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.
Hungary’s low cost airline Wizz Air is expanding its flight network from Kyiv, boosting the total number of destinations from 21 to 23. According to the booking system of the airline, the new flights are scheduled for Vienna, Berlin and Frankfurt on the Main, although WizzAir would not fly to Frankfurt-Hahn. Wizz Air Executive Vice President and Deputy Chief Executive Officer Stephen Jones said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday that last year the airline carried around 30 million passengers, and in 2018 it plans to carry 35 million passengers using 100 planes. “Our fleet consists of 96 Airbus aircraft, the 100th will come in June this year. We have about 4,000 employees. We have 28 bases in 16 countries, and the next base will be opened in Vienna,” he said.
With regard to Ukrainian flights, Stevens said that in Frankfurt the company will fly to the main airport, going from the Frankfurt-Hahn airport.
According to the booking system, it is planned that flights to Frankfurt and Berlin (Schoenefeld) will be launched from July 1, and first two week will be made four times a week, and then on a daily basis. The flights to Vienna will start from the winter navigation schedule at the end of October and will be serviced daily. He recalled that the airline will expand the fleet in the base in Kyiv from two to three aircraft, which will add $100 of investment and create about 100 jobs in the crew and support staff.
Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) is located in the business center of the capital, seven km from the city center. It is the second largest airport in Ukraine in terms of the number of flights and passenger traffic. The airport has three terminals with a total area is 21,000 square meters. Terminal B is separate facility for business-class service, it is part of the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) system. The airport’s runway is able to handle B-737 and A-320 aircraft.
BERLIN, FLYING, FRANKFURT, INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, VIENNA, WIZZ AIR
Ukraine in January-February 2018 considerably increased exports of medicines to Russia, cutting their imports from the country. According to the State Statistics Service, in January-February 2018, Ukraine exported medicines for $3.5 million to Russia, which is 18% more than a year ago. Imports of medicines from Russia to Ukraine over the period fell by 40.4%, to $2.85 million.
Last year Ukraine exported medicines to Russia for $27.89 million, which is 31.9% more than a year ago, and imported medicines for $29.79 million from Russia (15.9% down). In 2017, Ukraine exported medicines for $171.17 million, including to the CIS for $143.057 million.
As reported, at present, because of the sanctions imposed on Russia, Russia is discussing the ways of replacing imported medicines and reducing dependence on foreign pharmaceutical companies. The decline in the imports of Russian medicines to Ukraine began after the introduction of the requirement of compliance of drugs with GMP standards in Ukraine.
