KYIV. April 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s government and the European Commission have signed an agreement on the provision of EUR 97 million for the U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Program.
Deputy Prime Minister – Regional Development Minister of Ukraine Hennadiy Zubko and Head of the EU-Ukraine Support Group Peter Wagner signed this agreement, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.
“This is an investment into knowledge and the ability of communities to change, to grow, to establish the new quality of life. As the result of the implementation of this program over the next four years we want to see that we have brought up a new elite of strong and educated people who are willing to take responsibility and be real leaders,” Zubko said.
According to him, EUR 97 million provided by the EU will be spent on training of regional officials in strategic planning, budgeting, monitoring, e-governance, efficient financial management, etc.
The program is designed for four years and is aimed at supporting the local government reform, the decentralization in Ukraine and the regional development.
The U-LEAD program consists of two components: enhanced capacity to implement decentralization and regional policy reforms (education of local authorities of all levels, consultations on different matters, etc) and creating administrative service centres (it envisages the establishment of 600 such centers and training their staff).
The program is implemented in Ukraine by the EU and its member-states Germany, Sweden and Poland through the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Swedish International Development Agency. The funds have been allocated by the EU – EUR 60 million, Germany – EUR 6 million, Sweden – EUR 30 million, and Poland – EUR 1 million.
KYIV. April 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry is working on a program to stimulate the arrival of low-cost airlines to the country, foreseeing the provision of benefits to them, Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.
“We’re working on a program to additionally pay to low-cost airlines, or to provide them with benefits,” he said at a meeting with members of the European Business Association (EBA) in Kyiv last week.
The minister said that talks with these European airlines showed that they are currently not ready to come to Ukraine.
Omelyan said that among key obstacles is the absence of an agreement on Open Skies with the EU and the administrative restriction policy conducted by the National Bank of Ukraine.
He added that Ukrainian cities, particularly Lviv, threw cold water on the proposal to pay to low-cost airlines extra to organize flights.
KYIV. April 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A member of the parliamentary committee for healthcare Kostiantyn Yarynich has registered two bills with incentives for medicine production investment projects in Ukraine in order to reduce the tax burden on imports of equipment for medicine production.
He proposed amending to the Customs Code (bill No. 4509) and Tax Code (bill No. 4508) is made.
Yarynich told Interfax-Ukraine that bill No. 4509 implies the reduction of tax burden on economic entities that will implement investment projects to produce medicines and medical products.
The document envisages exemption from paying imports duty on equipment for production of medicines and medical products until January 1, 2017, using concrete Ukrainian foreign trade codes, which would make impossible abuse of law in applying the tax benefit.
The document says that imports duty exemption will apply only if imported equipment is used by taxpayers for own production of medicines and medical products if identical goods with similar quality indicators are not made in Ukraine.
Bill No. 4508 says that profit that taxpayers will receive from the above-mentioned investment projects and equipment used in production of medicines will be taxed at a zero rate in the first five years of the project implementation, 8% in next five years and 18% in 10 years.
The taxation regime applies if total investment for the project is no less than EUR 15 million, investors are to create over 200 jobs, salaries of workers are to be no less than 2.5 minimum salaries in Ukraine and income of taxpayers received from the investment project is to be no less than 75% of their total income over reporting period.
The document foresees the exemption from VAT for imports of equipment for production of medicines and medical products, including active pharmaceutical ingredients, if the equipment is used for the enterprise’s own production, it was made no more than three years ago before it was imported to Ukraine, it is not used, is not excisable and identical imported goods with similar quality indicators are not made in Ukraine.
KYIV. April 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that he would provide support for Ukrainian aircraft manufacturers to enter new markets.
The press service of the head of state reported that Poroshenko visited the Ivchenko Progress Machine-Building Design Bureau of Zaporizhia during his working trip to the region and took part in the test launch of a new AI-450 engine. Poroshenko examined the enterprise and watched samples of test launches of various engines.
Poroshenko said that Ukraine is deservedly considered one of few countries in the world capable of producing modern aircrafts.
“The enterprise doesn’t stand still. It implements modern technologies and demonstrates positive economic and financial results,” he said.
He pointed out successful work of Ukroboronprom State Concern on the substitution of components previously supplied from Russia.
“We have elaborated an import substitution system. Our engineers have fulfilled this task,” he said.
According to the president, the volume of production at Ukroboronprom has been tripled. This means that thousands of jobs have been saved and new jobs have been created. Engineers have also remained at the Progress Design Bureau.
“Ukrainian aircraft manufacturing has a great future,” Poroshenko said, adding that Ukrainian products had recently entered the market of Saudi Arabia and India.
KYIV. April 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – PJSC Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine (Kyiv) in 2015, under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), saw net losses rise by UAH 1.3 million, or 7.9 times, compared to 2014, to UAH 1.482 million.
According to a company report in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, its net income by early 2016 amounted to UAH 9.296 million.
Gross loss in 2015 amounted to UAH 395,000 against UAH 747,000 in gross profit in 2014.
At the same time, the company’s uncovered loss in 2015 decreased by 13 times compared to the previous year, to UAH 123,000.
As reported, Dyckerhoff GmbH, part of Dyckerhoff AG (both based in Wiesbaden, Germany) of Italian group Buzzi Unicem, on June 2, 2015 became the owner of 94.511% or 87,434 shares in PJSC Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine (Kyiv) being also part of the group.
KYIV. April 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian market of express delivery will annually grow by 20%, probably more, Nova Poshta co-founder Viacheslav Klimov forecasts.
He said at a meeting with journalists in Kyiv that in future the positions of local players in this market will strengthen and international companies will gradually enter the market.
“The computerization of deliveries will also continue, all goes to the Internet. It is necessary to make every effort to facilitate these services, ensure one-click delivery, make it as easy as possible,” Klimov said.
In addition, the expert expects the increase in the demands of customers.
Nova Poshta is a private operator of express delivery of parcels, documents and freight in Ukraine. The network consists of more than 3,000 branches located in more than 900 locations across the country.
