Owner of Novus Ukraine LLC, Consul Trade House UAB, has completed a deal with Rewe International AGo to acquire a 100% stake in the authorized capital of Billa-Ukraine, a foreign investment enterprise, which is developing the Billa supermarket chain in Ukraine.
“We have passed a decisive stage and completed the acquisition of the Billa network. At the moment, we have the opportunity to officially begin fruitful work for the merger,” Novus CEO Mark Petkevich is quoted in a press release.
Novus COO Oleksiy Panasenko also added that the store opening hours will not change. In addition, Novus Ukraine LLC and Billa Ukraine foreign investment enterprise will continue to operate as usual, fulfilling previously reached contractual obligations to partners and counterparties.
The Ukrainian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and export organizations assess the opportunities for the export of Ukrainian products on a 10-point scale at 7.5, and note the need for state support for export activities, which should provide for financial, legal, communication and infrastructure direction.
According to the research “Analysis of institutional support for exports among organizations of the agrarian sector of Ukraine” of the Agritrade Ukraine project, the text of which is available to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the average assessment of the opportunities for the export of Ukrainian products on a 10-point scale (where one is very poor opportunities, while ten is very good) by participants in the study was 7.5.
Among the main factors of such an assessment were named a high existing demand abroad, good qualifications and experience of industry employees, favorable agro-climatic conditions.
At the same time, the participants in the research noted that the implementation of the export potential is impossible in full due to a saturated competitive environment, insufficient level of harmonization of production and processing standards, the complexity and lack of information about the features of certification and the inertia of some domestic farmers.
More than three quarters of the organizations (77%) that that took part in the survey noted that they have established cooperation with companies from the EU countries. Among the main problems that arise in this process and become obstacles to cooperation, they named a small amount of quotas for certain types of agricultural products, non-compliance with quality standards and certification standards, a saturated competitive environment.
Assessing the compliance of domestic agricultural products and food products with European quality standards, almost three quarters of the respondents (72%) noted that they were more likely to comply, 12% of the survey participants were sure of absolute compliance.
Approximately one fifth of the organizations (22%) that took part in the survey can fully satisfy the requests of Ukrainian companies to establish trade relations with foreign companies and companies from the EU countries (that is, 90-100% of requests).
Among the main factors that affect the ability to satisfy the requests of Ukrainian companies to establish trade relations with foreign companies and companies from the EU countries, the survey participants most often named a lack of practical experience of employees, a lack of knowledge of business English and export-import legal framework, a limited access to market information (supply-demand), lack of analytical skills and tools, the volume of quotas for the export of certain types of agricultural products, limited and insufficient advertising and marketing budgets.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 02/12/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of December 02
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
A delegation led by the naval attaché at the United States Embassy in Ukraine Peter Mallory has arrived in Odesa, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reports.
According to a report on the department’s website, the naval attaché visited the main base of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, where he held a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of the command of the Ukrainian Navy. The parties discussed areas of bilateral military cooperation.
“We have extensive experience of long-term cooperation with our partners, we have cooperation in terms of both training our ship crews, command and control bodies, and manning and enhancing the capabilities of the Navy at sea. Today was dedicated to cooperation in different directions – this is the training of personnel, and the replenishment of the naval personnel,” said commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Navy Oleksiy Neizhpapa after the meeting.
According to him, the issue of security in the Black and Azov Seas was also discussed.
“This cooperation is very useful and necessary for the Ukrainian Navy,” he said.
DELEGATION, NAVAL ATTACHÉ, ODESA, UNITED STATES EMBASSY, VISIT
The European Commission awaits a final decision on the dispute between Ukraine and the EU on a temporary ban on export of round timber until the end of this year, as follows from the EU’s annual Association Implementation Report.
“Recent draft legal proposals which would introduce local content requirements in public procurement procedures are a cause of concern as they breach the equal treatment and non-discrimination principles of public procurement under the AA, the WTO and the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement,” the report says.
“Regarding trade defense activities, the recent proliferation of safeguard investigations launched by Ukraine have not always been carried out in strict adherence with criteria and standards,” according to the document.
“Following many years of uninterrupted growth favored by the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) established by the AA, bilateral trade in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 decreased by around 11% as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU remains by far Ukraine’s biggest trading partner. Regarding Ukraine’s wood export ban, a longstanding bilateral trade-irritant, a bilateral arbitration panel under the AA has been established and a final ruling of the panel is expected still in 2020,” the EC said.
“With regard to the reform of the Ukrainian forest-based sector, including wood harvesting and trade and, in particular, wood legality, Ukraine authorities from the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources committed during a TSD (Trade and Sustainable Development) sub-committee meeting in October 2020, to the need for a separation of functions between the management of resources and control functions and thus a reorganization and distribution of responsibilities between control and inspection on the one hand, and wood harvesting and trade on the other,” the report states.
