Business news from Ukraine

JAPANESE SPECIALISTS DRAW UP ENERGY POLICY PLAN FOR UKRAINE

KYIV. Oct 2 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Economy, Trade and Industry Shigeki Iwai presented a plan for Ukraine’s energy policy at a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, which was drawn up with the help of Japanese experts.

The information and public relations department of the secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine said that at the meeting, Iwai confirmed that the Japanese government plans to deepen its cooperation with Ukraine, first of all, on energy, and will also introduce relevant innovative technologies.

The meeting participants discussed Ukrainian-Japanese energy projects and the prospects of cooperation on responses to emergencies at nuclear power plants, reads the report.

The National Science and Technology Association of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that as a part of the visit of the parliamentary delegation from Japan, which was headed by Chairman of the Japan-Ukraine Friendship Parliamentary League Eisuke Mori and included Japanese businessmen, ended on October 1, and meetings with Ukrainian Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Groysman, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmitry Shymkiv, Managing Director of ICU financial group Makar Paseniuk and Deputy Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan were held.

At the later meeting, the association presented the project entitled “Odesa Transport and Logistics Cluster. Ukrainian Gates for Japanese Goods to Europe.”

The Japanese delegation also visited Chornobyl NPP and the Ukrainian-Japanese center of the National Technical University of Ukraine KPI.

UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES CONCEPT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

KYIV. Oct 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the concept of rural development which is scheduled to be implemented in 2025.

The decision on approving the concept was fixed in Cabinet order No. 995-r of September 23, 2015, the text of which has been posted on the government’s website.

“The concept defines the main priorities for the development of rural areas and the mechanism of preparing state agricultural and rural sectors for functioning under the conditions of the free trade area with the EU,” the order said.

In addition, the implementation of the concept will reorient state agrarian policy from support of the agricultural sector to support for rural development and improving the quality of life and economic well-being of the rural population.

According to the document, the population of rural areas will increase, the rural mortality rate will reach the same level as in urban areas, wages will be increased, the number of jobs in agriculture will be increased to one million, rural employment will rise by 1.5 times, rural households’ income from business will rise to 15%, and the share of certified organic farmland will also rise to 7%.

 

KYIV INVESTMENT AGENCY PLANS TO LAUNCH 17 INVESTMENT TENDERS SOON

KYIV. Oct 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyiv Investment Agency municipal enterprise is preparing to launch tenders under 17 investment projects in the near future.

“Now six innovation tenders are looking for investors, and another 17 tenders will be launched in the near term,” First Deputy Director General Vitaliy Boiko said at a conference of the Financial Club devoted to bank collateral property and its management and prospects, which was held on Tuesday.

He said that 12 investment tenders have been held. Around UAH 1 billion will be allocated to Kyiv during the realization of the projects that already have investors.

He said that today the agency has around 190 projects with a construction area of 1.4 million square meters, and the realization of them could give around UAH 18 billion.

He said that the key problems in the realization of investment projects in Kyiv is the ineffective work of the court system in protecting the rights of investors, closeness of information on city assets and their owners, and the large number of permits required to start construction.

Boiko said that cooperating with Kyiv Investment Agency investors could lift most of risks concerning the purchase of land parcels.

UKRAINE COULD BOOST SUGAR EXPORTS BY DOZENS OF TIMES FROM 2016 – MINISTER

KYIV. Oct 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Fields sown with sugar beets in Ukraine could be increased in 2016, as if Asian markets are opened, exports will grow considerably, Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko said at a briefing on Wednesday.

“We’ve raised the issue of foreign markets at a meeting of the Chinese commission and with several Asian countries. I think that next year it is better to sow more sugar beets. If we are able to open several markets in the next six months, we will be able to increase exports,” he said.

Pavlenko said that sugar beet exports could reach 1 million tonnes.

“The figure of 100,000 tonnes for export is not the limit. We can export dozens times more, and I don’t see any problem of exporting 1 million tonnes. Yes, refineries require modernization, but investment and foreign markets are required for this,” he said.

Pavlenko said that as of September 30, 2015, sugar beets were dug up from 34,000 hectares or 18% of fields with a yield of 388 centners per hectare. A total of 1.7 million tonnes of sugar beets have been dug up.

He said that the ministry has not changed its forecast for sugar production: 1.2-1.3 million tonnes in the current season (September-August).

CABINET REVOKES LICENSING OF SCRAP NON-FERROUS METAL UNDER ECONOMY MINISTRY’S INITIATIVE – OFFICIAL

KYIV. Oct 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has stopped licensing foreign economic transactions on exports of scrap non-ferrous metals, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Maksym Nefyodov said on Facebook.

“The resolution from the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine on revoking licenses to export goods made of non-ferrous metals (the reduction of the list in supplement 5 to the annual resolution) has been passed… There will not be useless commissions, senseless licenses and money jobs,” he said.

Nefyodov said that this is not only about deregulation, but also anti-corruption, as the issue of these licenses using the principle of issuing the license to concrete persons and not issuing them to others initially included the temptation to abuse power.

UKRAINE’S MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM FOR FOREIGN BROADCASTING TO LAUNCH AT NOON ON OCT 1 – INFO MINISTER

KYIV. Sept 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s multimedia platform for foreign broadcasting will be launched on Thursday, October 1, Information Policy Minister Yuriy Stets has said.

“At 12:00 on October 1 we will launch the multimedia platform for Ukraine’s foreign broadcasting abroad. For this I thank the journalists of the Ukrainian National Channel, Ukrinform, BTB, and members of the government. Regardless of the fact of the so called “fifth column,” the followers of the Kremlin, so called our “allies” who put spokes in wheels, we continue with reforms,” he said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv.

Stets expressed his belief that the broadcasting of this media platform “will be seen on every continent, in hundreds of countries around the world, by hundreds of millions of people.”

However, he said that to complete this process it is necessary to adopt a law on the system of foreign broadcasting in Ukraine.