KYIV. Dec 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Turkey will intensify the negotiations on the signing of the free trade zone agreement with the next round of the negotiations scheduled for early 2016 in Turkey.
The Ukrainian and Turkish delegations reached the agreement at the meeting during the 10th conference of WTO ministries in Nairobi (Kenya), Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said.
“Yesterday a meeting with the delegation from Turkey was held. It is not a secret for anyone that now our relations are being reloaded. This concerns both trade and investment,” she wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.
Mykolska said that the sides agreed to hold a meeting of the interagency commission in the first quarter of 2016 and try not to apply restrictive measures, and discuss the proposals to increase goods turnover and investment projects in the agricultural sector, aviation and IT at the expert level.
“We’ve discussed many issues from increasing exports of rolled metal and grain and oilseeds to cooperation in the area of soap operas,” she said.
KYIV. Dec 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Canada’s Bombardier engineering company continues studying the possibility of operating in Ukraine, Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Andriy Pyvovarsky has told reporters.
“A fundamental decision to invest in Ukraine was made in offices of large western engineering companies,” he said on Wednesday.
Asked if Siemens is planning to enter Ukraine, the minister said that the negotiations are underway.
First Deputy Minister Volodymyr Shulmeister said that representatives of Bombardier visited Zaporizhia Electric Locomotive Repair Plant.
Pyvovarsky also said that the process of creating a JV between Skoda and Zaporizhia Electric Locomotive Repair Plant has been suspended.
As reported, in September 2015, Pyvovarsky said that the Infrastructure Ministry is holding negotiations with Bombardier on potential possibility of starting production of locomotives in Ukraine.
Bombardier manufactures planes, trains and trams. Its key divisions are Bombardier Transportation and Bombardier Aerospace.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The United States will provide $4-5 million for around 40 Ukrainians to study in U.S. business schools in 2016-2017, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has said.
This is a part of U.S. investment in Ukraine’s success and this is a part of U.S. liabilities to work with Ukraine to increase human capital of Ukraine, he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
President of Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) Jaroslawa Z. Johnson said that the grant program is unique for Ukraine, as her fund will compensate 100% of the tuition in one of 50 the most prestigious universities in the United States.
WNISEF SEED Grant program manager in Ukraine Roman Tychkivsky said that the obligatory condition for participating in the program is the return of the student to Ukraine after the study. He said that the study grant for each student is $100,000. Since 2014 when the program was launched, five Ukrainians used the opportunity of studying in the United States.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The most important industrial sectors for the Ukrainian economy are metal, engineering and light industry, Derzhzovnishinform state enterprise said in a press release based on the study of strategic raw material resources for Ukraine’s development until 2020 conducted by Derzhzovnishinform and the Association for Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency.
The leader is the metal sector, as the country is among top ten largest steel smelters in the world.
Engineering is second thanks to the potential of engineering enterprises and light industry is third.
Coal and gas are among strategically important exhaustible resources in Ukraine (82% of experts polled).
According to the document, before the hostilities Ukraine was among largest anthracite producers in the world. In January-September 2015 Ukraine produced 23.62 million tonnes of steam coal, which is 40% down year-over-year, and exports fell to almost a zero.
Some 86% of respondents said that among exhaustible resources scrap metal is the main strategic resource.
Exports of scrap metal are permanently growing: almost 1.175 million tonnes of scrap metal was exported in January-November 2015, while in 2014 – 1.03 million tonnes was exported. Imports of scrap metals are falling: in 2013 232,700 tonnes was exported, while in January-October 2015 – around 2,000 tonnes.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bookmakers, to obtain a license to operate in the Internet, in addition to a license for betting rights, will need to obtain at least 100 licenses for opening betting offices.
Such a provision is contained in bill No. 3632 on withdrawing the gambling market from the “shadow” and providing the budget with revenues to fulfill social obligations, the text of which has been posted on the website of the parliament.
According to the document, for licensing their activities betting companies must obtain two types of licenses: one for betting activities, the second one for opening betting offices. The annual fee for the first license will be EUR1 million, its duration is five years. The license for each betting office will cost EUR1,500 to EUR3,000 depending on the number of inhabitants in the settlement, while its validity is limited to the duration of the license for betting activities.
KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Weidmann Malyn paper factory (MPF, Zhytomyr region), the only producer of electrical insulating board for power engineering machines in Ukraine, increased production by 84% in January-November 2015 year-over-year, to UAH 374 million.
According to statistics of the Ukrpapir association, cardboard output in natural terms rose by 65.2%, to 4,900 tonnes, while paper production fell by 30%, to 3,800 tonnes.
The mill produces electrical insulating board, filter paper, stained base paper and cardboard, as well as a wide range of packaging and special types of paper. Raw materials are supplied from Russia, Austria and Sweden.
In 2014, electrical insulating board exports accounted for almost 70% to Ukraine and 25% to the CIS countries.
Transformer boards produced by the plant are sold in Ukraine (20%), the CIS states (30%) and non-CIS states (50%).
As reported, in 2014 Malyn paper factory increased production by 7.1% against 2013, to UAH 217.51 million, while paper production fell almost by 11%, to 6,040 tonnes, transformer board production dropped by 24.4%, to 3,140 tonnes.
Wicor Holding AG (Switzerland) owns a 94.6% stake in Malyn factory.
