Ukraine has fulfilled all the obligations assumed during the meetings of the Mixed Commissions on International Road Freight Transport, but the Polish side does not honor the agreement at the presidential level, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine has said.
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Infrastructure, a working meeting of the Ministers of Infrastructure of Ukraine and the Republic of Poland Vladyslav Krykliy and Andrzej Adamczyk was held in Kyiv on Monday, during which the Ukrainian minister pointed out the fact that Ukraine’s fulfillment of its obligations led to a significant increase in the share of use of permits for 2019 by Polish haulers.
Krykliy reiterated that Poland should lift transit restrictions for Ukrainian haulers, since this negatively affects not only trade relations between the two countries, but also with other EU countries.
At the same time, he said that Ukrainian haulers are ready to compete in the two-sided market.
The ministers of Ukraine and Poland also discussed the work of crossing points across the Ukrainian-Polish border, in particular, the Korcheva-Krakovets point.
In addition, Krykliy said that currently the Verkhovna Rada is expected to consider at second reading a bill that solves the problem of VAT payment by work performers and service providers under the so-called “Polish loan,” but asked the Polish side to speed up the work of the construction company to repair the crossing point.
The Ukrainian minister suggested that the Polish side conduct a joint audit to determine the possible reasons for the appearance of queues at the border crossing points with the involvement of a third independent party, and introduce general border and customs control at crossing points to increase their efficiency.
There are currently 3,900 km of roads at the final stage of reconstruction in Ukraine (the last sphere of asphalt concrete is being commissioned, completed or is being completed), Head of the State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) Oleksandr Kubrakov said in during the presentation of the results of his team’s work during the year on Tuesday.
Among the leaders in road commissioning, he indicated Kharkiv (261.6 km), Zakarpattia (248.3 km), Zaporizhia (220.2 km), Sumy (197.2 km), Khmelnytska (194.3 km), Cherkasy ( 162.9 km) and Lviv (154.9 km) regions.
In addition, Kubrakov said that out of 100 artificial structures that Ukravtodor planned to renovate in 2020, 78 have already been reconstructed. In particular, this is the reconstruction of two bridges on the road R-62 Kryvorivnia – Ust-Putyla – Stary Kuty – Vyzhnytsia – Storozhynets – Chernivtsi; overhaul of the overpass on the road M-12 Stryi – Ternopil – Kropyvnytsky – Znamianka; reconstruction of the bridge on the road N-08 Boryspil – Dnipro – Mariupol.
“Yesterday, a bridge was put into operation in the village of Bushtyno [Zakarpattia region]. It began to be built in 2006, construction was stopped in 2009. The temporary bridge was already falling apart there. It was a question that the road of national importance would simply remain without connection,” he said.
In addition, the construction of a bridge across the Prut River in the village of Marshyntsi on the T-26-06 road (concreting of the roadway, active work at the facility began a couple of months ago), a bridge across the Lukva River in the village of Bodnariv on H-10 road, crossing between the villages of Stary Martyniv and Sivka-Voinylivska on T-09-10 road are nearing completion.
In 2020, Ukravtodor plans to repair 4,200 km of national roads.
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) in 2021 plans to repair 150 bridges and launch 60 Weight-in-Motion (WiM) complexes.
“As we have already said, next year we plan [to repair] 6,800 km roads, 150 artificial structures on national roads, 60 WiM sites, and involve independent technical supervision for 2,500 km. We see the pace of this year and understand that this is possible, provided that we start on time and we can finance it on time,” Head of Ukravtodor Oleksandr Kubrakov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He also said that in 2021, Ukravtodor plans to begin construction of the bypass around Kyiv with an estimated cost of UAH 85 billion and the construction of the Kremenchuk Bridge with an estimated cost of UAH 12.5 billion (a tender is being held for it now).
The state-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) and the Export Credit Agency (ECA) have signed a cooperation agreement to stimulate the export of goods, works and services of Ukrainian origin, the bank’s press service said on Monday, November 16.
“For the first projects under this agreement, we plan that the bank will provide Ukrainian exporters with financing of operating capital in the amount of up to UAH 5 million and for a period of up to two years for the production of goods and the sale of works and services for export purposes,” the press service quotes chairman of the board of the bank Yevhen Metsger.
According to him, within the framework of the project, exporters will go through an accelerated decision-making procedure, they will be subject to reduced collateral requirements, which, among other things, can be ECA insurance coverage for up to 85% of the loan or limit.
“The conditions for implementation of insurance compensation by the agency will be determined separately for each insurance contract after the assessment of the project. It is assumed that insurance rate size will be set depending on the loan term and may also be included in the export loan amount,” chairman of the ECA board Ruslan Hashev said.
Ukreximbank was established in 1992, the state is the only owner.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2020, Ukreximbank ranked third in terms of total assets (UAH 226.634 billion) among 74 banks operating in the country.
Milk production in Ukraine decreased by 4.1%, to 8.02 million tonnes in January-October 2020 (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Joint Forces Operation zone) compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the State Statistics Service, 2.71 million tonnes of meat (live weight) were produced in the ten months, which is 1.2% less than in January-October of the previous year.
Egg production decreased by 1.6%, to 14.09 billion eggs for the reporting period.
According to the State Statistics Service, milk production in Ukraine in 2019 decreased by 3.6%, to 9.7 million tonnes compared to 2018. Egg production increased by 3.4% to 16.68 billion in 2019, and meat (live weight) by 5.3%, to 3.49 million tonnes.
In Ukraine, about 50% of the alcohol market is in the shadow, CEO of Nemiroff Yuriy Sorochynsky says.
“About 50% of the market is in the shadows. Excessive fiscalization of certain business processes leads to the emergence of shadow economy, which sells the product to the consumer at a price (tax-free) at the level of UAH 35 – UAH 40 per bottle (vodka 0.5 liter), when the price of a legal product is UAH 89,” he said during the online business forum “From Shadows to Transparency” of the European Business Association on Monday.
Sorochynsky said that the shadow market is currently estimated at about UAH 10 billion – UAH 12 billion.
“Our level of fiscalization of alcoholic drinks is one of the highest in the world. In Europe, the average taxation of alcoholic drinks is 23-25%, depending on the country. We have only 43% at the producer level. Additionally, there is another 5% retail excise tax on each bottle sold legally. We have high taxation, which creates unfavorable conditions for business,” the expert said.
He said that in order to combat the grey market in Ukraine, it is necessary to strengthen control over the production and circulation of alcohol, introduce branded control over the circulation of alcoholic drinks and an electronic consignment note.
As reported, on December 11, 2019, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on the abolishing of the state monopoly on alcohol production from July 1, 2020, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on December 3, 2019.
