President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said that during his official visit to Qatar intensive negotiations have taken place resulting in a number of extremely important agreements.
“I am confident that it is a powerful impetus that significantly intensifies Ukraine’s cooperation with the Gulf countries, particularly Kuwait and Qatar,” the president’s press service quoted him on Tuesday.
The president says that Qatar is investing money now to ensure the diversification of food security and Ukraine plays an extremely important role here. According to him, unique opportunities are opening up for us.
“Ukrainian enterprises are represented here on the Qatar International Agricultural Exhibition 2018. We met with both business representatives of Kuwait and Qatar. We expanded extraordinary opportunities for possible investments both in Ukraine and in Qatar,” Poroshenko said.
According to him, Ukrainian constructors are waiting for the reconstruction of infrastructure in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022, which will be held in Qatar. In particular, hotels, stadiums, traffic junctions will be built. He expressed confidence that in the near future, several well-known Ukrainian companies would take part in the tenders.
“A number of extremely important documents have been signed. In particular, documents on investment promotion – mutual protection of investments and avoidance of double taxation,” the president said.
He also informed that an “ambitious document” on military-technical cooperation had been signed. He added that the scope of bilateral cooperation with Qatar in the defense industry would be very broad. “I am very pleased with the results of these talks,” he said, adding that in the near future there would be visits of groups that would work out specific areas of cooperation.
The president also announced the establishment of an intergovernmental joint commission on economic, trade and technical cooperation. He said that he had reached an agreement with the Emir of the State of Qatar that the first constituent meeting of that commission would be held in a few months.
Poroshenko also noted that the Memorandum of Understanding between Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the Qatar University had been signed, providing for the exchange of students and lecturers.
Also, the parties discussed the possibility for Ukrainian military and diplomats to study Arabic language in Qatar.
France’s AgroGeneration Group with assets in Ukraine is mulling a possibility of expanding its land bank, plans to upgrade machinery in 2018, AgroGeneration Vice President Serhiy Bulavin has said.
“We are considering a possibility of increasing the land bank and are planning to update the equipment. Recovery of the equipment significantly influences the economic efficiency. With the planned updating of equipment, the agricultural company reduces the maintenance and repair costs, cuts the risks of non-fulfillment of production plans due to sudden breakdowns,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, according to the vice president, in 2017 an independent audit of the group’s technologies was conducted and a number of improvements were made.
“We bought new equipment and updated old one for $6.5 million. Thanks to these changes and the price forecast for our products harvested in the 2017-2018 season, we decided to expand the area with winter crops by about 10% of the total land bank size to some 48,000 hectares. These areas are distributed among all our farms in Kharkiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Ternopil and Lviv regions. Winter wheat, rapeseed and barley are sowed on these areas,” Bulavin said.
He also said that the structure of fields with spring crops has also been revised depending on the price forecast.
The main task of the company for the near future, according to Bulavin, is to have as largest economic efficiency as possible.
“For this [ to have largest economic efficiency as possible] in 2017 we invested in the training of our specialists under the Lean Six Sigma program and the introduction of this technology in the company. Now we have about 50 projects related to obtaining additional efficiency. Most of them will be completed in 2018 and the new projects will be launched,” he said.
The French group AgroGeneration was founded in 2007. It grows grains and oilseeds. In Ukraine it currently processes about 120,000 hectares.
The State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate has annulled a permit to build the Podol Grad Vintage residential complex at 28-30, Voznesensky Uzviz Street in Podilsky district of Kyiv. “The permit to carry out construction works on one of the scandal-ridden sites in the historic center of Kyiv has been annulled. This is the Podol Grad Vintage residential complex being built on the land of… the blind association,” MP Serhiy Leshchenko wrote on his Facebook page.
According to a copy of the decision posted by the lawmaker, the inspectorate annulled the permit for the contraction project ordered by Kyiv training and production enterprise No. 3 of the Ukrainian Blind Association on March 16.
According to a posting on the website of the Podol Grad Vintage residential complex, developers of the project are Edelburg Development (Budgroup Project LLC) and Ukbud, and the contractor is All Trade private enterprise (all based in Kyiv). No details on the project are posted on its website.
Vitaliy Melnyk, who worked as project manager at the development company UDP, has been tapped to become CEO of the company. The top manager has been working at UPD since 2005, has a considerable background in the development of large-scale infrastructure facilities of commercial and residential property. Under Vitaliy Melnyk’s management, big projects have been developed or built, or are being built, such as the Maristella club house in Odesa (a Luxury Lifestyle Awards 2011 winner), as well as a gated residential community on the Black Sea coast, and innovation parks UNIT.City in Kyiv and LvivTech.City in Lviv.
“I wish Vitaliy success. He has a lot of important and interesting work ahead. The company will continue to participate as an investor in joint projects with partners. But the emphasis will be on the development of innovative business areas of the UFuture Group with development of innovation and industrial parks ranking first,” founder of the investment group UFuture Vasyl Khmelnytsky said.
“The portfolio of UDP projects for the coming years includes about one million square meters of industrial, office and residential real estate. As part of the concept of developing innovation parks, the company will actually build mini-towns with commercial and social infrastructure, which will be of great importance not only to our group, but to the country in general,” the company said, citing Vitaliy Melnyk.
Along with ongoing projects, UDP plans to complete the construction of 30,000 square meters of office space in UNIT.City and build the first two plants in the Bila Tserkva industrial park by the end of the year. Currently, the company is analyzing the possibility of building an innovation park in Kharkiv.
UFuture is an investment group founded by businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky. It incorporates the development company UDP, Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany), the national outdoor advertising operator RTM-Ukraine, the pharmaceutical producer Biopharma. UFuture also develops innovative businesses, such as alternative energy asset (via UDP Renewables), the Bila Tserkva industrial park, as well as the innovation parks UNIT.City and LvivTech.City. What is more, UFuture also coordinates social projects, supported by Vasyl Khmelnytsky through his K.Fund.
UDP is a leading development company in Ukraine. It has been working on the market since 2002. It has initiated and has successfully been developing long-term investment projects. Among the most well known are the development of Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany), the construction of the shopping mall OCEAN PLAZA and residential complexes Novopecherski Lypki, Boulevard of Fountains, RiverStone, Parkove Misto. As of today, UDP has implemented 11 projects whose total area is three million square meters.
Public joint-stock company Kharkiv biscuit factory saw a 22.4% rise in net profit in 2017, to UAH 161.35 million. According to a company report posted in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market, undistributed profit grew by 17.8%, to UAH 1.06 billion. Noncurrent liabilities soared 1.6-fold, to UAH 5.19 billion and current liabilities – 1.5-fold, to UAH 129.1 million.
Total bills receivable rose by 18%, to UAH 470.04 million.
Kharkiv biscuit factory produces flour confectionery. Its annual capacity is around 40,000 tonnes of products. The enterprise is part of Biscuit-Chocolate Corporation founded in 2004. It also incorporates public joint-stock company Kharkivchanka confectionery factory, Prestige Trade House LLC, public joint-stock company Pervukhinsky sugar refinery, Krasnohradsky Mlyn LLC and public joint-stock company Skovoroda Agrofirm.
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy plans to enter the eurobond market in 2018 and expects that investors would positively react to this step, as the company sees profits, Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Andriy Kobolev said on Bloomberg TV Europe. “We hope that Gazprom would execute the decision of the arbitration tribunal,” he said. Kobolev also said that Ukraine and Naftogaz insist that Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline cannot be built, as Russia does not want to divide the politics and gas supplies.
