Bilateral and mutually responsible dialogue between the government and the industrial community with experts and business representatives is crucial for the formation of public policy. It is feedback from civil society, experts that makes government decisions efficient and ensures their detailed feasibility research and forecasts for possible consequences. This was discussed at a meeting of the business association consisting of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE), the Association of Employers’ Organizations, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
“We’ve shared our vision of the social and economic situation in the country, concerns about de-industrialization trends, and the loss of high-tech industries. The prime minister supported our commitment to strengthen industrial policy, to make cooperation in this area between the government, the National Bank and businesses more efficient,” ULIE President and head of the Association of Employers’ Organizations Anatoliy Kinakh has said.
Representatives of the business community noted a further deterioration in professionalism at the ministries and agencies, which is seen across the entire executive branch of power. These circumstances, in their opinion, hinder the development of high-quality and modern economic policy.
The sides also discussed the situation with tariffs and prices in the country. Members of the public stress that the national regulators, including the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NERC), should pay much more attention to feasibility study on the tariffs and be more open and transparent. And the government must monitor that all changes in the tariff policy should to the maximum take into account the real economic situation and the solvency of the population.
The Ukrainian prime minister and representatives of the business associations agreed to step up communication, regularly exchange views, more actively involve the business community in the formation of the country’s effective economic policy.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Investments in the launch of a line for production of sunflower seeds in the village of Stasy (Poltava region) will amount to $5 million, the company’s director for integrated operations in Europe has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“A new line for production of sunflower seeds worth $5 million is under construction at our seed production facility in the Stasy village. It will be commissioned this year,” he said.
The line’s capacity is 200,000 sunflower seeds. After its launch, the plant’s total capacity will be more than 700,000seeds (corn and sunflower together).
According to the expert, $40 million was invested in the construction of the plant prior to 2013, another $11 million in the line for production of maize seeds in 2014.
The total amount of DuPont Pioneer’s investment in the seed plant after the start of the sunflower seeds line will be $56 million.
DuPont Pioneer sells its seeds in more than 90 countries around the world.
The company opened its representative office in Kyiv in 1998 and began work on testing new hybrids of corn and sunflower. In 2001 Pioneer Nasinnia Ukraine LLC was registered, and on August 27, 2010 the company officially announced the opening of its research and development center in Kyiv region.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Board of public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia on March 29, 2017 decided to create the Energoremtrans branch in Vinnytsia.
According to a company report, the branch is intended to overhaul, modernize and build traction energy devices, local power lines for railways and third parties, provide for effective functioning and development of the industrial and technological complex of railway transport of general use, create conditions for increasing competitiveness of the sector and receive profit from operations.
Among the key functions of the branch are construction of power supply and telecommunications facilities; reconstruction, technical re-equipment, overhaul and maintenance of the contact network and other technological networks; electric installation works; design, construction, maintenance, operation, reconstruction, repair, modernization, technical re-equipment and other types of improvement of railway infrastructure facilities; construction of power supply and telecommunications facilities; ground transport support; repair of electric machines, manufacture of electric boards, electric lighting equipment and metal structures.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia earlier created a passenger company. Three out of six regional branches would transfer all production processes to the company from April 2017.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Over half of Ukrainian tourists visiting Turkey (60%) choose Antalya for their trips.
“Next popular cities with Ukrainian tourists after Antalya are Istanbul, Bodrum and Dalaman,” Director of Tourism Development Center Volodymyr Tsaruk said at a press breakfast organized by Coral Travel tour operator.
Commenting on the double increase of the number of Ukrainian tourists in Turkey in 2016, Head of the Federation of Turkish Hotels Osman Ayik said at present special programs to attract Ukrainians, who earlier went to Crimea, to trips to Turkey are being designed.
Ayik expressed hope that the permit to go to Turkey using national passports by Ukraine and Turkey would influence the tourist flow to both countries.
As reported, in February 2017 Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that Ukraine and Turkey will introduce the regulations of mutual visits of the two countries’ citizens without international passports.
In 2016, 1.25 million tourists from Ukraine visited Turkey.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Within the framework of participation in the enlarged summit of the European People’s Party in Malta, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has met with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, during which the parties discussed issues of cooperation between the two states, as well as cooperation on the path of European integration of Ukraine.
“Mariano Rajoy confirmed that Spain will always assist Ukraine in the implementation of its European integration aspirations, particularly in the context of the completion of the process of ratifying the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU and the liberalization of the visa regime for Ukrainian citizens,” the presidential press service said on Thursday.
During the meeting, the importance of maintaining regular contacts at the highest level, including through the exchange of visits was also noted.
“The president of Ukraine is convinced that in the near future a positive decision will be found in the Agreement on the joint air space between Ukraine and the EU, which will ensure its signing,” information says.
Poroshenko thanked for Spain’s continued support of Ukraine in its counteraction to Russian aggression. The need to maintain the current EU sanctions regime in relation to the Russian Federation until the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine was noted.
In turn, the prime minister of Spain noted the support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and confirmed that the issue of inviolability of the integrity of the territory of the Ukrainian state is not subject to any discussion.
The president of Ukraine also expressed gratitude to the Spanish government for a clear position in support of the Ukrainian football player Roman Zozulia.
“Poroshenko said that the situation with Roman is the result of a carefully planned propaganda campaign in the spirit of a hybrid war against Ukraine,” the press service said.
In addition, Rajoy invited Poroshenko to pay a visit to Spain.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kryvy Rih City Council has permitted Canada’s Black Iron with assets in Ukraine to design a land allotment plan for the implementation of an iron ore production project at the Shymanivske iron ore field (Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region).
According to the press release of Black Iron, Shymanivske Steel LLC, Black Iron’s wholly owned Ukrainian subsidiary, runs the project.
The land allotment plan is a detailed report to be prepared by Shymanivske Steel to show the city of Kryvy Rih how Shymanivske Steel proposes to use the leased land by describing the proposed major infrastructure and utility tie-ins required for the Shymanivkse project.
Black Iron’s Vice President Government & Community Relations Mykola Bayrak said that obtaining City Council approval to initiate the land allotment process was the result of an extensive process of documentation and public hearings culminating in a vote by Kryvy Rih City Council.
“I am very pleased by the strong support from City Council as 50 councilors voted in favor of awarding Shymanivske Steel the permission to initiate the land allotment process and only four councilors abstained from voting with none objecting,” he said.
As reported, the Canadian company is implementing its project to build a new mining company in Ukraine. The cost of the project is over $1 billion. Over $60 million has been invested.
In October 2010 Black Iron acquired Geo-Alliance Ore East Limited, a Cyprus-based subsidiary of Geo Alliance Group Limited of EastOne Investment Group belonging to Ukrainian businessman Victor Pinchuk, together with licenses worth $13 million, and renamed it Black Iron (Cyprus) Ltd.
The Cypriot company owns over 99% of the shares in Shymanivske Steel LLC and Zelenivske Steel (both based in Dnipro), which own licenses to exploit iron ore mines for the period until November 1, 2024 and November 1, 2014 respectively.
In July 2013, Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest mining and steel group, has reached an agreement with Black Iron Inc on investment in Black Iron (Cyprus) Ltd (BKI Cyprus), a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company that owns the iron ore assets in Ukraine. The agreements require Metinvest to make an initial investment of $20 million in BKI Cyprus to help finance the projects. Later Metinvest left the project.
In Q3 2014 the company received a permit to develop the field and was passing the land allotment procedure. In addition, Black Iron Inc. asked the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry to extend the permit to explore the Zelenivske field to study its potential.
