KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano have agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation between the countries, and agreed their positions on international issues.
Klimkin met with his Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano during his visit to Italy and the two discussed bilateral cooperation in the political, economic, energy, cultural and humanitarian sectors, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service reported on Tuesday.
“The ministers also agreed to intensify the dialogue between Ukraine and Italy and agreed positions on a number of international issues,” the report said.
The Foreign Ministry also added that Alfano assured his Ukrainian counterpart that during the forthcoming Italian chairmanship of the OSCE the “Ukrainian issue” will remain a priority.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukraine-Canada Free Trade Agreement enters force on August 1, 2017, according to an official note from Canada to Ukraine’s embassy [in Canada], Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has said.
“Canada gave us this present for the Constitution Day: we received an official state note about the conclusion of all measures for the agreement on free trade to take force. We have mixed feelings: this is the end of and the start, both at the same time. This is a historical moment that exemplifies the colossal work of our diplomats and politicians. But it is the beginning of a much more important stage: it is time to make this agreement work, through contracts, new jobs and investments,” Shevchenko said on his Facebook page.
The trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine was signed in Kyiv on July 11, 2016. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada ratified the deal on March 14, 2017. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law on ratification on April 3, 2017.
Canada’s ministry of foreign affairs, trade and development informed Ukraine’s embassy in Canada on the conclusion of internal measures of Canada required for the agreement to take force,” says a statement issued by Ukraine’s embassy in Canada.
According to the statement, the agreement from August 1 will cancel 98% of tariffs for Ukrainian exports to Canada and 72% of tariffs from Canada to Ukraine. Over the next seven years the latter will increase to 98%.
Markets for state purchases are also included.
Parts of the agreement safeguard electronic commerce and intellectual property rights.
“Last year Canada and Ukraine signed the Free Trade Agreement and an agreement on military cooperation. Canada also extended for two years its UNIFER training mission in Ukraine,” the embassy’s press service said.
According to Ukraine’s State Statistics Service goods from Ukraine to Canada from January to April 2017 increased by 75% to $14.89 million, while imports rose 23.9% to $75.31 million.
According to Canadian statistics, exports from Canada to Ukraine amounted to $265.19 million, with $107.44 million in imports.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – International retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), which owns Europe’s second largest clothing chain, plans to open first outlets in Ukraine in 2018.
“New H&M store markets planned for 2018 are Uruguay and Ukraine,” the company said in a six-month report posted on June 29.
As was reported, H&M plans to enter the markets of Columbia, Vietnam, Iceland, and Georgia in 2017.
Kazakhstan’s first H&M store opened in the middle of March. In the first half of 2017, the company planned to open online stores in Turkey, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The company owns the H&M brand, as well as COS, Monki, & Other Stories, and Weekday.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – In the first quarter of 2017, tourist flows to Kyiv remained positive and its increase compared to the same period in 2016 was 33%, or 70,690 people, head of the tourism department of Kyiv City State Administration Anton Taranenko has said.
“In the first quarter of 2017 in general 283,389 tourists visited (Kyiv) (211,700 in 2016.) In the current year, Kyiv, according to the forecast indicators, expects 1.5 million foreign visitors,” Taranenko wrote on Facebook on Monday.
He said that the leading positions in the rating were taken by such countries as Belarus (an increase by 22,770 people); Israel (by 5,920 people); Turkey (5,350 people); the USA (3,520); Poland (3,130); Azerbaijan (2,110); Latvia and Lithuania (1,200); Germany (1,910 people); Kazakhstan (1,810); China (1,760); France (1,470); the Netherlands (1,040).
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Syngenta, one of the world’s largest producers of crop protection products and seeds, has opened a research and selection center worth $1 million in Dnipropetrovsk region.
According to the company’s press release, the goal of the center is to study the selection material of maize and sunflower and to obtain new early hybrids with high potential, derived for the climatic conditions of Ukraine.
“The opening of the research and selection center for corn and sunflower has become a logical continuation of our work to bring to the market the best seed material with high potential, zoned accordingly to the needs of this region,” the head of the breeding seeding and seed production department of the CIS countries Syngenta in Ukraine, Artem Bily, has said.
KYIV. June 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Milk Alliance, a group of companies, has supplied a first batch of dairy products to Georgia and Azerbaijan under a one-year contract, the group has reported on its website.
“This was the first delivery of our dairy products to “Ukrainian Food” stores in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Now we are holding talks on the next supply under the one-year contract,” Milk Alliance Commercial Director Viktoria Predborska said.
The group said that Ukrainian Food stores received products under Yagotynske, Yagotynske dlia Dietei and Slavia trademarks.
Milk Alliance said that two Ukrainian Food stores are operating in Georgia and Azerbaijan each. Georgian partners seek to expand its chain to eight stores by the end of this year.
Milk Alliance unites Pyriatyn cheese factory, Bashtanka cheese factory, Horodenka, Trostianets, Novoarkhanhelsk and Zgurivka cheese factories, Zolotonosha butter factory, as well as Varvamaslosyrzavod and Etalonmolprodukt, and Etalon trade house sales companies.
