There is no need any more to go to the politics to protect own business in Ukraine, and voters do not want to see businessmen in politics, large Ukrainian businessmen said during the Ukraine: Game of Thrones. Final Season! international investment conference organized by Concorde Capital in Kyiv. According to Sergiy Tigipko (TAS group), the experience of 2014 showed that Ukrainian society does not want to see businessmen in politics.
“I think that big business needs to draw conclusions from this. They do not want to see business in politics. They want new faces,” Tigipko said.
According to Yuriy Kosyuk (MHP agricultural holding), before businessmen were forced to support politicians to protect their interests, but now there is no such need.
“Political parties can be supported, if you share values with them. Once, probably, this [funding of politicians] was protection for someone. For me, too, it was in the form of different political parties. And today, this is absolutely surely that there is no point: the power is not terrible, it is an absolute impotent, it cannot destroy anyone,” he said.
Kosyuk said that the government has taken away business from smugglers. “It does not have power over those who are doing the legal business, because civil society is now quite transparent and strong,” the owner of MHP said.
Businessmen as a whole positively assessed the change of president in Ukraine.
Kosyuk said that populistic statements, in which opponents accuse the newly elected president, will change after talking with foreign politicians.
“Populism before the elections. Where it does not exist? But when Zelensky starts running the post, will go to Washington once, many things will change,” Tigipko, who for many years held senior positions in the government and the National Bank, said.
Former Operations Director of StarLightMedia Yevhen Bondarenko will replace Yevhen Liaschenko, the director of Media Group Ukraine LLC, the media group’s website says.
“The director of Media Group Ukraine, Yevhen Liaschenko, decided to leave the company and develop career outside the group,” the report says.
Bondarenko will take up the post in the near future.
Oleksandr Barinov, the chairman of the supervisory board of Media Group Ukraine, thanked Liaschenko for having managed to assemble a team of experienced, creative, and winning-oriented professionals.
“Yevhen [Liaschenko] initiated many effective changes in the holding that boldly responded to the market challenges and allowed us to achieve and maintain leadership positions. Large-scale development plans of Media Group Ukraine for the coming years were defined and I am confident that the team is capable of implementing them successfully,” he said.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has placed its debut issue of bonds denominated in hryvnias at 15.75% per annum to support its operations in Ukraine.
On May 13, the first issue of bonds in the hryvnia was carried out, IFC Regional Manager for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Jason Pellmar said.
According to him, this placement confirms interest in hryvnia instruments in the market, especially when the issuer has an “AAA” rating.
The IFC representative office told the agency that the debut issue of bonds would be repaid in 2020.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 agricultural year (July-June) and as of May 15, 2019 had exported 44.36 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, which is 25.6% more than on the same date of the previous agri-year.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, farmers exported 25.6 million tonnes of corn, 14.6 million tonnes of wheat, and 3.4 million tonnes of barley.
Some 255,800 tonnes of flour had been also exported on the specified date.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 agri-year.
According to the ministry, grain exports in the 2018/2019 agri-year are projected to be 49 million tonnes.
The surplus of Ukraine’s foreign trade in services in January-March 2019 increased by 2% compared with January-March 2018, to $1.489 billion ($1.461 billion in Q1 2018), the State Statistics Service has reported. Exports of services in January-March 2019 grew by 12.3%, to $2.877 billion, while imports of services rose by 26.1%, to $1.388 billion.
The ratio of coverage of imports by exports was 2.07 in January-March 2019 (2.33 in Q1 2018).
Foreign trade operations in the service sector were carried out with partners from 214 countries.
