KYIV. June 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The gross grain, legume and cereal crops harvest in Ukraine in 2015 could total 59.5-60 million tonnes, head of the agrometeorological department at the center, Tetiana Adamenko, has said.
“According to the preliminary forecast of grain, legume and cereal crops harvest, taking into account official data on sowed fields, Ukraine could receive 59.5-60 million tonnes,” she said at a briefing in Kyiv on June 26, adding that over half of the harvest will comprise of corn – around 26 million tonnes.
The expert said that corn fields in Ukraine are in a good state, and the average yield is predicted at the level of the previous year – 6 tonnes per hectare. The best yield – around 8 tonnes per hectare will be reaped in western regions (Vinnytsia, Volyn, Khmelnytsky and Lviv region) and in northern regions (Zhytomyr and Chernihiv regions) it will be lower – 7-7.5 tonnes per hectare.
Rains which will occur in Ukraine this week would have favorable effect on corn and other late crops – soybeans and sunflower, Adamenko said. However the rain could delay the ripening and harvesting of early grain crops.
The winter wheat harvest could total 24.5 million tonnes (with an average yield of 3.7 tonnes per hectare in 2014), winter barley – 3 million tonnes, spring barley – 4.2 million tonnes, winter rye – 300,000 tonnes, oats – 500,000 tonnes and buckwheat – 100,000 tonnes.
KYIV. June 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatseniuk has said that Ukraine should switch to exclusively domestic natural gas extraction by 2025.
“We have a common task: in ten years Ukraine must completely, by 100%, to meet its own natural gas needs”, he said in the program “Ten Minutes with Prime Minister” broadcast on Sunday.
Yatseniuk stressed that one must increase the amount of natural gas extraction to fulfill this task, “but at the same time to reach market gas price.”
According to him, Ukraine has several targets: to become energy independent country, to increase production of Ukrainian gas so that to finally get rid of the “gas needle” of the Russian Federation, to reduce energy resources consumption and to make the state’s economy energy efficient and competitive.
KYIV. June 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade plans to receive UAH 17 billion from the privatization of state-owned enterprises.
“There is the goal – to have UAH 17 billion in the budget from privatization. It is now not clear which companies will be privatized by the end of the year. This is a question to the State Property Fund,” senior adviser to the economy minister, Adomas Audickas, said at a briefing.
According to him, the aim of state enterprises reform is to increase the efficiency of their work, as well as the privatization of non-strategic objects.
“Non-strategic companies, which have no other purpose as to “make” money, should be privatized,” the official said.
According to the expert, Ukraine currently has 1,833 operating state companies, another 1,500 are not working or are undergoing liquidation.
“This is much more than in other countries,” he said.
According to the survey of the top 100 state-owned enterprises of Ukraine, which was posted on the ministry’s website, the top 100 state-owned enterprises account for about 80% of total revenue and about 90% of assets of the entire state enterprises sector.
KYIV. June 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Representatives of American business have said they are satisfied with the level of dialogue they have with the Ukrainian government, but asked government ministers to accelerate the pace of the reforms and resolve corruption, judicial and bureaucracy issues, Andy Hunder, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine has said.
Hunder thanked Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk and his team for their cooperation in the last two months. There hasn’t been such a dialogue between the authorities and business for last 20 years, Hunder said at a meeting between the Prime Minister and business representatives in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said the current government includes truly competent individuals who were involved in business before joining the government.
In addition, Hunder said businesses still face problems and urged the government to pay attention to them. In particular, he said that a poll within the organization showed that businessmen thought corruption was the main problem and then – the situation with the judicial system and bureaucracy.
In addition, he asked for the announced reforms to be implemented quicker.
KYIV. June 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom saw UAH 988 million of net profit in January-May 2015, while year-over-year its net loss stood at UAH 2.645 billion.
“One of the key factors influencing the financial result is expenses on exchange rate differences, purchase of foreign currency and payment of credit rates,” the press service of the company said.
Net revenue from the sale of products in January-May 2015 totaled UAH 12.851 billion, which is 46.6% up year-over-year. The cash cost of products over the period fell by 0.6%, and gross profit of UAH 4.173 billion was seen.
The press service said that this year the company had new expenses, in particular, interest for extended tax liabilities which total UAH 11.6 million now.
“The expenses are linked with systemic non-payments by State Enterprise Energomarket for electricity generated at Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Only this year the Energomarket’s debt grew by UAH 1.679 billion, and as of May 31, 2015 the debt totaled UAH 10.477 billion,” reads the press release.
Energoatom is the operator of all four nuclear power plants currently working in Ukraine: the Zaporizhia, Yuzhnoukrainsk, Rivne and Khmelnytsky power plants with 15 pressurized light water reactors and a total rated capacity of 13.835 gigawatts.
KYIV. June 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine has sent an official letter to the top managers of the PayPal international payment system with an invitation to enter the Ukrainian market, the ministry said on its website.
Previously, the ministry with the support of the IT business community in Ukraine formed a working group which also consists of representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and businesses, in particular, the consulting companies Baker&McKenzie and Deloitte.
“In June the ministry sent an official letter to the senior manager for Central and Eastern Europe at PayPal, where the ministry calls on the company to respond to the request of the Ukrainian IT community and enter the Ukrainian market. According to the letter, Ukraine has all the required infrastructure for the quick launch of PayPal, as well as a developed bank chain and a large number of payment card users,” reads the report.
The ministry said that it would promote the processes of amending legislation to create favorable conditions for PayPal to enter the Ukrainian market.
