A new registration system funded by the World Bank in Ukraine is allowing landowners to engage in land transactions with full legal protection.

The rural land titling and cadastre development project was funded by an $89.7 million loan from the World Bank. The project seeks to promote more public confidence in land investment in Ukraine.

Zhanna Kolesnik, a Ukrainian mother of five children, expressed surprise at the ease with which she was recently able to register and privatize her two plots of land.

"I received two land plots from our local council - one for gardening, another for construction," Kolesnik said. "I spent really little time registering these. I was able to finish all paperwork in just two visits (to the local land registration center)."

Ukraine began its government-supported nationwide privatization program in the late 1990s in order to capitalize on its vast land resources. Millions of Ukrainians now own land plots.

Registration of a land plot in Ukraine used to take over a month. The new computerized system reduces the time needed to register a land plot to approximately one hour.

The World Bank-funded project has helped the country develop a transparent land management system and inventory of all registered land plots. The new system is faster and more transparent. The development project also results in less corruption, since it makes it difficult to tamper with boundaries or burn land records.