BRUSSELS. Dec 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) with the European Union opens large opportunities for Ukraine, although Ukrainian business requires adapting to European rules and facilitating access to international financing to use them, First Vice President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Vasyl Khmelnytsky has said.
“Potentially, there is the money, but in practice the model does not work. For example, the World Bank provided $2.8 billion for development of infrastructure and other projects in Ukraine in 2015. Only $100 million were used. This is less than 4%,” Khmelnytsky said, speaking in the European Parliament at the meeting devoted to the Ukraine-EU DCFTA.
He said that the EU provided EUR 920 million of guarantees to Ukrainian intermediary banks until 2020 to credit small and medium enterprises, although Ukrainian enterprise actually cannot receive this money due to high credit rates and the absence of viable projects.
“Banks issue credits at 15% in foreign currency at 26% in hryvnias. I have large experience in business, but I would not risk taking the money at this rate,” he said.
Khmelnytsky urged to draw up mechanisms that will unblock the funds of European financial institutions to credit Ukrainian business projects.
The businessman said that in the current conditions exports from Ukraine to the EU fell by 35.6% in H1 2015.
“The reason is not in the quality of our products, but the reason is that many companies do not understand who to receive European certificates and how to find sales channels,” he said.
European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki, representatives of the parliamentary delegation for Ukraine and the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament spoke to the conference participants in Brussels.
Europeans calls on their Ukrainian counterparts and the Ukrainian government to accelerate the adoption of amendments to legislation required for successful introduction of DCFTA, developing business and attracting foreign direct investment. They agreed that the European Commission should pay more attention to the planning and implementation of the programs financed by the EU and aimed at supporting the development of business, small and medium enterprise and Ukraine’s exports potential.
A joint communiqué was issued after the meeting. The sides confirm desire to cooperate, particularly, to have more structural and regular cooperation between Ukrainian NGOs and the EU authorities. The meeting participants also approved the creation of the National Forum for Transformation of Ukraine (NFTU) aimed at building the constructive dialog between all population groups and governmental structures of Ukraine and the EU.
Khmelnytsky is a Ukrainian businessman, First Vice President of the ULIE and the founder of K.Fund.
KYIV. Dec 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, according to the program of creating appropriate conditions for disabled persons’ access to the objects of railway infrastructure in 2016, intends to invest UAH 1.5 billion in infrastructure for people with special needs.
According to the press service of the company, if earlier large stations and facilities were improved, the new program foresees making smaller facilities more comfortable for people with disabilities.
Regarding technical means, it is planned to equip stations, waiting rooms, sanitary facilities with ramps and handrails for persons with disabilities. The railroads will also install the lowered curbs of sidewalks for people in wheelchairs, ticket offices with lowered window sills for passengers with special needs and others.
It is also planned to improve information boards, pictograms, and visual warning signs. If necessary, the railways will install visual information tables in embossed alphanumeric characters and Braille letters, relief-tactile lines at the edges of platforms.
KYIV. Dec 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Horizon Capital, managing three private equity funds, is interested in investing in relatively small promising specialized network projects in the field of trade in consumer goods, as well as projects in the format of “fixed price” in Ukraine.
Partner of Horizon Capital Alexei Dmitriev unveiled such plans at the third Retail & Development Business Summit in Kyiv.
“We as a fund are interested in specialized networks, such as pharmacies, networks that sell clothes, shoes. These are even smaller players, while in almost all the segments the market is not very consolidated,” he said.
According to Dmitriev, Horizon Capital is also interested in investing in the actively developing Ukrainian retail chain in the “drogerie” format.
“The targeted volume of investment ranges from $5 million to $20 million,” he said.
“There is another very interesting format, which is represented in the world market and which is not available in Ukraine. This is the so called format of “fixed price,” when everything in the store is sold at the same price,” he added.
Horizon Capital was established in 2006. It manages Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF, established in 1994 with a capital of $150 million), Emerging Europe Growth Fund, L.P. (EEGF, established in 2006 with a capital of $132 million) and EEGF II (EEGF, established in 2008 with a capital of $370 million).
KYIV. Dec 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine has reported that the Agriculture Ministry of Kazakhstan permitted 10 Ukrainian companies to supply mead and dairy products to the country.
“The expansion of the list of companies is more evidence of the quality of Ukrainian products. We’re moving not only towards the EU, but we also diversify sales of animal products,” Deputy Agricultural Policy and Food Minister for European Integration Vladyslava Rutytska said.
She said that Ichnia milk powder plant, Pervomaisk Canned Dairy Plant, Bilohorie-Molokoproduct, Ovruch Canned Dairy Plant, Processing Complex of Vinnytsia Poultry Farm LLC, Hubin Poultry Farm, Poltava Meat Factory, Alan and Lustdorf received the status “permitted, enhanced control.”
As reported, from September 25, 2015 Kazakhstan lifted restrictions on supplies of dairy products for some Ukrainian dairy companies.
KYIV. Dec 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Eren Holding, a Turkish group of companies, developing a network of SuperStep multi-brand shoe shops in Ukraine, plans by the end of 2016 to open eight new stores, the company CEO for the Lacoste, SuperStep and Nautica brands in Ukraine has said.
“Even in such not so good times in the Ukrainian market we continue to grow… We plan by the end of next year to have nine SuperStep stores in the Ukrainian market,” he said during the third Retail & Development Business Summit in Kyiv.
At the same time, the company expert noted that if the demand for products from the SuperStep stores in Ukraine grows, their number could double in the coming years.
“Now we have no plan to expand the network to, let’s say, 20 stores. However, if we see an increase in the demand for SuperStep, then I am sure in the coming years we might double the number of stores,” he said.
In addition, he said that the activities of Eren Holding in Ukraine will not be limited with the shops of Lacoste, Nautica and SuperStep: the holding intends to bring new brands to the market in Ukraine in the near future.
In Ukraine Eren Holding operates ten stores of clothing and footwear under the brand of Lacoste, two Nautica brand shops and one SuperStep store. The shops are mainly located in shopping centers in Kyiv and Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Lviv.
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian parliament has passed at first reading a bill facilitating the procedure for creating farms.
The bill amending some Ukrainian laws regarding the regulation of some issues of the legal status of farms’ land was supported at first reading by 280 MPs.
The bill proposes facilitating the procedure for creating farms: to revoke obligatory education and experience of work and define the legal status of land parcels of farms as land for commodity agricultural production.
The document proposes that state-owned or municipal land parcels are sold only at land auctions, a mechanism for re-registering leasing rights to land parcels used for farming by individuals is established.
