Business news from Ukraine

KYIV. Jan 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade plans in 2016 to hold talks with the largest sovereign investment funds and private equity funds to attract investment in the country, the press service of the ministry has said, with reference to minister Aivaras Abromavicius.

“My task for 2016 is to inform the largest and most influential investment funds about opportunities in Ukraine. Unfortunately, they know little about us, and the information they get at best is incomplete or entirely false. If we want to attract serious investment, it is necessary to significantly increase the level of international communications,” the minister said.

According to Abromavicius, during a trip to the United Arab Emirates he held talks with representatives of the three largest funds in the country, namely Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Mubadala.

“These funds manage investment worth more than $1 trillion and invest in a variety of assets around the world – they know how to work in many regions with different risks,” the official said.

KYIV. Jan 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A first noncommercial IT project incubator entitled “1991 Open Data Incubator” was launched in Ukraine with support of the Ukrainian government, the information and communications department of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has reported.

The government said that the incubator will work with projects based on open public data.

“The project is intended to digitize agribusiness, energy, infrastructure projects, public services for citizens and create internal analytical systems in the state, establishing cooperation of IT designers, nongovernmental organizations and analytical centers with authorities,” the department said.

First participants of the incubator will be winners of the hackathon tenders scheduled for February 6. Projects that want to create a startup using open databases for agriculture, energy and infrastructure, projects on designing of electronic public services on the basis of state registers, analytical systems for ministries, regional administration and city halls can take part in the tender. Bids can be submitted from Smart City projects for Ukrainian cities.

SocialBoost NGO with support of Western NIS Fund (the U.S.) will manage the incubator.

KYIV. Jan 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine will be granted EUR 30 million of aid from the European Union due to the prolongation of the four cross-border cooperation programs, which were recently signed by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine with the European Commission.

As the ministry said on its Facebook page, this aid will be used for further development and modernization of international road checkpoints Krasnoilsk and Dyakivtsi on the Ukrainian-Romanian border; Rava-Ruska, Ustyluh-Zosin, Krakovets, Schehyni and Yahodyn on the Ukrainian-Polish border; Uzhgorod-Vyshne-Nimetske on the Ukrainian-Slovak border; and also Luzhanka-Berehshuran on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border.

Besides, a waterway checkpoint for canoers Vylok will be built on the border with Hungary.

The ministry said that the portion of the grant was meant for the development of modern IT-infrastructure in border guards and customs departments, to decrease the risk of flooding in cross-border zones, to improve the situation with pollution that had resulted from chemical waste deposits and discharge of waste water in the Lower Danube region, to conduct expert evaluation in order to integrate Ukrainian and Moldovan electrical systems into energy network ENTSO-E.

“Thanks to the signed agreements the EU has prolonged the following Joint Operational Programs of the Cross-Border Cooperation until December 31, 2016: ‘Romania-Ukraine-Moldova, 2007-2013’, ‘Poland-Belarus-Ukraine, 2007-2013’, ‘Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine, 2007-2013’, ‘Black Sea Basin, 2007-2013’,” the ministry added.

KYIV. Jan 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – British Ferrexpo Plc, which controls Poltava and Yerystove mining and processing plants (Poltava GOK, YeGOK) in Ukraine, in 2015 increased production of commodity pellets by 5.8% compared to 2014, to 11.662 million tonnes.

According to the company, production of pellets using own ore increased by 5.5%, to 11.258 million tonnes, ore from third parties by 14.9%, to 403,150 tonnes.

Ferrexpo said that production of higher-quality pellets with an iron content of 65% (65% Fe) in 2015 grew by 78.6%, to 10.366 million tonnes, or 87% of total production, in particular using own ore by 79.8%, to 9.969 million tonnes, ore from third parties by 53.5%, to 397,190 tonnes. This is the company’s record annual rate of premium pellets production.

Production of pellets with a 62% iron content in 2015 amounted to 1.295 million tonnes (down by 24.8%).

According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the previous quarter pellets output increased by 4.3%, to 2.984 million tonnes, in particular using own ore by 5.5%, to 2.954 million tonnes. During this period, output of pellets containing 65% Fe rose by 14%, to 2.827 million tonnes, in particular from own ore by 15.6%, to 2.797 million tonnes.

The company notes that the figures for the fourth quarter are record high for the production of high quality pellets containing 65% Fe, while in the third quarter of 2015 the company produced 5.8 million tonnes of these products.

KYIV. Jan 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State-run Ukroboronprom Concern is mulling participation in a program for the modernization of PT-91 Twardy main battle tanks (MBT) used by the Armed Forces of Poland.

Prospects for Ukraine-Poland cooperation in the program for PT-91 MBT modernization were discussed during a recent visit of Ukrainian defense industry specialists to Warsaw for talks with Polski Holding Obronny sp. z o.o., or Polish Defense Holding, Ukroboronprom’s press service said.

The sides will continue talks in Ukraine in the middle of January, and now Polish specialists are to visit Lviv armored fighting vehicle plant to familiarize themselves with the production of components of the Ukrainian-made T-72 tank (a Soviet-designed T-72M1 was the prototype of the PT-91 main battle tank), the press service reported with reference to Director of Ukroboronprom’s Kharkov machine-building plant “FED” Oleksandr Paschenko, one of the Ukrainian delegates who visited Poland.

During talks in Warsaw, the Ukrainian side confirmed its readiness to cooperate with Poland’s defense industry in retrofitting the Mikoyan MiG-29 twin-engine fighter jet (NATO reporting name Fulcrum).

FED produces and repairs integral hydraulic servo actuators and hydraulic units, and fuel metering equipment for the aviation industry. Its equipment is installed almost in all types of civil and military aircraft in Ukraine and Russia. The company claims its equipment used in more than 60 countries.

KYIV. Jan 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bosch (Stuttgart, Germany), one of the leading auto parts producers in the world, opened 41 Bosch Auto Service stations in Ukraine in 2015, and the number of stations in the country reached 218 (taking into account Bosch Diesel Service stations), Director General of Robert Bosch Ltd. (Kyiv) and Vice President of Bosсh Termottechnik GmbH in Baltic and CIS countries (apart from Russia) Vitaliy Bulda has said.

“In 2014, we had 219 stations, including 42 stations on the occupied territory of Ukraine. In 2014 we lost 42 stations in Crimea and in eastern Ukraine. They were closed, as we do not supply auto parts to the occupied territory. In 2015, we opened 41 stations in other regions,” he said at a briefing on Monday.

He said that new stations were opened in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Mariupol.

“Financial flows after the occupation of territories of Ukraine were redistributed: if earlier Zakarpattia region was not popular, today with the development of tourism and infrastructure it has become a promising region. I cannot say that there are failure regions – business is moving, and Bosch Services closed in Luhansk and Simferopol moved to other regions. In addition, the development of roads in the country, even careful, also promotes the appearance of servicing stations on them,” Bulda said.

He did not disclose the number of stations that will be opened this year, although he said that in 2019 it is planned to bring their number to 332.

Bulda said that in 2015, a trend of opening Bosch Auto Services by companies that earlier worked with one group of cars, for example, VW, was first recorded in 2015. Bosсh allows servicing a wide range of cars and supplies equipment.

“We supply auto parts, provide technical documents, train and supply equipment. I think that it is hard to resist to this combination,” he said.

Bulda said that the auto part market reacts to the situation on the Ukrainian automobile market that more than halved last year.

“We here see the trend that shows that clients prefer reliable companies that exited on the market yesterday, they exist today and will exist tomorrow – Bosch is this company,” Bulda said.

Bosch began developing the project Bosch Service in Ukraine in January 2002, in late 2001 it signed an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on the issue of $12.35 million for lending participants of the created franchise network of service stations.

In summer 2007, the EBRD decided to provide Bosch Ukraine with another loan of EUR 6 million.

Bulda said that at present the company does not attract funds from the EBRD to open new stations.

Bosch Auto Service provides maintenance, diagnostics and repair of cars and minibuses, Bosch Diesel Service specializes in maintenance and repair of all traditional components of diesel injection systems.