Structure of export of services in 1-st quarter of 2020 (graphically)
A tender worth UAH 452 million to repair 25 km of Kropyvnytsky’s bypass road towards Kryvy Rih on the H-23 Kropyvnytsky-Kryvy Rih-Zaporizhia highway was won by a group of road construction companies RDS, the co-founder of the company Yuriy Shumakher has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have already formed working brigades in full, and this Saturday [July 4] we are starting construction,” he said.
Schumacher said that the RDS group, as one of the largest players in the Ukrainian road market, understands the importance of the Big Construction project announced by the president, therefore, it is responsible for the quality and deadlines for the work performed.
Turkish Onur Construction International with the best offer of UAH 452.899 million and the Ukrainian-German company Avtostrada with the best offer of UAH 452.9 million also participated in the tender with an expected value of UAH 477.08 million.
The total volume of H-23 road repair in Kirovohrad region this year is 83 km.
RDS Group is included in the top three road construction companies of Ukraine. It includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. The core business is construction, reconstruction and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes.
The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS Group are Ukrainian citizens Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic seriously affected the trade between Ukraine and Belarus, and in the first five months of this year, trade between the countries amounted to $1.675 billion, a decrease of 22.8% compared to the same period last year, Belarussian Ambassador to Ukraine Igor Sokol has said. “I would like the turnover to be bigger, but the situation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is a circumstance that does not depend on you or on us, and it seriously affected the turnover between Ukraine and Belarus. In the first five months of this year, our turnover amounted to $1.675 billion. Belarus exported to Ukraine [goods worth] $1.078 billion, and Ukraine exported to Belarus – $597 million. According to our statistics, compared with the same period last year, there is a decrease in trade by 22.8%,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the ambassador, personal contacts and logistics were interrupted.
“I have to say that Ukraine’s use of restrictive measures in relation to our products (cement, gas concrete block) also had a negative impact on the volume of mutual trade,” Sokol said.
The diplomat said that Ukraine is a significant, strategic trade and economic partner for Belarus.
“Ukraine is now in second place, but God willing that someday it will become our first trade and economic partner. Among Ukraine’s trade partners, Belarus is fourth along with such developed and economically strong states as Germanyвз. That says a lot,” he added.
Sokol also recalled that the Ukrainian-Belarusian trade is estimated in billions of U.S. dollars, and over the past year amounted to $5.8 billion.
“Now the task in the mutual trade turnover of our countries is to restore those positions that existed before the pandemic, to preserve everything that was о up in previous years,” he said.
At the same time, the ambassador said that Ukraine and Belarus did not stop working on the bilateral trade and economic track, even during the pandemic.
“Of course, at the initial stage in March-April, diplomats did not go anywhere, but gradually the work comes to life both in our country and in Ukraine. Our workers, who are involved in various projects in Ukraine, come to your country, our equipment arrives. Yesterday I was in Zhytomyr and participated in the transfer of five new trolleybuses for the city. Last week I participated in the launch of trolleybuses manufactured jointly by Ukraine and Belarus for Kryvy Rih,” he said.
The 17th annual meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES), scheduled for September 10-12, 2020, has been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, YES press service reported. “YES and the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation remain committed to the mission: to integrate Ukraine into the world and ensure its proper role on the international agenda. The YES meeting in 2021 will again become a powerful discussion platform in Ukraine, which supports changes in the country and development of the new Ukraine supporters’ networks all over the world,” reads the statement.
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum where the European future of Ukraine is discussed and developed in a global context. YES was founded in 2004 by businessman Victor Pinchuk.
From 2004 to 2013, annual YES meetings were held at Livadia Palace in Yalta. After the temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, meetings were rescheduled in Kyiv.
Kernel-Trade, the agricultural exporter, tops the list of the largest recipients of budget value added tax (VAT) refunds for the third month in a row, having received UAH 1.03 billion in June against UAH 650 million in May and UAH 965 million in April.
According to the State Treasury Service, the second place on the list in June, as in May, was again occupied by ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih mining and metallurgical plant with almost UAH 977 million against UAH 501.45 million in April.
The top three recipients of budgetary VAT refunds also included Suntrade with UAH 681.8 million, while in April the company ranked fifth with UAH 359 million, according to the data of the State Treasury.
Mariupol-based Illich Iron and Steel Works affiliated with Metinvest Group improved its performance over the month with UAH 597.44 million against UAH 373 million in May. The top five largest recipients of budgetary VAT refunds also included Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) with UAH 550 million (UAH 70 million in April).
The second five in June includes Poltava GOK with UAH 477.25 million (UAH 236.7 million). It is followed by Zaporizhstal steel plant from Metinvest Group with UAH 451.3 million (UAH 372.75 million), followed by Azovstal, which reduced its figure to UAH 289.4 million from UAH 336.45 million in May.
The top ten largest recipients of VAT reimbursement are closed by Pivdenny (Southern) GOK with UAH 283.2 million and Dniprovsky Iron and Steel Works with UAH 250.74 million.
Тhe Board of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will remain a team and is ready to work further, adhering to the current policy to maintain the stability of the economy in Ukraine, but subject to maintaining their right to make decisions independently, First Deputy Governor of the NBU Kateryna Rozhkova said on Thursday.
“The NBU Board made a rather difficult decision to stay working now… We see our task not only in maintaining macrofinancial stability, but also independence and the institutional capacity of the NBU – and this is, in fact, key conditions – hoping that they will be supported, we remain working,” she said during an online meeting of the NBU Board with business, a meeting’s participant from the business told Interfax-Ukraine.
Rozhkova added that the NBU Board seeks an open and effective dialogue with the government, since only in cooperation it sees an opportunity to ensure the further development of the country.
“The board remains in office for the term of its tenure, and I don’t think that one-man show is here, decisions are made collectively. Therefore… changing the policy or changing the course with this team will be impossible,” NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii said at the meeting.
He also said that he sees no reason to change developments and the course that the central bank has chosen. “Therefore, we will hope that everything will be fine and will move in the direction in which we are working now,” Smolii said.
The governor of the NBU said that the IMF and stakeholders who worked on the placement of eurobonds should not “focus on personalities.”
“First of all, we are working and worked with institutions. If we say that we continue to preserve the principles that were laid down, such as institutional independence, then I see no reason for there to be any radical changes both in our policy and [relations] with investors,” he added.
According to Smolii, speaking of political pressure on the central bank, he had in mind the draft resolution on assessing the activities of the governor of the NBU recommended by the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, lawsuits and decisions, as well as the submission from 64 MPs to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine about compliance of banking law required for cooperation with the IMF with the Constitution.
“Thus, the deputies want to disrupt cooperation with the IMF – only the approval of this law was the benchmark of our current program, and they also want to “help” in the fight for PrivatBank,” he said.
He called frequent public criticism of the central bank by the NBU Council and an attempt to discredit the Board by Head of the NBU Council Bohdan Danylyshyn as another element of pressure.
“We see a direct political motivation for the positions and decisions of some individual members of the NBU Council, in particular the head. I recall that the head of the NBU Council has repeatedly publicly expressed his position regarding negotiations with the former owners of PrivatBank, de facto about returning the already healthy bank, which the state has capitalized, to them,” Smolii said.
He also recalled the unjustified, according to the NBU, refusal to include the extension of the powers of Deputy Head of the National Bank Oleh Churiy, whose tenure ends on July 10, in the agenda of the meeting of the NBU Council on June 30.
“With the pressure in which we have been living for more than a year, when people speak black and white, when low inflation is “a disaster for Ukraine,” it’s impossible to continue to do the things that we do. This is my challenge in order to preserve the independence of the central bank, to preserve the institutional ability that we tried to maintain,” the NBU governor said.
Smolii also said that after his resignation under the NBU law, Rozhkova will have the powers of the NBU board head, if the appointment of a new board does not occur on that day.
During the meeting, business representatives thanked Smolii for his work.
