Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft agreement with Uruguay on the mutual abolition of visa requirements. Ukrainian Ambassador to Uruguay concurrently Yuriy Diudin was authorized to sign the document. The provisions of this document stipulate that citizens of Ukraine will be able to stay in the territory of Uruguay for a period not exceeding 90 days, renewable for another period of 90 days. Citizens of Uruguay will be able to stay in Ukraine for a period not exceeding 90 days over a 180-day period.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, such an agreement was reached after meetings of Director of the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Serhiy Pohoreltsev in Uruguay, in particular, with the head of the migration service, the leadership of the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry and parliament members.
“After agreeing the necessary formalities for the signing and entry into force of the relevant bilateral agreement, Uruguay will become another country where Ukrainian citizens can travel without visas,” the ministry said.
Clearstream international settlement depository plans to open foreign investors access to Ukraine’s government domestic loan bonds in the first quarter of 2019.
“The first quarter of next year is another “window” of opportunities, and we are working to take advantage of it,” Clearstream Vice President Jan Willems said at the annual Ukrainian Financial Forum in Odesa, organized by ICU investment group.
Most of potential buyers of a 78.3% stake in Centrenergo have showed their interest in the coming tender sell the company, Partner of EY Business Advisory Poland, which acts as an advisor for the privatization of the company, Piotr Piela has said.
“I am very optimistic. We meet the schedule and have to finish by the end of the year,” he said in Odesa on Friday at the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by the ICU investment group.
He named the expected growth in consumption and export opportunities among the positive sides.
At the same time, Piela said that there is no complete clarity on how the electricity market will work after July 1, 2019. He welcomed the adoption of primary legislation, indicating that secondary legislation is still in the state of approval and there are questions about how it will be implemented.
The volume of technical assistance raised by Ukraine for the healthcare projects in January-June 2018 totaled $103.8 million, Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry has reported. The entire sum was sent to implement 23 donor projects in the healthcare sphere and this is 3% of the total volume of technical assistance attracted by Ukraine over the period (not taking into account the Chornobyl Shelter Fund).
As reported, Ukraine in January-June 2018 raised $0.4 billion more international technical assistance compared with January-June 2017: $3.5 billion for 467 projects, not taking into account the Chornobyl Shelter Fund.
National Energy Company Ukrenergo and state-owned enterprise (SOE) Energomarket in December 2018 will launch software required for the operation of the retail segment of the new power market, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion has said. He said that the terms are outlined in the plan of the implementation of the law on the electricity market verified by the heads of the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry, the National Commission for the State Regulation of Energy, Housing and Utilities Services (NCER) and the parliamentary committee for fuel and energy complex.
“The first stage of the reform related to the retail market segment will start already in December 2018. Two months later, Ukrenergo and Energomarket will launch the required software, and NCER will approve the last part of the acts needed to effectively launch a new market,” Kistion wrote on his Facebook page.
The deputy prime minister added that the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry, in turn, is obliged to forward the bills on the rules of ensuring the supply of electricity to protected consumers and the rules of holding a tender for the construction of generating capacities, the introduction of energy efficient measures to the government in the shortest possible time.
British American Tobacco (BAT) has started selling tobacco heating systems under the glo trademark in Ukraine. “Ukraine is the tenth market in the world where we are launching the electronic device glo, a product with a potentially reduced risk in which tobacco is heated rather than burnt. This product has been developed in the U.K. for more than four years. In the past six years, British American Tobacco has invested more than $2.5 billion in research and development of alternatives to smoking with a potentially reduced risk,” CEO of British American Tobacco Ukraine Simon Welford said at a presentation of the product on Thursday.
According to him, over the past four years the company has invested about $50 million in development in Ukraine.
“Marking this year the 25th anniversary of our business in Ukraine, we see great opportunities in this country. We are the largest British investor in Ukraine. To date we have invested $520 million,” Wellford said.
He said that today the capacity of the Ukrainian tobacco factory BAT-Pryluky (Chernihiv region) is 22 billion pieces per year.
