KIYV. Sept 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine has approved 17 out of 24 technical regulations of the European Union (EU) which are required as a part of the implementation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU, Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius has said.
“As for [technical] regulations… Now 17 out of 24 have been approved,” he said at a meeting of the parliamentary committee for European integration on Wednesday.
KYIV. Sept 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company State Food-Grain Corporation has used $400 million of the first tranche of a Chinese loan worth $1.5 billion.
The corporation said on its website, referring to Deputy Board Chairman Andriy Repko, that the sum was used to buy grain and industrial crops in Ukraine and to finance expenses on grain supplies to ССЕС Corporation under the cooperation agreements.
State Food-Grain Corporation said that the rest of the funds remain in the corporation’s accounts at Ukreximbank.
“In addition, Export-Import Bank of China authorized Ukreximbank to monitor the use of credit funds. Under the agreement, if infringements of the use of the funds are revealed, Export-Import Bank of China has the right to block a separate payment and the special accounts in general,” he said.
In August 2010, the government decided to create the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine. The corporation has a chain of branches, comprised of grain storage facilities, flourmills, fodder factories and a cereals factory. The 53 subdivisions of the corporation can store a total of 3.75 million tonnes of grain, which includes the grain handling capacities of Odesa and Mykolaiv ports of around 2.5 million tonnes of grain cargo per year.
In late 2012, the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine received the first tranche of $1.5 billion from the Export-Import Bank of China. The funds were to be allocated to carry out spot and forward purchases of four million tonnes of grain which would be shipped to China.
China National Machinery Industry Complete Engineering Corporation is the operator under the contract, which was signed for a period of 15 years.
The corporation plans to export 3.5 million tonnes of grain by late 2015 under the Chinese contract.
KYIV. Sept 16 (Interfax) – Arthur Betz Laffer, the father of ‘supply-side economics’, has become the advisor on taxation issues to Natalie Jaresko, the Ukrainian minister of finance.
“As an advisor to the minister of finance, Laffer will be consulting the minister on issues concerning the implementation of tax reforms in Ukraine, which will allow the creation of a transparent and efficient taxation system that will stimulate investment, economic growth and job creation, as well as improve the quality of public services rendered for business purposes, and therefore, will give a powerful impulse for the sustainable growth of the national economy of the country,” the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Tuesday.
The founder and head of Laffer Associates and Laffer Investments, Laffer obtained his PHD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree and later became a professor at Stanford University. He is also a professor at the University of South Carolina and the University of Chicago, the author of a theory linking state income with the average level of tax rates in the country (the ‘Laffer curve’). Laffer was once an economic advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The statement also said that Slovakia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos, as well as international economists Chris Wales and Robert Conrad had earlier joined the team of advisors and deputies of the Ukrainian minister of finance.
KYIV. Sept 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could provide up to $40 million to GN Terminal Enterprises Ltd. (Cyprus), which belongs to the GNT group, to finance the expansion of the existing grain terminal at Odesa port, the bank said on Monday.
The bank said that its board will discuss the issue on October 14.
The total cost of the Serseris Grain Terminal project includes the expansion of the terminal’s capacity and its storage facilities, and is assessed at $69 million.
Serseris Holdings Limited (Cyprus) is a subsidiary of CHS Europe SA, which is part of U.S. CHS Inc.
CHS Inc. in spring 2009 said that the corporation had started investing in a joint project with GN Terminals (Odesa) on the creation of an export grain terminal in Ukraine on the Black Sea coast in Odesa with a capacity of 2 million tonnes a year.
KYIV. Sept 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Odesa International Airport saw a 10.7% rise in passenger flow in January-August 2015 year-over-year, to 650,400 people, the airport’s press service has reported.
In August 2015 alone, the airport serviced 116,600 passengers, which was 34.1% up on August 2014.
A total of 24,000 passengers were serviced on domestic routes, which was 25% up on August 2014.
The press service said that the number of passengers who flew international routes was also on the rise, 37% up, to 92,500 people.
The most popular destinations outside Ukraine were Antalya, Batumi, Warsaw, Vienna, Vilnius, Istanbul, and Tbilisi.
Since the beginning of 2014, the airport has begun to work with seven new airlines. During summer, the airport handles up to 46 flights every day.
Odesa airport’s main buildings were built in 1960-1961. A cargo terminal was built in 1982.
Odesa airport services the flights of about 20 domestic and foreign airlines to 60 countries.
KYIV. Sept 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyivsky cardboard paper mill (Obukhiv, Kyiv region), a leader in Ukraine’s pulp and paper industry in terms of production and sales, produced goods worth UAH 2.404 billion in January- August 2015, 62.6% up on the figure for January- August 2014.
According to the UkrPapir association, in January- August 2015, the mill increased its production of corrugated cardboard packaging by 2.1%, to 127 million square meters. The mill increased its production of cardboard by 0.5%, to 135,640 tonnes, including a rise of 10.2% in production of commodity cardboard, to 82,700 tonnes and a decline of 11.7% in production of box cardboard, to 52,950 tonnes.
Production of base paper (for sanitary products) decreased by 13%, to 46,140 tonnes, while production of toilet paper fell by 15.5%, to 255.6 million rolls.
In January-August cardboard packaging production in Ukraine fell by 17.2%, to 479.64 million square meters, and cardboard and paper output dropped by almost 10%, to 528,980 tonnes.
Kyivsky cardboard paper mill is one of the largest cardboard and paper producers in Europe. It mainly produces goods from wastepaper. Its capacity for processing wastepaper exceeds 850 tonnes a day. The mill exports its products to CIS states and other countries.
