KYIV. June 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine has announced a tender to search for potential buyers of state-run assets in the coal mining sector, the ministry’s press service reported on Wednesday.
“The privatization of state coalmines, the major part of which are loss-making today, is intended to attract private investment to develop the coalmines thanks to financial resources, new technologies and management,” reads the report.
The official invitation for potential investors to participate in the tender to acquire the assets has been posted on the ministry’s website with reference information about 35 coalmines.
Ernst and Young and Deloitte will help looking for potential investors for coalmines.
Investors are to send their requests to the ministry and advisors and can receive more details on the assets.
The list of coalmines includes Krasnolymanska coalmines (produced 930,000 tonnes of rough coal in 2014), Novohrodovska 1-3 (636,000 tonnes), Stakhanov coalmines (547,000 tonnes), Pivdennodonbaska 1 (890,000 tonnes), Rossiya coalmine (725,000 tonnes) and others.
KYIV. June 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Farmers in the southern regions of Ukraine have started harvesting early grain crops, and as of June 25, the first 20,000 hectares were threshed.
“The harvesting campaign has started in Ukraine. First [wheat on] 20,000 hectares have been threshed. The favorable weather and first results promise a good harvest,” Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko wrote on his Facebook page.
As reported, referring to the ministry, grain was sowed in Ukraine in 2015 on 14.8 hectares: 7.9 million hectares with winter crops and 6.9 million hectares with spring crops.
KYIV. June 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The leaders of the European Union leaders should provide Ukraine with the prospect of membership to give impetus to a painful economic overhaul, Slovak President Andrej Kiska said.
“What I’m missing from the EU is to give a really strong signal that, yes, we do consider you potentially to be an EU member,” Kiska said in an interview with Bloomberg released on Wednesday.
He believes the protests that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych last year were driven by Ukrainians’ desire to belong to a democratic Europe.
However, he said that while transforming Ukraine’s economy and institutions for entry may take 20 years, “the EU must keep the possibility [of membership] alive.”
“People have to have a vision that now we are in tough times but it’s because we’ll have a nice future,” he said.
Kiska stressed: “We have to give our support to Ukraine and to put pressure on Russia and show that the EU is united.”
“There’s no way we should do a reduction of sanctions or anything before the Minsk agreement is fulfilled,” Kiska told Bloomberg.
KYIV. June 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and UniCredit Group board chairman Giuseppe Vita have discussed the prospects of improving the activity of foreign investors in Ukraine, the presidential press service has reported.
The president noted the importance of cooperation with the Italian bank and the importance of cooperation between the two countries.
He stressed the importance of Italian support of Ukraine, which is reflected in the recent position of the G7 and the European Union on extending sanctions against Russia.
Poroshenko said Ukraine’s economic policy and legislative changes are aimed at creating the most transparent business environment, in particular – foreign.
“Ukraine demonstrates real efforts in the fight against corruption, the rule of law, stability and ensuring a greater transparency of the financial and banking system,” Poroshenko said.
“At the same time, the parties agreed that as a result of concerted actions of the Ukrainian authorities, including the National Bank, [the country] managed to achieve significant progress in establishing transparent, fair and favorable conditions for the activities of banks in Ukraine,” reads the report.
“We are open for cooperation, and the operations of banks, including foreign [banks], and reliable partners such as UniCredit, are very important for us. The resumption of economic growth is impossible without the financial system, and UniCredit plays an important role in this system,” Poroshenko added.
The UniCredit Group chairman in turn expressed his belief that Ukraine deserves a better future.
Vita spoke about the long history of cooperation between Italy and Ukraine.
“The position of UniCredit Group from 2007 until present time shows that we believe in the future of Ukraine,” he stressed.
The two men discussed the further financial initiatives of UniCredit in Ukraine, the prospects of stabilization, and renewal of the Ukrainian economic growth.
KYIV. June 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Businessmen fear that after the introduction of the electronic value added tax (VAT) administration on the permanent basis they would have to stop paying the tax and stop operations in general until the electronic system is revoked or improved.
According to the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE), the businessmen said this during a poll.
A total of 1,822 businessmen were polled. A total of 1,483 of respondents said that during the transition period the man hours for the electronic VAT administration grew, and 79% of respondents said that they saw losses due to the introduction of the system. 950 respondents expect that working capital will be washed out after the introduction of the system.
KYIV. June 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Agrarian Fund will start selling flour in retail chains within the next month and plans to occupy 30% of the Ukrainian packaged flour market in the future, Agrarian Fund Board Chairman Andriy Radchenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“If we speak about the volume, we’re ready to sell around 10% of our monthly volume in retail chains. Agrarian Fund sells up to 40,000 tonnes [of flour] a month, so this is around 4,000 tonnes,” he said.
Radchenko said the Agrarian Fund plans to start selling flour in retail chains in Kyiv and then expand into regional retail chains. In the future, Agrarian Fund will also start selling packaged sugar and buckwheat.
The Agrarian Fund product could also be extended with cereals.
