President Viktor Yushchenko told a business forum in Vienna on 13 July that the government's decision in March to abolish 24 special economic zones, which enjoyed special taxation and customs benefits, was a mistake.

Yushchenko said that by September the government will complete the analysis of each individual free economic zone in order to implement a compensation mechanism. He also said he cannot rule out that a number of free economic zones can be restored, but only after individual business projects in the former zones are reviewed. "Out of the 500 projects we had, only 15 corresponded to the initial concept, but on the other hand every [free economic zone] has decent investors as well as frauds," Yushchenko noted. "When parliament abolished the economic zones, I think it was a mistake, because honest businesses were put in new and unexpected conditions, which changed the whole nature of their business."