Ukraine can intensify trade with Asian countries, while maintaining focus on European markets, the Deputy Minister for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has said.
“We have a good dialogue with these countries. It is very likely that we will continue to talk about the intensification of trade. There are requests from Indonesia. There are talks with Malaysia,” he said during the discussion “Trade Wars: the Art of Defense.”
According to the trade representative, the demand for Ukrainian products from Asia is growing and this is a phenomenon of 2020.
“The fact that this year the dynamics of trade with Asia is greater than with the EU does not mean that we should forget the EU and flee to Asia,” he said.
Kachka added that next year Ukraine will “evolutionarily” update its Export Strategy, which will allow the country to be more predictable in terms of trade policy.
“The less “somersaults” we have, the better. In fact, we need a gradual systematic work in all directions,” the official said.
Ajax Systems, a manufacturer of professional security systems in Ukraine, has opened a second plant in Kyiv on the territory of the former Kyiv Radio Plant and plans to switch its employees to 24/7 working hours.
According to the company’s website, the area of the premises is 1,865 square meters.
“Next year we plan to double the business, for this we need another production site. We decided to open it in Boryspilska Street, where a large production cluster already exists. This location will also allow us to attract more employees from the Left Bank of Kyiv and build a large production facility team faster,” CEO of Ajax Systems Oleksandr Konotopsky said.
Ajax Systems plans to recruit 150 people in 2020 for the new facility. Next year it is planned to create up to 1,000 jobs.
The company also said that the new plant is now focused on the production of DoorProtect and DoorProtect Plus sensors, but in the future both Ajax enterprises will duplicate each other in design and manufacture the entire product line.
“Now in Boryspilska Street we have launched 24/7 testing, arrangement and assembly, quality control and packaging. In the future, we plan to transfer all sites to the 24/7 schedule,” Director of Production at Ajax Systems Bohdan Demchyshyn said.
Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine (uah for 1 usd and 1 euro, in 01.10.2020-31.10.2020)
NBU
Some 7.9% of Ukrainian exporting enterprises face obstacles in their activities, according to a survey by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.
The rate in 2020 is the lowest since 2016, according to the study. In 2018, some 23.6% of exporters faced obstacles, while 19.3% in 2017 and 26.9% in 2016.
Large and small businesses (10.4% and 10.7%) more often report impediments to export compared to micro (8.1%) and medium (4.1%). Most often, they deal with obstacles in the implementation of exports by enterprises in the service sector (22.6%).
In Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Donetsk regions, there are no complaints about the presence of obstacles. Most often, such are reported by exporters from Rivne (22.2%), Ivano-Frankivsk (20%), Kirovohrad (20%), Sumy (20%), Poltava (18.8%) regions.
The main obstacles to export are the absence of simplified rules for determining the origin of goods (20.4%), a long wait for export clearance at customs (20.4%).
Among importers, 18.9% of the surveyed enterprises stated that they faced obstacles to their activities. This figure is also the lowest in all waves of the study since 2016. Some 28.4% of importers faced obstacles in 2018, some 29.3% in 2017 and 35.2% in 2016.
Cherkasy region is the only region where there are no complaints about import obstacles. Enterprises in Mykolaiv region most often point to impediments to imports (35.7%, every third respondent).
According to the respondents, the main obstacle to import is a lack of transparency in determining the customs value of goods that are imported (38.7%). Almost a third complain about the complexity of customs and tax legislation (32.4%). The third place in the rating of obstacles is taken by high rates of customs payments (27.5%).
The survey was conducted in 2020 by the civil society initiative “For Fair and Transparent Customs” with the support of the European Union, the International Renaissance Foundation and Atlas Network. More than 1,000 representatives of enterprises were interviewed: from micro-enterprises to large enterprises engaged in export and/or import. Most of the respondents are micro and small enterprises, representatives of industry and trade.
The issue with the disconnection of the solar power plant (SPP) of the Canadian investor TIU Canada in Nikopol located on the territory of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP) from the power grid lies in the plane of a business dispute, Executive Director of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine Artem Semenyshyn has said.
“This issue lies on the plane of a business dispute. The two companies have agreed on the joint use of the substation. One is as a producer of electricity, the other is as a consumer,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
At the same time, Semenyshyn said: “Indeed, it is very bad when we lose the already built “green” generation facilities, which are now idle and do not increase the share of clean electricity.”
In addition, he drew attention to the presence of several examples of how already built stations in Ukraine, due to problems with connecting to the power grids, cannot start work for a long time. “We urge the government to create a commission that would consider each case separately and contribute to the solution of the issue,” the director of the association said, stressing that this is a matter of the state’s image before both foreign and domestic investors.
“It will be very “interesting” if Ukraine starts reporting that it is reducing the share of “green” generation due to disconnections,” the head of the association said, expressing his concern.
As reported, TIU Canada, an investor in the field of solar energy, owned by Refraction Asset Management (Calgary, Canada), filed a lawsuit against the NFP due to the disconnection of its 10.5 MW SPP from the power grid in March 2020.
PrJSC United Mining and Chemical Company, which manages Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (Zhytomyr region), in January-September this year increased its net profit by 4.2 times compared to the same period last year, to UAH 424.494 million (against UAH 100.736 million, respectively).
“The company’s net profit, actually received in the first nine months of this year, amounted to UAH 424.494 million, which is more than four times higher than the financial result of last year, which amounted to UAH 100.736 million,” the State Property Fund of Ukraine said in a press release.
At the same time, earlier, with reference to data of the portal of state enterprises, it was reported that UMCC for the nine months of 2019 reduced its net profit by 47.8% compared to the same period in 2018, to UAH 221.040 million from UAH 423.079 million. At the same time, net income for the indicated reporting period increased by 5.8%, to UAH 2.698 billion, and EBITDA amounted to UAH 488.895 million.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on November 18 of this year approved the financial plan of the UMCC for 2020 with a net profit of UAH 575.670 million. At the same time, payments to the state this year from the company should amount to UAH 344.672 million, including income tax some UAH 104.203 million.
UMCC sells its products to more than 30 countries of the world. The main sales markets are the EU, China, Turkey, as well as the United States and African countries.
