictions as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Panama, Liberia, Malta, the Comoros and Belize. But why? Because the Ukrainian flag is 'inconvenient'. The majority of law and other companies engaged in registration of the vessels do not render services on registration under the State Flag of Ukraine. The fact is that most countries including Ukraine that have shipping registers where registration is subject to some strict rules introduce the second or international registers. Registration of vessels in such registers is regulated by more liberal rules. As for the offshore jurisdictions, the registration of vessels under the flags of such countries is really convenient. No quotes. Ad notam, our law firm has been standing upon the idea of the second register in Ukraine for a long time. We have been inspired by our friendly states - Russia and Georgia, in particular.

Port economy

The powerful commercial ports alongside with the powerful merchant fleet were based on the territory of the former Soviet Ukraine. They handled more than 120 million tons of cargo in 1990. And it is no wonder as they served the needs of a great country – the USSR. The severance of economic ties due to the collapse of the USSR led to the sharp decrease in goods turnover. In the middle 90-ies of XX century the minimum was reached that made less than a half of that volume (54 million tons). Only in the middle of the first decade of XXI century the freight turnover reached its pre-crisis level. In the record 2008 the freight turnover of the Ukrainian ports exceeded 180 million tons. As estimated by the experts the capacity of the Ukrainian ports exceeds more than 200 million tons per year. In the same 2008 Ukraine joined the WTO (World Trade Organization).

Thus, we can be proud with some achievements in this sphere. However, the main achievement is that the state ownership related to the sea ports is not absolutely predominant in the modern economic and legal environment. Surely the property relations in the port sector of Ukraine have not been radically restructured. Even in 2010 the state ownership constituted about 70% in the port sector. For the latest decades the volume of the state ownership was reduced by 10 % and it is still lowering in the Ukrainian ports. About 70 companies are currently engaged in cargo handling at the Ukrainian ports. The main problem is still to overcome monopoly.

Human resources potential

The loss of the merchant fleet positions did not at all mean the loss of the human resources potential. A huge work related to training and retraining of the coastal and crew personnel is still being in process in Ukraine. No doubts, some substantial regress could be observed during the first years of independence the consequences of which have not been removed till now. However, the positive development tendency currently prevails. Ukraine has become a big human resources supplier to the labor market in maritime transport sector. Indeed, a long time has passed since the first Ukrainian seafarers began to land their jobs 'under the flag' as they used to say. And it caused a lot of disputes and conflicts that time!

Today a seafarer working on the vessel flying some foreign flag is almost a standard. As reported by Drewry Shipping Consultants Ukraine ranks fourth as to the number of the officers and the sixths as to the number of seafarers on the vessels of the merchant fleet: 35 400 and 75 400 persons respectively. But are there any reasons to be proud of? It is doubtful! And it shows not only the good training of the Ukrainian seafarers, but the insecure economy of our country.

Let us take an example from the history of the South Korea. When the living standards were raised in the 80-ies of XX century, the number of the seafarers fell from 51 000 till 41 000 persons by the end of the decade. The seafarers discovered that they could earn more on land other than at sea.

Indeed, in the conditions of modern market economy material relations are frequently assumed by the society as the main factors of our existence and consciousness. There are few people that are inspired by sea romance. The merchant shipping is treated as "a transport workshop' of the country that produces only about 1.5% of the gross domestic product. At that perspective view for the marine transport development are lost, though the development of the whole country depends much on the development of this sector. There are opinions that another 20 years have to pass when any results become visible after reforms in this sector. It can be true, but the earlier we start the more we save as it is useless to spend valuable time. Solutions in time are sometimes better than the ideal solutions.

Perspectives for marine transport reforms in Ukraine

From our point of view the key section of the marine sector to be immediately reformed is the port sector. The advantageous geographical location of the Ukrainian sea ports can make them not only the gates of our country, but of the whole Eastern Europe.

Despite of some deficiencies to be further discussed and removed the Draft Law 'On Sea Ports' contain considerable provisions to trigger if not a revolution, but a real reform in the industry. Among those are introducing the second shipping register; function sharing (when almost all commercial functions to be transferred from the state to commercial entities); implementation of the open prices (tariffs) principle; considerable progress in solving land plot issue (land plots may be state, municipal and/ or privately owned); privatization, long term lease and concession of land and so called integral property complexes etc.

There is no doubt that the new law can be argued on some particular issues. There could be opponents to such a model of port development in Ukraine. The details can be also disputed. But the major positive is that this draft law in many aspects is quite like the reform that has been suggested by real investors, cargo owners. The present Ukrainian government, as a representative of export orientated industrial & financial groups, cannot but has to be deeply focused on the country's export potential support. Accordingly, adopting the draft law is quite in line with the current political trend, which make us rather optimistic on the reform.

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