Real wages in Ukraine in March 2018 compared to March 2017 increased by 9.5%, compared to February 2018 by 5.9%, the State Statistics Service has said. The average nominal wage of full-day workers in March 2018 compared to February 2018 increased by 7.1%, in annual terms rose by 24.1%, amounting to UAH 8,382, whereas in February it was UAH 7,828, January some UAH 7,711. According to the statistics, the largest increase in the average salary of full-day workers in March 2018 compared with March 2017 was observed in Dnipropetrovsk (30.4%), Zhytomyr (26.7%), Zakarpattia (27.7%), Poltava (26.4%), Zaporizhia (26.2%), Cherkasy (25.4%), Vinnytsia and Chernivtsi (25.1%), Lviv (24.3%), Sumy (24.6%), Ternopil regions (24.1%), and Kyiv (21.6%).
Wage growth in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (excluding part of the uncontrolled territories) was 25.5% and 19.1% respectively.
The highest level of wages in the past month was recorded in Kyiv at UAH 13,388, the lowest one in Ternopil region at UAH 6,394.
In March 2018 compared to the same month in 2017 wages grew in the sphere of state administration and defense, compulsory social insurance (by 41.7%), financial and insurance activities (30%), administrative and support services (29.1%), industry (26.7%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (23.4%), education and construction (21.3%), real estate operations (19.8%), rural economy, forestry and fishery (19.7%), transport enterprises, warehousing, postal and courier activities (19.1%), temporary accommodation and catering (18.5%), health care and social assistance (18.4%), professional, scientific and technical activities (16.8%), information and telecommunications (14.3%), in the sphere of art, sports, entertainment and recreation (13.7%).
Public joint-stock company Ukrplastic (Kyiv), the leading manufacturer of flexible plastic packaging for consumer goods in Eastern Europe, plans to increase sales by 10% in 2018, to UAH 2.233 billion. This is outlined in a company annual report for 2017. “In 2018, the development of the company will first aim at retaining financial stability, expanding the range of flexible packages and developing the new market segments,” the company said.
According to the report, in 2017, net revenue fell by 4.7%, to UAH 2.03 billion, and net profit grew by 6%, to UAH 137.26 million. Gross profit shrank by 29.8%, to UAH 346.03 million, and operating profit grew by 10%, to UAH 437.77 million.
Ukrplastic produces flexible packaging materials for the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and other industries. According to the report, in 2017, the release of packaging materials by trademarks amounted to: BIPAN – 1,340 tonnes, VIPAN – 589 tonnes, ALPAN -7,150 tonnes, SOLAN – 10,28o tonnes, and TWISPAN – 3,730 tonnes.
PJSC Ukrplastic represents the Immer Group in Ukraine.
The Spring Business Forum 2018 event gathered more than two hundred professionals, representatives of state-owned enterprises, banking and business circles. For entrepreneurs, the forum is also a good opportunity to talk about cooperation and business development in an informal atmosphere and meet peers. The forum was opened by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who talked about business confidence and cooperation with the authorities. “The basis of any entrepreneurial activity is trust. If it is, then there is development. If it is not, then there is trouble. Therefore, this trust can be built up only when there is communication, when there is an exchange of ideas.”
An interesting statement was made by Country Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Ukraine Sevki Acuner, who noted the importance of attracting investment. “There is one challenge that we can handle. This is an investment. Foreign or domestic. To do this, we must make products more innovative, look for new approaches and compare our products with those on the global market.”
A success story of a Ukrainian investor was told by Vitaliy Melnyk, the Chief Executive Officer of UDP, a company with a huge number of implemented projects in Kyiv, which launched the LvivTech.City project in Lviv last year. The project is aimed at the development of an innovative ecosystem in Lviv, which includes the construction of modern office space, social and residential infrastructure. The construction is now under way along with talks with potential residents regarding the location of their facilities.
Foreign investors actively study materials, come to look at assets and meet with owners, which is evidence of gradual resumption of the interest to Ukrainian assets, according to the 18th edition of the Ernst & Young Global (EY) Capital Confidence Barometer (CCB). “So, we should hope for the return of foreign investors to the capital market of Ukraine,” EY said in the press release. EY conducts CCB study twice a year. Over 2,500 senior executives across 43 countries took part in it. More than half of respondents (52%) indicate that they plan to acquire in the next 12 months. The number of executives expecting to complete more deals in the next year has more than doubled (67% in April 2018 versus 33% in April 2017). According to the analysts, this shows trends of rising economic and corporate confidence.
According to the press release of EY, although the global level of activity of mergers and acquisitions has already exceeded the peak period set before the financial crisis in 2007, Ukraine is still lagging behind in terms of investment activity. However, it shows a positive trend: foreign investors, who before the crisis invested money in the Ukrainian business, for the first time since 2014 begin to compete with local companies for attractive assets.
This was thanks to the fact that Ukrainian companies owned by foreign investors joined Ukrainian companies, which are fully owned by local businessmen, since 2017.
Ukraine will discuss development of strategic cooperation in the space sector with European partners at the ILA 2018 aerospace exhibition held in Berlin (Germany) on April 25 through April 29. The press service of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister, Head of the interagency commission for defense industry at the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Yuriy Brovchenko, who heads the Ukrainian delegation to ILA 2018, will hold some meetings strategically important for the development of the Ukrainian aerospace sector with top managers of European agencies on the issues of partnership in the aerospace sector.
Brovchenko is to meet with top officials of the Economy Ministry, Defense Ministry of Germany, German Aerospace Center (DLR), French Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA). ILA Berlin Air Show is a large exhibition in Europe. Leading Ukrainian enterprises of the aerospace sector – Pivdenne Design Bureau, Pivdenmash and Antonov State Enterprise (part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern) are among Ukrainian participants of ILA 2018.
Potential European partners-visitors to the Ukrainian stand at ILA 2018 are able to study themselves, among other things, the Cyclone-4M, Zenit-3SL, Mayak-33-4H promising Ukrainian launch vehicles (LV) and the Sich-2M spacecraft.
BERLIN, DEVELOPMENT, DISCUSS, EU, SPACE, STRATEGIC COOPERATION
Public joint-stock company Agrarian Fund has signed a contract with Turkey’s Alapala Makina Gida Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.Ş. to supply equipment of a new flour mill. The company said on its website that the cost of the first part of the framework contract is EUR 2.5 million. The sum of the tied loan is EUR 2 million. “The Agrarian Fund has concluded a beneficial contract with the Turkish company Alapala on the terms of attracting a tied loan for a period of three years. In a year and a half, Ukraine will have a new high-tech production facility,” Board Chairman of the Agrarian Fund Andriy Radchenko said.
The equipment will be manufactured within six months, then it will be delivered to Ukraine, installed and launched. The mill should be put into operation in 18 months.
The production capacity of the future flour-grinding complex will amount to 300 tonnes of grain per day. The enterprise will have with high-tech equipment, which has no analogues in Ukraine. The equipment will allow expanding the product line (bakery, confectionery mixes and vitaminized flour).
Now the Agrarian Fund considers four areas where the future flour milling complex can be built – Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kharkiv or Vinnytsia. PJSC Agrarian Fund was created in the spring of 2013 under a government resolution.
