Canada’s Refraction Asset Management has invested about EUR 11 million in the construction of a solar power plant in the town of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Valentyn Reznichenko has said.
“It is now the most powerful solar power plant in the region built by an investor. It took almost 11 million euros to build it. Over 32,000 panels were placed on 15 hectares of land. The plant’s capacity is up to 80 megawatts of electricity per day,” he said, noting that the power generated by the plant can be enough for almost 12,000 apartments within a month.
“There are already two solar power plants in the region – in Pidhorodne and Nikopol. Not a kopeck of budget funds was spent on their construction, all at the expense of the investor,” Reznichenko said.
According to a representative of Refraction Asset Management, Ivan Bachynsky, Nikopol was chosen as the site for the construction of a power plant, since it is one of the sunniest localities in the region.
“This is the first capital investment by our company in Dnipropetrovsk region. There is an understanding with the regional leadership on the further development of eco-energy,” Bachynsky said.
National energy company Ukrenergo will initiate the transfer to Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) from 2019, the state-owned enterprise has said in a press release.
The press release recalled that the company is to appraise its assets and implement the investment program for the year preceding the switch to RAB by at least 95% for transfer to RAB tariffs.
Ukrenergo will focus on the implementation of the above-mentioned conditions and will initiate its switch to RAB in 2019 with the regulator.
“The introduction of RAB will allow Ukrenergo to operate more flexibly and play by the same rules with our European partners. One more desirable step for us from the regulator should be the transition to the approval of investment programs not for the coming year, but at least for the three or five years. This planning horizon will make the company more understandable for creditors, as the implementation of most projects is designed for several years” Ukrenergo Head Vsevolod Kovalchuk said.
RAB regulation applies almost in each European country. It allows attracting investment into power lines and increasing the quality of servicing. Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power grids, as well as performs the centralized dispatching of the united energy system in the country. The company is a state-owned enterprise. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry.
Nibulon plans to build a new transshipment terminal in Ternivka (Zaporizhia region), according to the website of Zaporizhia Regional State Administration.
According to the report, head of the administration Kostiantyn Bryl discussed with the company representatives the procedure of land allocation, energy supply, the need for dredging, other problems.
“Before building anything, you need to do a lot of work with documents, coordinate and resolve problematic issues. Well-coordinated work on the creation and processing of documentation that will not violate the law are now required from a large number of government instances,” he said.
Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the grain market of the country. It has elevators with a total capacity of about 2 million tonnes, as well as its own transshipment terminal with a capacity of 5 million tonnes in Mykolaiv.
Public joint-stock company Ukrgazvydobuvannia is the leader in the list of largest taxpayers in 2017, paying UAH 50.4 billion of taxes in 2017 compared with UAH 38.1 billion in 2016, the Office of Large Taxpayers of the State Fiscal Service has reported.
The top three largest taxpayers in 2017 also includes private joint-stock company Tobacco Company B.A.T.-Pryluky (UAH 13.1 million), and Philip Morris Ukraine (UAH 13.5 million).
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy cut tax payments by UAH 4.6 billion compared with 2016, to UAH 11.5 billion.
Ukrnafta with UAH 10.4 billion paid compared with UAH 8.2 billion in 2016 is also in the top five of largest taxpayers.
The top ten includes JT International Ukraine (UAH 9.5 million), Ukrtatnafta (UAH 8.7 billion) and National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom (UAH 8.7 billion), as well as Ukrtransgaz (UAH 7.8 billion) and private joint-stock company Imperial Tobacco Production Ukraine (Kyiv, UAH 7.5 billion).
The office said that the top 100 largest taxpayers out of 2,506 serviced by the office in 2017 paid UAH 258.3 billion to the budget, which is over 70% of all payments serviced by the office.
In general, taxpayers serviced by the office increased payments to the consolidated budget by UAH 95 billion, sending UAH 355.1 billion.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expects Ukraine to be among the first 50 countries in the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking (Doing Business).
“The head of state expressed confidence that Ukraine will achieve even better results and will be among the first 50 countries in the Doing Business rating,” the presidential press service reported on Thursday, January 25, after Poroshenko’s speech at the investor event of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) at the Ukraine House in Davos, where the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is taking place.
“In a short period of time we will be in the first 50. That is absolutely realistic,” he said.
Poroshenko noted the role of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), international financial institutions and others in supporting reforms.
“Today we had a discussion – whether the glass is half full or empty. I have a new version and I hope Mr. President [EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti] will support me – it isn’t half anymore, we already have more. And this is an important message – please, do not waste time waiting for June-July-August or autumn. This is the right time and place to be here today in the Ukraine House Davos. We are waiting for you, for investors,” he said.
In this context, he noted that much had been done to improve the investment climate.
“Ukraine is different now. You can come and we’ll show you that,” Poroshenko said.
According to him, this year more than 80 companies – world leaders requested a meeting with the Ukrainian president.
“This is a good indicator how popular Ukraine is among the investors and how confident they are about our success,” Poroshenko added.
He also provided examples of changes in Ukraine in the recent period. According to him, it was possible to achieve macro-financial stability, clean up the banking system, adopt education reform, healthcare reform, judicial and pension reforms, as well as important steps in cybersecurity and rural medicine. Poroshenko recalled that a new law on privatization had been adopted.
“When I was elected president, Ukraine didn’t have 3G connection because of corruption. Shortly, we will open the envelope for 4G connection. We have many companies ready to invest in that,” he said.
The largest mobile communications operator of Ukraine, Kyivstar, has submitted an application to participate in a tender to receive licenses to use the radio frequency spectrum of Ukraine for the introduction of IMT technology in the 1,710-1785 MHz and 1,805-1,880 MHz ranges, Kyivstar President Peter Chernyshov has said.
“I, of course, do not really like the way the frequencies were distributed. Initially, the telecom operators insisted that the three additional lots of 5 MHz that are ‘released’ as a result of the refarming, were next to the main lots or were distributed according to the generic lots principle. It allows you not to tie lots to specific frequencies, but to a winner in a separate lot to attach it to your main frequency band, getting a continuous spectrum. The regulator ‘shuffled’ lots with radio frequencies,” Chernyshov wrote.
At the same time, he said that Kyivstar will still participate in the second tender.
As reported, Ukraine schedules a tender to issue 4G communications licenses for the 1,710-1785 MHz and 1,805-1,880 MHz frequency ranges for February 26.
