Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the model of the land market in the country proposed by Ukrainian authorities implies that only Ukrainian individuals and legal entities will be able to buy land.
“I want to dispel several myths. First, the land belongs to the Ukrainians. In the model that we offer with the government, only Ukrainian citizens or Ukrainian companies will be able to buy or sell land,” he said, speaking at a meeting with Ukrainian farmers in Kyiv on Thursday.
Poland’s fashion retailer LPP Group, which manages the Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay brands, in January-June 2019 saw a 29.3% rise in sales in Ukraine year-over-year, to PLN 194.2 million (around $49.7 million). According to the company’s financial statements, LPP total sales revenue for six months grew by 11.3%, exceeding PLN 4 billion (about $1 billion). At the same time, one of the highest sales growth pace was recorded in Ukraine.
In the first half of the year, LPP revenue abroad exceeded domestic revenues, being PLN 2 billion (49.6% of the group’s total sales). The largest volumes of foreign sales are in Russia (17.9%), the Czech Republic (5%), Ukraine (4.8%) and Romania (4.0%). Thus, the Ukrainian market for the Polish retailer remains the fourth largest in the income structure.
According to the results of the reporting period, all LPP brands showed an increase in like-for-like sales. The highest growth was seen in the stores House (double-digit) and Sinsay.
In the second half of 2019, the group plans to launch an online store in Ukraine and for all EU countries. According to the report, thanks to the launch of e-commerce in these markets in 2019, the revenue of the online channel will exceed PLN 1 billion.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has proposed in 2020 to refuse of target subventions to the agricultural enterprises and to transfer all budget funds in an amount of UAH 4.4. billion for compensation of interest rate under the credits, which the framers and small agrarian entities will take for land purchase, Deputy Economy, Trade and Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky said. “There would be no subventions [in state budget 2020],” he told the journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Vysotsky said that partial compensation for the interest rate would be on the level of the NBU discount rate, which now stands at 16.5%.
The deputy minister explained that when calculating the total amount of compensation, it was assumed that the land market was planned to be launched in the second half of the year, the average price of one hectare of land will be about UAH 40,000 with an average normative monetary value of UAH 27,000 per ha, and about 5% of unit owners are ready to become buyers, which corresponds to approximately 1.35 million hectares.
Vysotsky also said that the bill on land turnover, which should be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by October 1, implies restrictions on the purchase of 15% of the agricultural land of the region and 0.5% of the country in the absence of such restrictions for tenants, as well as a minimum selling price on the level of normative monetary value. Among other conditions, the tenant’s priority right to buy out and the possibility of purchase by non-residents (excluding representatives of the aggressor country) only through the registration of a resident company in Ukraine.
The forecast balance of electricity of Ukraine for the end of 2019 approved by Ukraine’s Energy and Ecology Ministry envisage decrease of electricity generation by 1.3% (2.148 billion kWh) compared with the real figures for 2018, to 157.202 billion kWh.
According to the document, generation volumes of NPPs will total 82.153 billion kWh (a fall of 2.7% compared with the 2018 balance), generation of TPPs will remain the same as a year ago (a fall of 0.01%, to 47.788 billion kWh, volumes of CHPP and cogeneration plants will sees 5% rise, up to 11.561 billion.
Generation of HPPs and pump storage power plants under the forecast to be 8.315 billion kWh (a fall of 30% in 2018), isolated generating plants – on the level of 1.666 billion kWh (a rise by 10.8%).
It is planned that alternative sources (wind farms, solar power plants and other plants) will increase the production of electricity 2.1-fold, to 5.719 billion kWh.
The export of electricity is provided in the amount of 5.832 billion kWh, which is 5.4% less than the figure in the forecast balance of 2018.
The supplies from Burshtyn Island to Hungary, Slovakia and Romania will reduce by 2.3% (by 88 million kWh), to Poland – by 4.7% (by 66 million kWh), to 1.344 billion kWh and to Moldova – by 18.8% (by 180 million kWh), to 776 million kWh.
According to the document, electricity imports in 2019, which became possible after the launch of new wholesale market model on July 1, will total 1.488 billion kWh.
Ukrainian airlines in January-August 2019 transported around 9.226 million passengers, which was 10.7% more than a year ago, according to the State Aviation Service of Ukraine. This figure also takes into account the segment of international passenger traffic, which amounted to 8.4 million passengers January-August 2019 (an increase of 10.9%).
In January-August 2019, Ukrainian airlines operated 69,300 commercial flights (an increase of 3.3% compared to the same period last year), including 58,500 international (an increase of 3.7%).
Passenger traffic through Ukrainian airports increased 19.4% and amounted to 16.08 million people, including international traffic – by 20.7%, amounting to 14.5 million people.
Some 70% of Ukrainians polled positively assess the activity of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while 9% take the opposite view, according to the results of a survey conducted by the sociological service of the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center on September 6-11, 2019.
The activities of the new Cabinet of Ministers are positively assessed by 45%, with 8% taking the opposite view, and the newly elected Verkhovna Rada some 44% and 10% respectively.
The activities of the Servant of the People faction in parliament are positively assessed by 50%, and 11% negatively, the European Solidarity faction some 14% and 59% respectively, Opposition Platform-For Life faction some 17% and 54%, Batkivschyna faction some 23% and 44%, Holos faction some 23% and 35% and the deputy group For the Future some 9% positively and 28% negatively.
Some 57% of respondents believe that events in Ukraine are developing in the right direction, while 17% hold the opposite view. Some 41% of respondents are of the opinion that Ukraine is able to overcome existing problems and difficulties over the next few years, while 40% said the country can overcome them in the longer term. Only 6% said Ukraine is not able to overcome them. Some 62% of respondents believe that the activities of the new government will lead to an improvement in the situation in the country, while 7% said the opposite. Some 15% said it will not significantly change the situation in the country.
Among state and public institutions, trust is most often expressed in the president (79% of respondents trust him), Ukraine’s Armed Forces (74%), volunteer organizations (69%), the State Emergencies Service (64%), the National Guard of Ukraine (64%), the Church (63%), the State Border Service (63%), volunteer battalions (62%), Ukraine’s government (57%), the parliament (57%), Ukrainian media (56%), public organizations (52%), and the National Police (51%).
Distrust is more often expressed in Russian media (80% of those surveyed do not trust them), the judicial system as a whole (72%), local courts (66%), commercial banks (65%), political parties (63%), prosecutors (61%), the Supreme Court (59%), the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (56%), the state apparatus (officials, 55%), the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (54%), the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (53%), the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (52%), the National Bank of Ukraine (51%), the High Anti-Corruption Court (50%), and trade unions (49%).
The study interviewed 2,018 respondents aged 18 and over in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of Russia-occupied Crimea and Russia-occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in a sample representing the adult population of the country by main socio-demographic indicators. The survey was constructed as a multi-stage sample, random with quota selection of respondents at the last stage. The theoretical sampling error (excluding the design effect) does not exceed 2.3% with a probability of 0.95.
