KYIV. Sept 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has defined a mechanism for introducing the action plan to on implementing court reform, legal processes, and legal institutions for 2015-2020.
Cabinet resolution No. 864-r of August 19 has been posted on the government’s website.
According to the plan, the council for court reform is recommended: to define institutional coordinators to take measures among the authorized agencies, taking into account their competence, consider amending the action plan in part of defining agencies responsible for the realization of the measures and coordinate the implementation of the action plan at the central level. The council is to publish the action plan on its official website and provide regular updates if amendments are made.
The cabinet also ordered that institutional coordinators-ministries and other central executive power agencies should approve the annual plans for 2016 agreed with other agencies and the Finance Ministry within two months. Institutional coordinators should submit the annual plants to the council for court reform, start fulfilling them, and permanently revise them. They are obliged to provide aid to the council on issues linked to the implementation of the plan. Starting from 2016 through 2019, until October 1, institutional coordinators are to approve the annual plans for next year, and before March 1, starting from 2016, inform the cabinet on the state of the implementation of the action plan for the previous year.
KYIV. Sept 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Finance Ministry of Ukraine has preliminarily assessed revenues of the national budget from the legalization of gambling at up to UAH 5 billion, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko told reporters on Monday.
“According to tentative assessments, this could be up to UAH 5 billion a year of revenues to the budget. Concrete figures would be presented in the budget,” she said.
As reported, Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius has said that he supports the legalization of gambling in the country.
“I personally support [legalization of] gambling, as it means income for the budget,” he said.
According to him, such establishments should be located in four and five-star hotels and the exact size of such establishments should be defined in a way that operators with good reputations from the U.S. and Central and Eastern Europe will come to Ukraine.
The Finance Ministry plans to reduce the individual income tax and single social security tax thanks to the legalization of gambling.
Gambling was banned in Ukraine in the summer of 2009.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has approved the procedure for considering electronic petitions submitted to the president, which will be a real mechanism for direct communication between the public and the president, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Dmitry Shymkiv has said.
“Petitions are the real mechanism of direct addresses of the public to the president. This is the initiative of Poroshenko, which first was realized in the adoption of the law on amending the law on petitions of citizens in the electronic form and electronic petitions, which the head of state signed a month ago, and now it is transformed in his decree,” Shymkiv said, commenting on the signing of the document, the press service of the head of state reported.
According to the decree, under the law on the petitions of citizens, electronic petitions will be submitted to the president with at least 25,000 signatures collected no more than three months from the date of its publication.
“The petitions will be discussed urgently, but no later than 10 working days from the moment of the publication of information on the start of its consideration. The Presidential Administration is provided for the consideration of the petitions,” the report said.
A working group will be created to consider the petition with the involvement of representatives of the interested agencies, and if required – representatives of civil society, experts, specialists, advisory and other auxiliary agencies and services, the report said.
If the issues raised in a petition touch not only powers of the Ukrainian president, but also other agencies, the relevant agencies will be involved in working on the petitions.
The draft president’s response will be formed within seven days from the day of the publication of information pm the consideration of the petition. Then it is to be submitted to the president.
The notification on support or non-support of the electronic petition by the head of state will be posted on the website of the Ukrainian president and his response will be posted in a dedicated section.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Verkhovna Rada has passed the presidential bill on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on decentralization at first reading.
A draft resolution on the preliminary approval of the bill was supported by
265 out of the 368 MPs present in the session hall on Monday.
Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Groysman closed the parliamentary session immediately after the resolution was adopted.
As reported, the adoption of constitutional amendments is envisaged in the Minsk agreements. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko put forward a bill on amending the constitution which foresees that the special procedure of local government in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is to be defined by a separate law.
In the current session, which was not closed in July, the parliament needed
226 votes to pass the bill at first reading. Now, the Verkhovna Rada needs at least 300 votes for the final adoption of the bill on amendments to the constitution during the next session.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) supports the new approach of the Ukrainian government towards the privatization of state-owned facilities and continues to discuss the provision of technical help on the issue, EBRD Director in Ukraine Sevki Acuner told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We consider the new approach more sensible and wise. The privatization must be conducted in a transparent way by giving the potential investors time for due diligence: If the sale was conducted in the old way, by putting 5% on the exchange house to determine the price, it wouldn’t allow for a full attraction of investors to the market. Only an insider with inside knowledge could ‘put money on the table.’ The attempt to assess the actual market value of the asset in such a way would be futile,” he said.
According to the agency’s interlocutor, this position is shared by not only the EBRD, but also by international financial organizations working in Ukraine.
Acuner said that the EBRD and other donors are discussing the provision of technical help to Ukraine in two directions: to prepare legal amendments for the privatization under new rules, and in practical issues of privatization.
“We’re looking into the possibility of giving the aid to the State Property Fund to organize and conducting the ‘due diligence,’ pre-privatization analyses, including value assessment, ecological research, legal analyses.
There’s also a possibility of help in reforming the laws needed for the privatization taking the best international experience into account,” Acuner said.
According to him, both the EBRD and USAID are ready to provide significant technical aid to Ukraine to conduct transparent and efficient privatization.
“There will be a discussion next week among international financial organizations working in Ukraine to coordinate the support,” Acuner said.
Acuner also expressed hope that Ukraine would continue to pass progressive reforms.
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg goods in Ukraine, saw a 42% rise in net profit in January-June 2015, to $15.893 million, the company said in a report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
The company said that its revenue decreased by 2%, to $33.509 million and gross profit grew by 14%, to $14.231 million.
Operating profit rose by 30%, to $14.864 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) – by 18%, to $15.875 million.
The company said that its revenue decreased mainly related to lower revenue from non-core sunflower processing segment. Net profit has been influenced by a non-cash item, finance in-come that arose from translation of the company’s EUR-denominated loans into presentation currency.
Production cost in H1 2015 totaled $20.718 million. Lower year-on-year U.S.
dollar terms cost of grains, the company’s main production cost component, resulted in a 12% decrease in cost of sales value, although selling volumes have been higher than in the H1 2014.
Devaluation of Ukrainian hryvnia that continued in the first half of 2015 compressed the U.S. dollar value of the company’s balance sheet items. In H1
2015 the USD-denominated value of total assets decreased by 6% to $95.062 million compared to the end of 2014. Current assets decreased by 3% to
$32.368 million while non-current assets decreased by 8% to $62.694 million.
During the reporting period, total liabilities increased by 12% to $18.554 million. Trade payables de-creased by 54% to $2.622 million.
