President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has set the government to draft and submit to the Verkhovna Rada bills aimed at developing the IT industry in Ukraine.
According to the presidential website, Zelensky signed relevant decree No. 371/2020 on September 3, 2020.
According to the document, the Cabinet of Ministers, with the involvement of representatives of government agencies, business associations, independent experts and MPs, should draft and submit to the parliament bills aimed at stimulating the implementation of economic activities in the field of information technologies within three months.
In particular, at the legislative level, the temporal features of the taxation of salaries of IT specialists who are in labour relations with IT companies should be determined in order to establish an effective level of the tax burden and promote the shadowing of the salary sphere and increase the competitiveness of internal IT companies in the external market.
The president also insists on improving the procedure for carrying out procedural actions in the course of criminal proceedings in order to prevent unjustified interference in the activities of IT companies.
In addition, according to the decree, the government should improve the procedures for obtaining an immigration permit by IT specialists who are foreigners or stateless persons and immigrating to Ukraine and obtaining a work permit for foreigners and stateless persons by an employer (IT company).
The Cabinet of Ministers should also contribute to the development of education in the field of information technology and the integration of the best world practices into the system of training IT specialists to increase their competitiveness in the labour market.
According to the document, the improvement of vocational training, retraining and advanced training of the unemployed should be ensured be involving educational institutions that train specialists in the IT field.
The decree comes into force on the day of its publication.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted bill No. 3761 with amendments to the Tax Code with benefits for projects with significant investments, as well as bill No. 3262, with amendments to the Customs Code from the package of bills on investment raising.
According to a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine, bill No. 3261 was supported by 273 MPs and bill No. 3262 was supported by 262 MPs, with the required 226 votes.
The bills provide tax incentives for investors who implement projects with significant investments, as well as exempt from import duties on equipment for such projects.
In addition, the bill amending the Tax Code proposes to exempt equipment from VAT for 2021-2035, which is imported for the implementation of a project with significant investments, and also provides for income tax benefits.
Deputy Head of the President’s Office Yulia Kovaliv said that the bills are intended to strengthen Ukraine’s position in investment raising and creating new jobs in the package with the previously adopted bill No. 3760 on investment.
More and more Ukrainians are returning to Poland to work, the Analytical Department of the Gremi Personal international employment company has said.
According to the Polish Social Insurance Fund, some 22,000 more foreign labour migrants were registered in July. In total, the register contains 628,000 foreigners, payers of ZUS (insurance payments) and, first of all, they are Ukrainians.
Earlier in its research, the Analytical Center of Gremi Personal said: “The pandemic is a chance for Polish employers to keep labour migrants who were previously going to work in other countries. However, if there is no more loyal visa program at the state level, as well as promoting the assimilation of Ukrainians, after lockdown, they will increasingly choose not Poland, but, for example, the Czech Republic and Germany. So far, the flow of Ukrainians to Poland is the most stable due to the most convenient logistics and relatively stable economic situation in Poland. At the same time, the supply of jobs from Polish employers in logistics, food production, furniture industry, household appliances and construction is increasing. In these areas, work for Ukrainians will be until the end of the year.”
Gremi Personal also said that “this year in August, significantly fewer Ukrainians working in Poland started to temporarily leave for Ukraine to prepare children for the new school year; at the same time, a tangible increase in labour migrants is expected from September, when Ukrainians traditionally go to work in Poland, and Polish enterprises that employ Ukrainians are increasing production volumes before the New Year holidays.”
Japan Rating and Investment Information, Inc. (R&I) has upgraded Ukraine’s foreign currency issuer rating from B to B+, rating outlook is stable.
“When fiscal consolidation efforts to date and enhanced resilience to external shocks are also taken into account, economic and fiscal conditions are expected to recover in 2021 and beyond,” R&I said in a Thursday press release.
R&I said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial support for Ukraine, together with loans from the World Bank and the European Union (EU), will help stabilize the government’s funding, which R&I views favorably.
R&I believes that the improved political and social stability under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky will allow the government to focus on rebuilding the economy.
R&I said that among other positive moments is that foreign reserves are on the rise, standing at $28.8 billion as of end-July 2020, which covers 4.9 months of imports. Gross external debt is declining as a percentage of GDP. As of end-March 2020, the ratio was 75.8%. With external debt maturing within one year falling to 29.3% of GDP, the short-term external debt to foreign reserves ratio declined to around 1.6x from more than 2x seen until the previous year.
There is little concern over the government’s foreign currency liquidity, R&I said.
The banking sector has improved profitability. Supported by growth in deposits, the sector also maintains stability on the liquidity front.
“R&I will follow their [government and National Bank of Ukraine’s] efforts to ensure financial stability, as the impact of the coronavirus is anticipated to emerge going forward,” the agency said.
In R&I’s view, containing infections, reinforcing the healthcare system and rebuilding the economy are top priorities for the government’s fiscal policy.
The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICMT) at a meeting on Wednesday decided to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into the import of cement from Turkey, and also established a single quota for imports of sulfuric acid, regardless of the country of origin.
“Members of the ICMT considered the liberalization of special measures regarding the import of sulfuric acid and oleum to Ukraine, regardless of the country of origin and export. In particular, it was decided to amend the current decision on the application of special measures by establishing a single quota for the import of sulfuric acid, regardless of the country of origin,” the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture said on its website on Wednesday.
At the same time, the Ministry of Economy added that the ICMT will additionally consider the issue of further liberalizing the action of special measures.
Among the decisions of the commission is to terminate the investigation of the import of syringes regardless of the country of origin and export without the application of special measures, as well as to terminate investigations on the import of caustic soda, regardless of the country of origin without the application of special measures.
The Solway Investment Group international investment group, owning Pobuzhsky Ferronickel Plant (PFP, Kirovohrad region), has stopped supplying nickel ore to Ukraine from Indonesia due to the export ban of this state.
“At the moment, we do not supply ore from Indonesia to Ukraine. The Solway Group is developing two ferronickel projects in Indonesia, and they provide the most modern waste disposal and closed water supply technologies,” the company said in response to a request from Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, they said that “regarding PFP, we inform you: the plant is fully provided, operates at full capacity and in the long term there are/are being worked out various options for providing high-quality raw materials.”
PFP processes about 1.5 million tonnes of ore per year, which was previously supplied from Guatemala (about 45% of supplies in monetary terms) and Indonesia (55%).
Indonesia announced the introduction of a ban on the export of nickel ore, first from October 28, 2019, then from January 1, 2020.
