KYIV. Feb 29 (Interfax) – Germany is working on a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Ukraine, Karl-Georg Wellmann, head of the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group and German parliament member, has said.
“We have been working on a new strategy for Ukraine’s stabilization and development together with the Ukrainians. With much greater financial and political efforts. This is something new, and it will supplement the Association Agreement,” Wellmann said in an interview with the newspaper Segodnya.
The new strategy “is just being elaborated, it has not been incorporated into official policy,” he said.
“This is the idea of a solid ‘Marshall Plan’ for restoring the economy, management, the judiciary, etc. If this ‘Marshall Plan’ ever starts working, that will happen only under full control and monitoring [by Germany]. Europe is Ukraine’s destiny. But you will have to do you homework first. For example, that was done by the Poles after signing the Association Agreement with the EU 20 years ago,” the parliamentarian said.
As to whether Europe was tired of the political situation in Ukraine, he said Germany “did not want that to happen.”
The Ukraine situation is being broadly discussed in the German political community and the media, he said. “You have to understand that everything [happening] in the Ukrainian government and parliament is the subject of intense monitoring in Germany. The future of Ukraine bears great significance for the whole of Europe,” Wellmann said.
KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers has approved conformity assessment modules, which are used by central executive authorities for the development of conformity assessment procedures brought in line with EU legislation, as well as the rules for using these modules.
Relevant decree No. 95 dated January 13, 2016 has been posted on the website of the government and comes into force in six months.
The document was developed pursuant to the provisions of the law on technical regulations and conformity assessment, which came into force on February 10 this year, to provide a unified approach to the assessment of products’ conformity in Ukraine and the EU.
“The document is intended to provide confidence in the results of conformity procedures for assessment of technical regulations for signing an ACAA agreement (an Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products between Ukraine and the EU), which will facilitate free trade between Ukraine and the EU member states,” reads the report.
According to the resolution, in connection with the adoption of a new legal act, in particular, the technical regulations of conformity assessment modules, approved by the government in 2003, became invalid.
KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Uber international technological platform in Ukraine will operate under local legislation, the press service of the platform has reported.
“Uber is a technological platform that connects riders and drivers. Uber in Ukraine will work only with individual businessmen and legal entities that will have all the required documents, including the licenses,” the press service said.
Uber in Ukraine will be presented by a local legal entity and will be managed by a team of local specialists.
“We support competition. We believe that it is of benefit to consumers. Uber provides affordable, reliable and safe way of riding the city and it is a supplement to local transport infrastructure. We don’t have the task to destroy the urban transportation market. On the contrary, Uber considerably widens the market, creating additional demand on rides,” the press service said.
The service said that this create additional economic opportunities for hundreds of drivers that is the possibility of the additional legal income. Money for rides becomes part of the local economy and an additional source for tax payments. All payments for rides are cashless, which guarantees transparency.
“After the launch of Uber, Kyiv will become one of 400 cities where citizens will be able to use the reliable, affordable and safe service for riding from point A to point B at the push of a button of the smartphone. We’re sure that the presence of so popular and acknowledged service will contribute in the attractiveness of Kyiv city as the popular direction for international tourism,” Uber said.
As reported, in December 2015, the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine announced the appearance of the Uber service in Ukraine and in July 2015 U.S. Uber Technologies Inc., the designer of the popular taxi application to order taxi, was looking for a manager for the Ukrainian market.
In February 2016, Uberlin company, an authorized partner of the Uber taxi service (the United States), started compiling a database of drivers in Ukraine for further connection to the service.
Currently five Ukrainian cities are available on the website of Uberlin for submitting applications from drivers, namely Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk. Three indicative tariff plans are offered for Ukrainian drivers: “Weekly” (for 40 trips per week the commission is 6% plus a 5% tax, payments are made once a week), “Daily Cashless” (a commission of 10% plus a 5% tax, funds are daily transferred to the card), and “Fixed” (a commission of UAH 500 a week).
The company does not disclose the concrete date when the service is launched, although some media reported that this could happen in the first quarter of 2016.
KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Importers are not ready for new complicated medicine imports licensing requirements that could take effect on March 1, 2016, the European Business Association (EBA) has said.
“Few days are left until the date when they are obligatory for implementation. The absence of a possibility of meeting the Ukrainian requirements by international pharmaceutical companies means the absence of a possibility of importing medicines to our country,” the EBA said in a press release.
The association said that unfortunately, it is unknown what the state of the draft cabinet resolution that postpones the critical provisions for March 1, 2018 is.
“If the state is not ready to postpone [the introduction of new rules] supply of medicines from abroad could stop in five days,” the association said.
“The blind transfer of the whole complex of European practices in part of medicine imports licensing to Ukraine resulted in the postponement of all crucial provisions from March 1, 2013 to March 1, 2016 not to block imports of medicines to Ukraine. Since then the situation has not changed: today importers are not able to observe the requirements of Ukrainian law due to unbiased reasons,” the association said.
“The postponement of the provisions for March 1, 2018 is the forced tactic step. However, it is badly needed to avoid collapse in imports,” the EBA said.
The State Service for Medicinal Products of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that imports of medicines from March 1, 2016 would not stop.
“Importers have valid licenses, and it is incorrect to say that imports of medicines will stop,” the service said.
At present, the new license conditions are being agreed by central executive power agencies.
Source: State Statistics Services
Source: State Statistics Services
1 Excluding the temporarily occupied territories, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and part of the anti-terrorist operation zone.
2 Data for 2015 may be revised.
KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest international vertically integrated mining and metal group, increased its stake in public joint-stock company Zaporizhkoks from 51% to 52.1677% of the share capital.
Zaporizhkoks reported in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine, referring to data received on February 23, 2016 from National Depository of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2016, Metinvest B. V. increased its stake from 60.856 million to 62.249 million shares.
Zaporizhkoks produces about 10% of all coke manufactured in Ukraine, and has a full technological cycle of processing coke-chemical products. The company also produces coke gas and pitch coke.
According to the company, Metinvest B.V. owns a 51% stake in the plant, Zaporizhstal – 42.7653%.
The plant’s charter capital is UAH 12.193 million, its share face value – UAH 0.01.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated international mining and steel company which owns 24 assets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States, and also manages each link of the production chain – iron ore and coal mining and coke production through to semi-finished and finished steel production; including the manufacturing of plate and coil, pipe rolling, shapes and bars and other value-added products.
