KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Agroton agricultural group (Luhansk region) in January-June 2016 posted $5.187 million in net profit against $18.227 million of net loss in the same period last year.
According to a group report on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), its revenues in the period declined by 2.9%, to $17.349 million. However, due to $7.753 million income from revaluation of biological assets its gross profit increased to $9.036 million from $315,000.
The group’s profit from other operating activities in the reporting period decreased significantly – by 2.34 times, to $1.063 million, while other operating expenses grew to $1.302 million from $55,000.
However, the final financial result was mainly influenced by the reduction in financial expenses by 5.45 times, to $3.946 million by reducing the loss from forex exchange differences to $3.169 million from $20.863 million.
Agroton has been working in Ukraine since 1992. It specializes in growing grains and oilseeds, production and sales of livestock products. Agroton’s land bank is about 150,000 ha. It is located in Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. The group owns two poultry farms in Luhansk region.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, the Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan and Kazakh National Nuclear Company Kazatomprom have agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) for uranium mining in both countries, Ukrainian Energy Minister Ihor Nasalyk has said, commenting on the results of his visit to Kazakhstan in mid-August.
“Kazakhstan has the best desalination technology in uranium mining. We’ve agreed that they will create a joint venture and begin to work on our deposits. They will give one deposit in the territory of Kazakhstan to the joint enterprise,” he said on the air of TV Channel 112.
Nasalyk said the cost of uranium ore in Kazakhstan is $30 per tonne, while Ukraine buys 1,500 tonnes per year at $120 per tonne.
The Ukrainian minister said Kazakhstan is ready to buy about 750 tonnes of ion exchange resin from Nuclear Fuel state enterprise.
According to him, Kazakhstan also invited Ukraine to join the construction of a plant for production of fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants, which would become an alternative to Russia’s TVEL.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The interagency targeted center, established with the aim of overcoming corruption at customs, started work under the Finance Ministry of Ukraine on August 29, while its mobile customs groups will start work in early September, according to the ministry’s website.
“The first ten mobile teams will travel to their bases for rapid response to offenses in the beginning of September. It is expected it will be in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zakarpattia and Volyn regions. A little bit later, another ten teams will start work in the border areas,” head of the interagency targeted center Oleksandr Vlasov said.
The report notes in order to reduce corruption risks the principle of staff rotation will be used: the composition of mobile groups will change on a monthly basis in compliance with a certain number of representatives of different structures (two people from the State Fiscal Service, one person from the State Border Guard Service and the National Police).
The ministry noted the interagency targeted center would be engaged in constant coordination of 20 joint mobile groups to prevent and detect violations of the law on state customs.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy and Marshal of the Polish Sejm Marek Kuchcinski during a Tuesday meeting discussed cooperation and security issues in the region at the parliamentary level, the press service of the Ukrainian parliament has said.
Parubiy noted that “cooperation in the Baltic and the Black Sea dimension, in the zone of geopolitical alliance ABC (Intermarium) has a great future.” According to him, such cooperation “provides the mechanisms of the EU strengthening and the rapid integration of Ukraine into the European Union.”
The report notes that much of the time was devoted to the geopolitical prospects of cooperation and further development vision of the European Union.
Special attention was given to the decree of the Polish parliament, which has caused considerable resonance in Ukraine, according to the tragic pages of history.
The parliamentary chairman noted that there has always been a tradition between Ukraine and Poland to give an overall assessment of our tragic history.
“When some of peoples give the one-sided assessment of the actions, it causes resonance and leads to incorrect assessments and distortion of historical facts. Such things are unacceptable. Ukraine and Poland should find mechanisms for joint assessment of those events that took place on our lands, especially that they took place solely as a result of the occupation policy of the Russian Empire, which at that time was the Bolshevist Russia,” Parubiy said. According to him, the occupation of common lands by troops of totalitarian Russia has caused many tragic events.
The Verkhovna Rada chairman also said during the press conference that they discussed ways to overcome the misunderstanding that took place between our peoples.
“I think we were able to find mechanisms and ways to remove these misunderstandings and remember that now Ukraine protects not only the security of its state, but also of Poland, all the Europe and the entire free world. It is extremely essential for us to remember about our main front, which is located in the east as it was a hundred years ago,” Parubiy said.
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved some priority areas of activity, the implementation of which requires government approval.
According to decree No.612 dated August 8 published on the government website on August 29, the Finance Ministry was tasked with developing state policy measures and submitting them for consideration to the Cabinet on tax system reform, the Ministry of Health – health financing system modernization, Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities – implementation of government policy in the sphere of power engineering, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources – state supervision reform in the field of environmental protection, as well as reforming the system of subsurface use.
In addition, the Cabinet tasked the Infrastructure Ministry to develop a project for rehabilitating the nation’s road network and the formation of a qualitatively new system of governance, as well as financing road facilities, railway reform, to monitor the movement of freight transport on public roads, the accession of Ukraine to the European aviation area, improving governance on sea and river transport and merchant shipping.
The Culture Ministry is charged with developing new approaches to the perception of the state language, the Ministry of Information Policy – reforming of foreign broadcasting system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – reforming of the diplomatic service, the Ministry of Education and Science – the concept of the new Ukrainian school.
It is expected that the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food should propose solutions in the field of privatization and efficient management of state assets in the agricultural sector, land reform and state support of agriculture system.
The State Audit Service was assigned to handle the issue of reforming the system of public internal financial control from 2016 to 2020.
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said acceleration of privatization is one of the priority reforms in Ukraine and expects new laws expanding the list of state-owned enterprises to be sold off.
“We are not only talking about the Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant (OPCP), Centrenergo and energy transmission networks,” Poroshenko said at the opening of the National Reform Council meeting in Kyiv on Monday.
The head of state noted the necessity of demonstrating political will along with ensuring the transparency and efficacy of privatization.
Poroshenko said the point at issue is to attract investors not only from Europe but also from other regions, including investors from southeastern Asia, with whom he met recently and who demonstrated huge interest in Ukraine.
Planned privatization revenues to the state budget in 2016-2017 total UAH 17 billion, but a mere UAH 42 million were received during the first six months of 2016.
The tender for selling the OPCP for UAH 13.175 billion set as the starting price failed in June, however the State Property Fund plans to fulfill its plan by re-auctioning off the enterprise and sell shares in six regional energy-generating companies (oblenergos).
