The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a resolution establishing an interdepartmental commission for the protection of business, headed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
“The commission will consist of an absolute majority of business associations and human rights defenders, there will be no law enforcement agencies,” Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, presenting the decision at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said.
The commission, in particular, will monitor the implementation of the law “stop mask-show!”, which the parliament adopted in 2017. It will deal with cases of violations of business rights, including searches, said the Minister of Justice.
Petrenko also noted that the commission would work in public mode and its work implies a systemic response of the government with regard to changes in legislation or personnel decisions.
The resolution also contains recommendations that are obligatory for implementation by law enforcement agencies.
Groysman suggested holding the first meeting of the commission in March on the situation with the pressure on business from the side of the security forces. He also added that the commission included a business ombudsman, the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the European Business Association, the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of trade unions, the Federation of Employers.
The so-called Western hub project to develop transportation by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) from the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk airports have not yet been implemented due to some reasons, Head of the UIA Supervisory Board Aron Mayberg said at a press conference at the Boryspil international airport last week. “We considered several options. We really discussed Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. Ivano-Frankivsk has problems with infrastructure. It seems to us that Lviv sees itself more as an airport that will develop according to the point-to-point model and, in addition, our expectations that the domestic market will develop faster do not inspire confidence,” he said.
Therefore, according to Mayberg, while the main efforts the company applies to the development of the main hub in Ukraine on the basis of the Boryspil airport.
“But we continue to look closely at the West, as the western region of Ukraine is developing. There is a large number of people who use planes, and it is difficult for us to carry them to the West via Kyiv,” he said.
Asked about the development of flights through the Dnipro airport, Mayberg said that UIA would like to see this airport developing, improving infrastructure and presenting its long-term development plans.
“Today this is one of the possible bastions of Eastern Ukraine, where you can develop. After we lost the opportunity to develop in Donetsk, it could be an alternative. We believe, we hope that this will happen,” Mayberg said.
Ukraine International Airlines was founded in 1992. It connects Ukraine with more than 80 cities and key points in Europe, Asia, America, Africa, the Middle East and the CIS countries and provides interlining with the routes of partner airlines in more than 3,000 cities of the world. UIA performs more than 1,100 regular flights a week.
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Epicenter K (Kyiv), which develops a network of eponymous construction hypermarkets in Ukraine in a DIY format, plans on March 3 to open a new Epicenter shopping center on the site of the previously operating shopping center Alta Center at 11a Bandery Street in Kyiv. Epicenter K told Interfax-Ukraine the shopping center with a total area of 56,000 square meters consists of two buildings, united by a passage.
“It will have a Garden and Vegetable Garden department (10,000 square meters), a furniture center (4,500 square meters), an Epic children’s goods store (3,000 square meters), a sports goods store Intersport (3,000 square meters),” the report said.
According to Epicenter, the infrastructure of the shopping center includes a parking lot for 910 cars, an Internet order pick-up point, a repair center for instruments, bicycles and skis, as well as a lounge area, a cafe and the Benicassim restaurant.
In addition, the new Mon Chéri cosmetics and perfumery store will open in Epicenter. According to the company, the new shopping center will create 950 jobs. Annual tax payments to the local and national budgets will amount to UAH 92 million. According to the company, the new hypermarket will be the eighth in the Epicenter K network in Kyiv and 46th in Ukraine.
Umanfermmash, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery (Cherkasy region), according to preliminary data, in 2017 received UAH 2.35 million of net profit, which is 56% more than the same indicator in 2016.
As reported, in 2016 the plant saw net profit fall by 10.4 times compared to the previous year, to UAH 1.51 million.
According to information for the agenda of the company general shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 20, by the beginning of this year retained earnings amounted to UAH 22.4 million.
Over the past year, the enterprise reduced current liabilities by 30.7%, to UAH 43.4 million, while it had no long-term obligations.
Total debtor indebtedness decreased by 26%, to UAH 6.54 million, and assets as a whole amounted to UAH 148.73 million, which is 2% less.
The number of employees at the company as of January 1, 2018 was 642 people, which is ten people less than a year earlier.
In the past year, Umanfermmash changed the type of company from public to the private.
PrJSC Umanfermmash specializes, in particular, in production of machines for animal husbandry and forage production, processing complexes, soil cultivation machinery, complexes for harvesting root crops, spare parts for agricultural machinery.
State-owned enterprise Electrotyazhmash (Kharkiv) in 2017 received a net profit of UAH 8.5 million, which is 35% higher than in the same period in 2016 (UAH 6.3 million), according to the company’s website.
The volume of products sold amounted to almost UAH 1.5 billion, in particular the share of export supplies was 90%.
According to the report, in 2017 Electrotyazhmash repaid loans to banks for a total amount of about UAH 24 million and will continue repaying them in 2018. At the same time, the plant did not borrow funds.
“The amount of contracts signed in 2017 exceeded UAH 3.5 billion, in particular those for the reconstruction of Kaniv and Kyiv stations, participation in the construction of the fourth block of Dnistrovska hydroelectric pumped storage power station. In addition, the plant won a tender for the reconstruction of equipment of Seredniodniprovska and Dniprovska stations. The work on these projects will continue in 2018,” the press service said citing director of the plant Dmytro Kostiuk.
Tariff rates and the wages of the company’s employees have been increased by 38% since October 2017.
According to Electrotyazhmash, over the past year it passed a number of complex inspections and completed the audit of financial statements for 2016 with the participation of the international company BDO. From 2018 the plant will be audited annually.
