First Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Development and Trade Minister Stepan Kubiv has ordered to create a working group for drafting legislation amendments in the sphere of tourism and settling the situation on this market. The press service of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine reported on Thursday that on July 4, a meeting headed by Kubiv was held to settle the situation in Ukraine due to commercial conflict between tour operators and airlines.
“At the same time, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, within the framework of the current legislation, is deprived of effective instruments of influence on the players of the tourism market, so Kubiv instructed to create a working group that will draft proposals to amend the current legislation,” the press service said.
In particular, it is planned to strengthen licensing requirements for tour-operator activity, create an effective mechanism for realizing the civil liability of the tour operator to tourists, increase the amount of financial support for tour operators, establish the administrative responsibility of tour operators for violating legislation in the sphere of tourism and other things.
As it was reported, on June 30, massive delays and cancellations of charter flights began, as a result of which about 1,500 citizens of Ukraine were “stuck” in Tunisia, Albania and Georgia.
As the Bravo airline reported, the problem with the delivery of passengers and cancellation of flights arose due to a debt of the tour operator Oasis in the amount of UAH 25 million.
At the same time, Oasis called this information unreliable and laid the responsibility for disruption of flights to the airline.
Smart Maritime Group (SMG) of Smart-Holding considers the decision of the business court in Mykolaiv region about declaring Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (Mykolaiv), part of SMG, bankrupt a consequence of the destructive position of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO). SMG is preparing a petition to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on the issue, the press service of SMG reported on Thursday. Explaining their position, SMG recalled: since July 2017, at the request of the PGO investigators in the investigation of the case “about the alleged failure to fulfill investment obligations in the privatization of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard in 2003-2012,” all property of the enterprise and the shares issued by it are seized.
This circumstance made it impossible to implement the readjustment plan of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard, which includes, inter alia, the sale of the shipyard’s non-production assets to meet creditors’ claims. However, the readjustment head Oleksandr Ostapenko in June personally appealed to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko with a request to remove the arrest for the readjustment measures, which expired on July 1, the SMG said.
At the same time, the press service said that the working group set up under the Ministry of Defense to solve the problematic issues of the state corvette program, implemented with the participation of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard, as a promising option for separating a new enterprise from the PJSC and transferring all the responsibilities for the project to it. “The relevant measures were included in the readjustment plan and approved by a court decision binding its execution on the entire territory of Ukraine from the moment of its entry into force,” the press service said.
“Thus, the position of the prosecutor’s office led to the liquidation of the leading enterprise of the military shipbuilding of Ukraine and losses to the national budget. Some 74 million UAH of advance payments will be lost on contracts with nonresidents,” the press service said.
However, the recognition of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard as a bankrupt and its liquidation call into question the probability of implementing the state Corvette program: “The built corvette hull will be included in the liquidation mass for further implementation,” the press service said.
The company prepared an appeal to the SBU with a request “to deal with the anti-state position of representatives of the PGO,” the press service said.
BANKRUPT, CHORNOMORSKY SHIPYARD, COURT DECISIONS, DESTRUCTIVE POSITION, PGO, SMG
Georgia exported 38.2 million bottles of wine from grapes (0.75-liter bottles) in January-June 2018, 21% more than in 2017, the Agriculture Ministry’s National Wine Agency reported. Russia was the leading importer of Georgian wine in the period, boosting imports 24.4% to 24.022 million bottles or 62.9% of the total. Other major importers included Ukraine – 4.191 million bottles (11% of the total), China – 2.976 million (7.8%), Kazakhstan – 1.652 million (4.3%) and Poland 1.164 million (4.1%).
A total of 190 Georgian companies exported wine in the six months, 18 more than a year earlier. Exports to countries in Europe and Asia, and to the U.S. and other countries, increased substantially. Georgia also exported 8.4 million bottles of brandy (0.5-liter bottles), 23% more than in H1 2017, to 20 countries. Revenue rose 6% to $17 million. Overall exports of wine, brandy and other products – chacha, other alcoholic beverages, wine materials and brandy spirits – were worth $148.3 million, 21.5% more. Georgia exported wine to 48 countries in H1 2018, up from 44 in the same period last year. Revenue from the exports rose 28% to $90 million.
Czech Sweetondale has finalized a deal to acquire three construction materials plants from Russia’s Technonicol and seeks to invest EUR 3.5 million in modernization of Cherkasy-based Techno Plant, Sweetondale CEO Tichomír Lelovics said during a press tour at the enterprise on Wednesday. He said that the company closed the deal to buy the mineral insulation plant in Cherkasy and two plants producing polymeric insulation and bituminous-mineral materials in Kamianske in February 2018.
“In the near future, investments are planned around EUR 3.5 million [in Techno Plant in Cherkasy]. A special emphasis will be placed on improving the quality of products and increasing production. By the end of 2018, it is planned to increase production to 1.5 million cubic meters of mineral insulation,” Lelovics said.
According to Oleh Khodakovsky, the director of the Techno Plant, investments will allow to increase production by 10-15%. According to him, for January-May 2018 the plant produced 600,000 cubic meters of mineral wool and it is boosting production in the period of preparation for the heating season. According to Khodakovsky, by now the company’s share of the Ukrainian mineral thermal insulation market is 41%.
At the same time, he said that the total market volume in 2017 was 215,000 tonnes, and in 2018 it would increase to 230,000 tonnes. Prices for mineral wool for the year grew by 5-7%.
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, CZECH SWEETONDALE, PLANTS, RUSSIAN COMPANY
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
