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.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy has said that first road concession road projects could be launched next year.
‘I won’t say this year, since this should be approached very carefully. But next year it is likely that we will launch the first concession roads. However, we are already talking to potential concessionaires. There are companies that have experience in managing concession roads in Europe, they apply, they are ready to initiate some small pilot projects with us in order to understand the volumes of traffic,” the minister said.
He said that the first possible concession projects could be for sections of the Kyiv-Bila Tserkva, Lviv-Krakovets roads, as well as part of the Kyiv’s orbital road.
Krykliy also noted the need to maintain the requirement on the mandatory duplication of the toll road as its free alternative.
According to the minister, earlier the Infrastructure Ministry’s team planned to work with concession projects in the road industry through the adoption of a bill on road concessions. “But the general concession law has already been worked out by both relevant committees and MPs, which covers much more – not only roads, but also other infrastructure projects. We need to follow – it will be placed on the agenda [for voting by the Verkhovna Rada] in the coming weeks,” Krykliy said.
He also said that the Infrastructure Ministry has a lot of infrastructure concession projects and the ministry team is looking forward to the adoption of a profile bill as soon as possible.
INTEGRITES successfully represented interests of the Ukrainian state enterprise “Ukrkhimtransamiak”, one of the world major operators of ammonia pipeline, in arbitral proceedings against a Russian chemical giant Togliattiazot with over USD 190 mln at stake.
This case stemming from the long-term contract for ammonia transit through the territory of Ukraine was referred to arbitration under the Rules of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICAC) in 2017. INTEGRITES’ client initiated these arbitral proceedings, while Togliattiazot filed several cross-claims. Both parties sought revision of the contractual tariff for ammonia transit through the Ukrainian part of the pipeline “Togliatti – Odessa”.
The negative outcome of the dispute could have affected the global ammonia market, because the ammonia pipeline has no market equivalent and remains the major means of transportation of ammonia produced and exported by Togliattiazot (i.e. about 11% of global ammonia exports).
INTEGRITES secured an unprecedented award revising the transit tariff sought by its client. They also helped the client defeat all cross-claims with economic effect exceeding USD 180 mln.
Supervised by partner and Head of International Arbitration Olena Perepelynska, the project team included senior associate Krystyna Khripkova and associate Anastasiia Iliashenko. Throughout the proceeding INTEGRITES team worked closely with the legal department and administration of “Ukrkhimtransamiak”.
“The case proved to be challenging and requiring analysis and application of not only the Civil and Commercial Codes of Ukraine, but of many provisions of the Tax Code of Ukraine, CIS customs convention, Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and many other Ukrainian laws and international treaties. Both the nature and complexity of the case make it unique among those considered by the ICAC”, – INTEGRITES partner Olena Perepelynska commented.
