The Hilton Hotel will be built on the site where a museum in the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Park of Lviv that was closed, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said at a meeting of the executive committee of Lviv City Council.
“We have made a decision: in Lviv, they want to build a hotel, it seems, Hilton. There should be half of the building – a classic hotel, half of the building – an apartment hotel. This should be a building of high architectural level – a work of art,” Sadovy said.
According to him, the developer agreed to finance the reconstruction of the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Park.
According to the text of the decision of September 20, 2018, the Lviv City Council approved the sale of a land parcel of 1.06 hectares located at 1, Lyzhvyarska Street in Lviv to Aparthotel LLC for UAH 18.52 million.
According to town planning conditions, the height of the building should not exceed 34 m. The building area is approximately 1,600 square meters. The total area of apartments is 8,300 square meters, or 157 apartments. The infrastructure of the facility will also include an underground parking area of 1,400 square meters.
UFuture Investment Group has opened Plank Electrotechnic, Ukraine’s first plant to produce modern electrotechnical systems. The building of the enterprise meets international BREEAM sustainability standards (compliance with about 50 criteria for environmental construction). Plank Electrotechnic products are now undergoing EU certification procedures.
“We have invested $2.8 million in the enterprise and expect to return the investment within five years. The Ukrainian market is a priority, but the company plans to expand the outreach to Eastern European consumers. I believe that the development of modern technological industries is a very promising area, both from business and social points of view – it is not only profit, but also taxes and jobs,” Vasyl Khmelnytsky, the founder of UFuture, has said.
Plank Electrotechnic will produce about 4.6 million units annually and will compete mainly with Chinese and Turkish manufacturers on the Ukrainian market. This high-tech enterprise will produce electrical fittings, accessories and components: sockets, switches, mounting boxes, cable ties, buttons, etc.
“Opening a new plant marks the beginning of the development of Plank innovative production cluster at Bila Tserkva Industrial Park which will make goods from high-tech materials in the field of electrical engineering, construction and mechanical engineering. We offer entrepreneurs who plan to work in these areas to quickly scale their businesses without unnecessary administrative and bureaucratic obstacles,” Chief Executive Officer of Bila Tserkva Industrial Park Volodymyr Khmurych has said.
The construction of three new plants at Bila Tserkva Industrial Park will start within the year, and 20 modern enterprises will be created in the next four years.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
UFuture is a Ukrainian private equity firm and group of companies, based in Kyiv. UFuture consolidates UDP, which is a real estate development company specialized in large infrastructure projects, the country’s second biggest Kyiv Sikorsky international airport, national Ukrainian outdoor advertising operator RTM, and Bila Tserkva industrial park. The group develops new and innovative businesses such as renewable energy generator UDP Renewables, pharmaceutical producer Biopharma, and innovation parks UNIT.City and LvivTech.City. UFuture supports and coordinates numerous impact and sustainability projects related to education and economics, some of which are annual Kyiv International Economic Forum, Small and Medium Entrepreneurship School, cutting-edge IT coding school UNIT Factory and Lean Institute Ukraine.
Bila Tserkva Industrial Park is a large-scale investment project aimed at facilitating establishment of modern manufacturing in Ukraine. It is a one-window platform that allows producers to access all necessary assets, utilities and services and focus on the development of their businesses. The park offers industrial land and property with all engineering infrastructure for rent or purchase, turn-key solutions and a possibility of co-investment in manufacturing. Local market insight and substantial experience in real estate development allows the park’s team to provide clients with additional consulting services on setting up an efficient production.
The European Business Association (EBA) has called to annul the excise label for wine, as it does not help to fight counterfeit products, while creates additional expenses for manufacturers, the press service of the association has reported.
According to the EBA, Ukrainian legislation requires the application of an excise label on all beverages with an ethyl alcohol content of more than 8.5% ABV. At the same time, wines with 1.2-15% ABV are subject to excise tax at a rate of UAH 0.01 per liter, while the value of the label is UAH 0.19 per piece. Alcohol importers also bear the cost of sending labels abroad.
“According to the calculations of the member companies of the association, there are UAH 278.6 of additional expenses per UAH 1 of the paid excise tax. Moreover, the major part of the sum does not go to the budget of Ukraine, but remains abroad,” the EBA said.
According to the EU regulations on labeling and protection of names of origin of alcoholic beverages, which Ukraine will have to adapt, beer from malt, grape wines, vermouth, cider and ethyl alcohol are not considered to be alcoholic beverages. Consequently, their quality control in Ukraine should not take place with the help of excise labels, but according to the general legislation on product safety, the EBA said.
“The products with alcohol content up to 8.5% ABV do not apply the excise labels. However, the safety control of such products is carried out. Therefore, it is reasonable to introduce the same logic for products with 1.2-15% ABV,” the EBA reports.
According to the press service, to abolish the excise labels, it is necessary to make changes to the Tax Code. “The business has already submitted the relevant proposals to the government. We hope that they will be taken into account in the near future,” the EBA said.
The relaxation of the rules for opening accounts by nonresidents reflects the immutability of the regulation relaxing policy and would positively influence the conditions for doing business in Ukraine, according to lawyers polled by Interfax-Ukraine.
Commenting on the update of the rules of opening and closing accounts of banks’ resident and nonresident clients and correspondent accounts of banks by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which entered into force on April 4, Gabriel Aslanian, counsel to the Asters law firm, said that another important effect of innovation is a “positive signal to foreign companies that the situation in the country is improving, since there is no longer any need to maintain tight restrictions on operations.”
However, the lawyer believes that the inability to open accounts in Ukraine was not a clear obstacle to the work of foreign companies in the country.
“If a foreign company had an intention to operate in Ukraine, it could always establish or acquire a subsidiary here, open a representative office with the right to open current accounts,” he said, adding that, at the same time, the current restriction on opening accounts was quite noticeable for foreign lenders.
Aslanian said that after the lifting of the restriction on opening accounts, a foreign creditor “gets the opportunity, not on paper, but in reality, of selling his pledges in respect of hryvnia payments to residents’ accounts or on proceeds from hryvnia contracts between residents of Ukraine.”
In addition, it is important for the lender to directly, as a beneficiary, receive insurance indemnity from the Ukrainian insurer in case of loss of the funded project.
In turn, Kateryna Tkachenko, a lawyer at the K.A.C. Group international law firm, said that, thanks to the innovations, when changing the name of a legal entity, you will not need to close existing accounts. The presentation of bank cards with specimen signatures is also canceled when customers of banks open accounts, the accounts will be managed only by persons who, according to the legislation, have the right to do so.
In turn, managing partner of the RI-Group law firm, Alexander Keer, said that the introduction of the new rules by the NBU is “a significant step towards currency liberalization in Ukraine.”
“The macroeconomic effect of this decision is likely to be the improvement of investment climate and the attraction of investments in Ukraine. According to the document, foreigners have the opportunity of both opening accounts in our banks and making payments in the national currency, which significantly speeds up the movement of funds, simplifies doing business in our territory,” he said.
According to the new rules, foreign companies will be able to open accounts in Ukrainian banks, make settlements (invest) in the hryvnia, which will greatly simplify and accelerate the movement of funds and business in Ukraine in general.
At the same time, according to Keer, the new rules from the NBU “will not lead to an immediate increase in foreign investment in our country, because we all are now hostages of a long electoral cycle (presidential and parliamentary elections of 2019), but for foreign business already operating here this step by the National Bank is a really positive moment and a focus on qualitative changes in the country.”
The government support for building berry refrigerators by agricultural cooperatives is ineffective and will not be effective without a permit to compensate the cost of imported equipment, Head of the Ukrsadvinprom nongovernmental organization Volodymyr Pechko has said.
He said that the initiative of the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry to permit compensations for imported refrigerators for agricultural cooperatives would not improve the situation with refrigerators, as cooperatives are not peculiar for this sector.
“To use the program, producers should unite in a cooperative, and this is very complicated. People cannot agree on whose territory a refrigerator is built,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry plans to permit compensations to agricultural cooperatives for purchase of refrigerators for berries and fruits. The Cabinet of Ministers will consider the appropriate changes in the rules of using funds on government support to the agricultural and industrial complex in the near future.
Earlier, Ukrsadvinprom called on the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine to adapt the state-funded program compensating expenses on construction of fruit refrigerators to berry farms. The criterion of the capacity of this equipment for compensation from the national budget from 500 tonnes, as provided for by the current government decree, should be relaxed to 50-100 tonnes, they said.
A large discussion on land reform took place during the Ukrainian Land Forum in Kyiv. Representatives of 490 agricultural enterprises from all over Ukraine took part in this event (of these 115 livestock complexes and 79 thsd of cattle stock). Their total land fund is 4.5 million hectares. The organizer of the forum is the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC).
Four contestants for the presidency, who gained 65% of population’s votes during the first round of elections — Yulia Tymoshenko, Yurii Boiko, Ihor Smeshko and Oleksandr Danyliuk (represented the team of Volodymyr Zelenskii) arrived to communicate with agrarians on land market establishment. People’s deputies, acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, international experts joined the Forum as well.
Presidential candidates and representatives of their teams expressed their vision of introducing land market in Ukraine.
Alexander Danyliuk, who represented Presidential candidate Vladimir Zelenskii, noted that their team is for creating a transparent land market.
Yurii Boiko has voiced that state support for small and medium agricultural business is necessary when opening the land market.
Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the authorities should create conditions of maximum preference for the development of small and medium agricultural producers.
In Ihor Smeshko’s view the land should belong to the people of Ukraine and be sold only to the citizens of Ukraine. The state’s task ‘number one’ is to support the medium-scale producer.
During the Forum, a deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Agrarian Policy and Land Relations Oleksandr Bakumenko presented four variants of the land market establishment, which were developed by the Committee to the Forum.
According to the presented options, citizens of Ukraine only will be able to buy the land. It is proposed to introduce the land market either both for physical and for legal entities, or to do so on a step-by-step basis for several years. The question of hectares to be purchased remains open. In the phased variants it is proposed to provide an opportunity to buy up to 20 hectares to private individuals. And legal entities – up to 200 hectares in the first three years, from the fourth year – maximum 500 hectares, and in the future – up to 20 thousand hectares. Another option suggests in the first three years already to allow the legal entities to buy up to 500 hectares of land, and from the fourth year — to 20 thousand hectares.
During the Forum agrarians could express their view on various aspects of land market establishment by interactive voting.
Thus, the lion’s share of respondents — 66.9% — convinced that competing with holdings, officials and oligarchs for the current land bank will be impossible.
According to the audience, if the land market in Ukraine will be introduced, the right of sale should be distributed on:
– State land and municipal property at first, and then on land of private property — 29.84%;
– the land of private property only — 21.59%;
– the land of private and municipal property at once — 26.03%.
The majority of voters (51,5%) agreed on the idea that private individuals should have the right to buy land at first, and after the end of transitional period this right should gain simultaneously private and juridical entities-agricultural producers whose owners are exclusively private individuals-citizens Of Ukraine. Another 22.46% of voters believe that the right to purchase land should have only private individuals -citizens Of Ukraine. Opinions concerning the maximum size of the land area for agriculture “in one hands” of the private individual divided: 38.51% support “to 200 hectares”, and 34.47% — “to 500 hectares.” Actually, as for the property of legal entities (and related persons). Thus, the maximum size of up to 5000 hectares was supported by 51.52%, and to 10000 hectares — 22.42%.
