The state cashback program “Buy Ukrainian” is 100% ready, but will be presented after March 28, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma said at KIEF TALKS on Friday.
“I’m not going to tell you the details of this program right now, not because it doesn’t exist. It is 100% complete. I would tell you if today was March 28. If there were a couple of international meetings where questions could arise,” Shurma said.
Outlining the basic principles, he pointed out that people will receive “decent cashback” for buying local goods. At the same time, the methodology by which a product can be classified as a local product has also been developed.
Mr. Shurma clarified that the program provides for mandatory cashless payments with a fiscal check. In addition, the seller must be a taxpayer under the general taxation system.
As reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the launch of the Buy Ukrainian cashback program, under which Ukrainian citizens will be able to receive compensation for part of the payment for Ukrainian goods and services.
“For the purchase of certain types of goods and services made in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens will be able to receive a refund of part of the money on a special card,” the president explained.
In February, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said that it would take about three months to develop the documents necessary to implement the program.
Earlier it was reported that the state budget for 2024 envisages UAH 45 billion for various business support programs, but there is no cashback program among them. In addition, according to media reports, the government’s debt under the largest of the state programs – partial compensation of the 5-7-9 interest rate – is currently about UAH 7 billion.
Ukraine’s trade deficit in 2023 amounted to $37.7 billion, mainly due to a widening of the negative balance of trade in goods: both due to a decrease in exports and an increase in imports.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has included two industrial parks in Lviv and Rivne regions in the Register of Industrial Parks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“Today we are making a decision to create two more industrial parks,” the Prime Minister said at a government meeting on Friday.
According to him, the park in Rivne region is being created with a specialization in industrial processing. It is expected to create 1,400 jobs and invest over UAH 1 billion.
The park in Lviv region will specialize in the processing industry “with a special emphasis on furniture production.” Investments will amount to more than UAH 2 billion. More than 2,000 new jobs are expected to be created.
“Over the past six months, we have seen progress in the creation of new industrial parks. UAH 1 billion has been budgeted for their development this year,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, clarified in Telegram that the Industrial Park Boryslav was included in the Register of Industrial Parks in Lviv region.
In addition, the Ministry of Economy reported on Friday that the Yadro Industri industrial park in Drohobych (Lviv region) has received a management company, which is Drohobych Miskbud LLC.
“The agreement on the establishment and operation of the Yadro Industrial Park was concluded between Facade West LLC and Drohobych Miskbud LLC on March 11, 2024,” the statement said.
As reported, Yadro Industrial Park was included in the Register of Industrial Parks at the end of December 2023, initiated by Facade-Zakhid LLC, which plans to invest over UAH 561 million in its development.
It is planned to create about 500 jobs in the industrial cluster, with window production as one of its key production types.
At a meeting on Friday, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to exclude four industrial parks from the Register of Industrial Parks, Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, said on Telegram.
According to him, the First Ukrainian Industrial Park, BIONIC Hill, AzovAquaInvest, and Energia were excluded from the Register on the grounds of “failure to submit reports on the functioning of the industrial park to the state body for two consecutive reporting periods and failure to conclude an agreement on the creation and operation of the industrial park within two years from the date of the decision to create it.”
As reported, the First Ukrainian Industrial Park (Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv region) and Bionic Hill (Kyiv) were included in the Register of Industrial Parks in 2016, Energia (Mykolaiv) in 2018, and AzovAquaInvest (Mariupol, Donetsk region) in February 2019.
Exports of selected agricultural products, mln tons
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
At a meeting on Friday, the government approved a procedure for providing compensation for the cost of engineering and transport infrastructure built by an applicant/investor with significant investments and the costs of connection and connection to engineering and transport networks necessary for project implementation.
“…approved the last regulatory document necessary to launch the mechanism of state support for projects with significant investments. Investors who are ready to implement projects in Ukraine worth EUR 12 million or more will receive maximum assistance and support from us in the form of support, tax and customs benefits, compensation for the cost of constructed engineering and transport infrastructure facilities or connection to engineering and transport networks, etc.”, the release of the Ministry of Economy quotes First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko.
She added that this year the state budget has allocated UAH 3 billion to support such investors.
The Ministry of Economy clarified that investors who plan to implement a project in Ukraine worth EUR 12 million or more with a duration of up to 5 years in the areas of processing industry, mining for further processing or enrichment, transport, logistics, education, research, healthcare, waste management, art, culture, tourism, sports, and electronic communications will be able to receive state support.
To receive support, the applicant (a resident or non-resident legal entity) must submit an application to the Ministry of Economy together with the relevant documents for the evaluation of a project with significant investments, after which the Ministry must evaluate the investment project and provide an opinion on the feasibility/inefficiency of its implementation and the conclusion of a special investment agreement or refusal to conclude it.
After that, a special investment agreement will be concluded between the Cabinet of Ministers, a local government body (if state support is provided by such a body for the implementation of a project with significant investments), an investor with significant investments, and the applicant.
In addition, to support the preparation and implementation of an investment project with significant investments, the applicant must contact UkraineInvest for information and advisory assistance.
The Ministry of Economy emphasized that investors can receive several types of support from the state, which amount to up to 30% of the amount of an investment project with significant investments, in particular: the preemptive right to use state or communal land plots, compensation for the cost of building engineering and transport infrastructure and the cost of connecting to engineering and transport networks, tax benefits, duty-free import of necessary equipment, as well as exemption from compensation for forestry losses and other costs.
According to the report, projects should include the construction, modernization, technical or technological re-equipment of the relevant investment objects and the creation of new jobs. The investor needs to create at least 10 jobs with a salary at least 50% higher than the average salary in the region for this type of activity, or 30 jobs with a salary at least 30% higher than the average salary in the region for this type of activity, or 50 jobs with a salary at least 15% higher than the average salary in the region for the same type of activity.
IT and artificial intelligence (AI) can make metallurgy more environmentally friendly and efficient, says Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group.
He expressed this opinion at the first B7 Italy 2024 meeting held on 13 March in Verona (Italy), organized by Confindustria, an association of Italian companies designed to facilitate dialogue between the business world and the governments of the G7 countries. The conference was attended by more than 250 guests, including CEOs and business leaders from G7 countries and international companies, as well as the Italian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso.
The participants discussed the key factors affecting industrial productivity and competitiveness in a rapidly developing global economy. Metinvest’s CEO was one of the speakers on the main discussion panel. He spoke about the peculiarities of steel production in Ukraine during the war, the company’s vision of a “green” course and the transformation of business processes in the steel industry through new technologies.
In particular, he noted that in recent years, many companies have been working on results and ignored technology. For example, in 2021, Azovstal outperformed all its competitors in terms of process efficiency thanks to AI and analytics.
“Our specialists, using augmented reality, could perform maintenance twice as fast as most of our competitors in neighboring countries. The implemented “space” computer vision system has set new standards for the quality of our products. Finally, the internal data management and communications system allowed us to run the company smoothly in the midst of the fiercest war in Europe since World War II,” Ryzhenkov stated.
He added that Metinvest, despite the war, is a very good example of how to use digital technologies to breakthrough in traditional industries.
Speaking about the “green” course in the industry, the CEO emphasized that almost every politician is interested in these issues, not only in Europe but also in the US, China, and around the world. At the same time, the steel industry is at the top of the agenda of this course as a major player in the implementation of green technologies. But at the same time, metallurgy is a very traditional industry, with technologies developed long ago, and it is impossible to make a major breakthrough now. It is only possible to gradually improve the system, he noted.
“The transition to the green course will not be easy. We do not have enough IT specialists to work on the transformation. Only five to seven years ago, we were looking for metallurgical engineers to teach IT. Now it’s the other way around. We train IT specialists who are taught metallurgy. And these are the people who will be in charge of our company’s green and digital transformation. This is happening right now. We will all be part of this transition, and we had better be ready for this challenge,” the top manager summarized.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
AI, IT, METALLURGY, METINVEST
