KYIV. Sept 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a decree on implementing the pilot project on temporary restrictions on using state regulation for food prices.
First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv said at a cabinet meeting the project would be launched on October 1, 2016 and last until January 1, 2017.
“The draft resolution is developed to study the effectiveness of food price regulation and making decision on whether it is appropriate to retain this regulation,” he said.
As reported, the ministry proposed to launch a project to abolish state regulation of prices for food and services in retail outlets from August 15, 2016.
According to the draft document, posted on the ministry’s website, it is proposed to temporarily suspend regulations No. 1548 of December 25, 1996 and No. 1222 of October 17, 2007 in part of state regulation of prices for baby food, bread, flour, sugar, cereals, meat and dairy products, eggs, sunflower oil and other products.
The document also provides for the abolition of state regulation of payment for services provided in trade facilities, in food and non-food markets, the level of prices and profitability for retail space rent.
KYIV. Sept 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and the Netherlands have agreed to enhance cooperation in the development of inland waterways and port infrastructure.
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan announced this after a meeting with Dutch Ambassador to Ukraine Kees Klompenhouwer which took place in Kyiv on Friday, the press service of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine reported.
Ukraine and the Netherlands have agreed to launch the Dnipro Development Initiative, which will involve cooperation in the development of inland waterways in Ukraine. They reached a preliminary agreement to organize the visit of representatives of Ukrainian government agencies in charge of water infrastructure management to the Netherlands to learn local experience in this area. The officials also discussed the issues of public-private partnerships in infrastructure. The Netherlands is ready to send experts on public-private partnership to work in the Public-Private Partnership Office under the Infrastructure Development Ministry.
Omelyan also invited Dutch companies to participate in development of infrastructure of Ukrainian ports.
KHARKIV. Sept 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Acting Head of Kharkiv Regional State Administration Yulia Svetlychna has announced the possibility of opening Kharkiv region’s office in the European Union will be considered during the eighth International Economic Forum “Investment. Innovation. Kharkiv initiatives.”
“Unveiling plans for the future, I can announce that in recent months there has been demand for opening of Kharkiv region’s office in the European Union. We’ll consider this option at the forum,” she said, addressing forum attendees on Friday.
Later, answering questions from journalists, she said that the point at issue is the creation of representative offices in several EU countries.
“In Europe, there is demand for small and medium-sized entrepreneurship. We’ve found one of patriots in Kharkiv region who is ready to maintain Kharkiv region’s office in Italy. We’re also mulling two more EU member states,” she said.
She also said Kharkiv region plans to open another office in the United States, namely in New York. The first one opened earlier in Washington.
KYIV. Sept 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A delegation of businessmen from Turkey will soon visit Ukraine to discuss investment opportunities, Deputy Head of Ukrainian Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev has said.
“The president also had a rather specific business meeting with the president of Turkey. After all, you know that there is enormous investment potential of our cooperation, in particular, we have agreed on the Turkish delegation’s visit, which will include representatives of the investment circles, the office that deals with privatization processes in Ukraine, to look into our ability to extend cooperation with the Turkish side,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
KYIV. Sept 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of up to EUR 1.4 million to support resource and energy efficiency improvements at Khask Group, a Ukrainian manufacturer of flexible packaging materials, the EBRD said in a press release on Friday.
Khask, where the bank is a shareholder, will also become the first domestic beneficiary of the Bank’s Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC) program through a grant for the implementation of a solvent recovery system, which will help remove impurities from used chemicals.
The investment will finance the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment that will allow Khask to implement its modernization program, which aims to reduce the use of energy and solvents and achieve a subsequent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
In particular, solvent recovery systems, together with additional energy efficiency measures, will help Khask save up to 350,000 m3 of natural gas per year and avoid annual emissions of up to 2,900 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
In 2016, Ukraine became a member of the EBRD’s FINTECC program, which is designed to transfer technology in the area of climate change mitigation and adaptation. It successfully operates in 14 countries where the EBRD invests.
The three-year program is supported by $7 million of grant funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and a EUR 4 million grant from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).
In addition, Khask has benefited from support through the EBRD Small Business Impact Fund, which, with financial support from the United States, has provided $2 million to moderate the risks of EBRD investment in Ukraine and enable wider lending.
Khask Group is a Kharkiv-based Ukrainian company and one of the leading regional producers of high-quality flexible plastic packaging materials and self-adhesive tapes. The EBRD became a shareholder of the firm in 2011.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the Bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12 billion through 368 projects since the start of its operations in the country in 1993.
KYIV. Sept 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine should study the possibility of exporting blood preparations to India, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said.
“When we speak about cooperation in the pharmaceutical sphere, we always speak about imports of drugs from India. However, look at blood preparations: India does not have them. This is a possibility of supplying preparations to India,” she said at the Ukraine-India roundtable in the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on Friday.
She also said that technologies could be also exported from Ukraine to India, in particular, IT products.
In turn, Deputy Agricultural Policy and Food Minister Olha Trofimtseva said that development of exports of from Ukraine to India leguminous crops would allow speaking not only about exports of raw materials, but also exports of finished products.
