AgroHub in Davos is solving several tasks at once, hub Director Yulia Poroshenko said in the Ukrainian House on Wednesday.
“We of course are seeking investors, whom we will tell that Ukraine has great potential. This is one of the key tasks,” she said.
In addition, AgroHub is seeking international solutions and invites all interested parties to participate in the project.
“We can become for them the point of entry. We know all the local companies and understand what they need. On the other hand, our team has international experience,” Poroshenko added.
The platform plans to become part of an international network.
“At the forum much was said about how important it is to start a local project today, that it is necessary to be open, to look for good world practices. Our task is to talk about our project and make connections with other platforms for exchanging information, experience in order to achieve synergy,” AgroHub’s founder said.
AgroHub is a project to develop agricultural innovations. Its aim is to raise the effectiveness of the agricultural sector by introducing innovations and technology, giving the chance for talented people to realize their potential. The hub is becoming a catalyst for forging ties between agricultural companies and developers of technological solutions, experts, scientific institutes, media and international groups.
In the fall of 2017, AgroHub together with Myronivskiy Khlibproduct (MHP) and the Radar Tech technological cluster launched MHP Accelerator to speed up innovations in agriculture.
Indian pharmaceutical companies waiting for the launch of the updated relaxed medicine registration procedure in Ukraine for medicines registered in countries with tough regulatory policies to bring new medicines to the Ukrainian market, President of Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association in Ukraine (IPMA) Dr. Ramanan Menon has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The decision to relax the registration of these medicines is positive for Indian manufacturers, but primarily for Ukrainian patients. When this system is fully operational, I think many Indian pharmaceutical companies will bring new modern medicines to the Ukrainian market,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
Dr. Menon said that the procedure allows bringing not just new medicines to the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, but those which effectiveness, safety and quality are confirmed by the most stringent regulatory authorities in the world.
“In India, there are a lot of plants owned by multinational companies that have all the certificates recognized in the world. I think that the relaxed registration will allow us to bring the most effective medicines to the Ukrainian market,” he said.
Dr. Menon said that the high quality and efficiency of the products of Indian pharmaceutical plants with their relatively low cost has long been appreciated by international organizations that are purchasing medicines on a global scale, including the UN family organizations – UNDP and UNICEF. These international organizations purchase medicines directly from manufacturers.
The head of IPMA recalled that Indian pharmaceutical companies are the winners of a significant part of tenders that are held by international organizations to buy medicines using funds from the national budget of Ukraine.
“Now the number of distributors in budget procurement has decreased. International organizations procure the medicines and Indian medicines have a certain share,” he said, adding that Indian pharmacies often cooperate with the world’s leading manufacturers of innovative drugs.
In particular, more than 80% of antiretroviral drugs used globally to fight AIDS are produced by Indian pharmaceutical companies. In particular, the Medicines Patent Pool (a patent organization funded by UN) signed six sub-licenses with Indian pharmaceutical companies Aurobindo, Cipla, Desano, Emcure, Hetero Labs and Laurus Labs, which allowed them to create a new drug for AIDS – generic Tenofovir Alafenamide (TAF) for 112 developing countries.
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom and Westinghouse Electric extended the term of a contract on supplies of nuclear fuel until 2025 in Brussels on Monday.
“The contract includes nuclear fuel deliveries to seven of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power reactors between 2021 and 2025, expanding and extending the existing contract for six reactors that was set to expire in 2020,” Westinghouse said in a press release.
The manufacturing and assembly of the nuclear fuel will be performed by the Westinghouse fuel fabrication facility in Västerås, Sweden, where parts of the production lines are solely dedicated to VVER-1000 fuel. Deliveries against the contract will begin in 2021, immediately following the conclusion of existing contract.
“This contract extension solidifies Westinghouse’s role as a strategic partner for Energoatom and demonstrates our ability to support Ukraine with their energy diversification. Under the terms of the new contract, our relationship with Ukraine will be strengthened through our plan to source some of the fuel components from a Ukrainian manufacturer,” Westinghouse President and Chief Executive Officer José Emeterio Gutiérrez said.
Energoatom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky said that Energoatom is the only operating utility of VVER-1000 reactors in the world that has fully diversified sources of nuclear fuel supply.
“Cooperation with Westinghouse was integral to achievement of this goal,” he said.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has improved the conditions for selling foreign currency by banks’ clients on the interbank currency market, the central bank has reported on its website.
The decision is approved in resolution amending some legal acts of the NBU dated January 25, 2018. The document took effect on January 27, 2018.
The resolution, in particular, determines the right of clients to submit an application for the sale of foreign currency to any authorized bank of his choice (regardless of the availability of a current account in foreign currency opened in this bank).
In addition, the NBU specified the terms for selling foreign currency to customers by banks. As before, the authorized bank is required, on behalf of the client, to sell its own funds in foreign currency no later than five working days, starting from the day of writing off these funds from the current account of the client opened in this bank. At the same time, the NBU said that if the funds for sale are transferred by the client from another authorized bank, the sale of this currency is carried out within five days from the date of transfer of the funds to the correspondent account of the authorized bank.
“These steps for monetary liberalization are developed taking into account the proposals received from the business and market participants. Thus, the business will have more opportunities to choose the best exchange rate for selling currency, and these changes will create the proper conditions for the development of economic competition in the interbank foreign exchange market,” the NBU said.
At the same time, the National Bank said that these steps will not have a significant impact on the state of the foreign exchange market.
Ukrainian businessman and owner of DCH Group Oleksandr Yaroslavsky is holding talks with U.S. and Chinese investors in Davos on the possibility of locating new production sites on the territory of Kharkiv Tractor Plant and discussing prospects of co-financing Sukha Balka mining with banks.
“Earlier 45,000 people worked at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant. The plant produced 50,000 tractors, and now it employs 3,000 and produces 1,000 tractors.” There are free capacities for other industries. I want to attract partners,” he told Interfax-Ukraine in Davos on Friday, where the World Economic Forum is taking place these days.
Yaroslavsky recalled that he bought Kharkiv Tractor Plant in April 2016 “almost in ruined condition.”
“The plant has idle for a year, it has lost almost all markets. I want to breathe new life into it,” the owner of DCH said.
According to him, in fact, it is about the intention to create an industrial park on the basis of the territory of Kharkiv Tractor Works, which is 150 hectares, as well as to increase the number of employees working at the plant by times.
Speaking about the development of Sukha Balka, which he bought in May of 2017 from Evraz, the businessman noted the prospects of this enterprise and the intention to attract co-financing for the implementation of new projects at it. According to him, he is discussing this opportunity with both commercial banks and international financial institutions, in particular he met with representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
“With me, banks are ready to go into these projects,” the owner of DCH said.
Yaroslavsky said that this year, on his trip to Davos he focused on these “point meetings” that, in his personal opinion, would be more useful than discussing the general economic outlook for Ukraine and its investment climate.
He said that Ukraine remains the main focus of his investment.
“I said that I would invest in Ukraine and buy Ukrainian enterprises, and every year I confirm this with real deals: Kharkiv Tractor Plant, Sukha Balka, INGO insurance company [bought in July 2017]. These are big projecta and they require careful attention. There are plans for purchases in 2018,” he said, while at the same time he refused to specify them.
Starbucks, the American coffee shop network, is studying the issue of entering the Ukrainian market, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said, speaking at the Ukraine House Davos.
At the same time, he assured that he would do everything possible for the American network of coffee houses to enter Ukraine.
Ukraine’s first-ever Ukraine House in Davos, Switzerland, is held during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in January 2018. The Ukraine House will work within a week under the slogan “Ukraine: Creativity, Innovation, Opportunity” and is intended to become a dynamic discussion hub. Ukraine House will demonstrate Ukraine’s investment potential and business opportunities to global business leaders, politician and civil society representatives. Ukraine House is open from January 22 to January 26, 2018.
The project is organized by the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) in partnership with Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) and Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
Starbucks Corporation is an American company selling coffee and the eponymous coffee shop network. As of December 2016, Starbucks had more than 24,000 trade outlets throughout the world.
