KYIV. April 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – American investment company Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) and state-controlled Oschadbank (Kyiv), with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have launched a program of lending to social enterprises, providing for total crediting in the amount of UAH 100 million over the next three years.
According to a state bank press release, the source of funding loans is the USAID technical assistance program worth $30 million, whose executive is WNISEF.
“The program guarantees that the rate on loans for conventional social enterprises (whose activities are focused exclusively on resolving social issues) will not exceed 5% per annum and for those who spend a significant part of their profit on financing social enterprises or socially useful activity no more than 10% per annum,” reads the report.
According to the report, the amount of one loan varies from UAH 250,000 to UAH 2.5 million. It is envisioned that from150-300 loans will be issued.
TOKYO. April 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has invited Japanese businessmen to make investments into Ukraine.
“One of the aims of my visit is to invite Japanese business to Ukraine. I’m asking you to be more courageous and in full measure use those opportunities, which already exist, in particular due to the reforms and FTA with EU,” the president said delivering a speech at the Japanese National Club in Tokyo on Wednesday.
According to him, Ukraine may become a new portal for Japanese investments into Europe, namely FTA of Ukraine with EU opens additional opportunities to set cheap production capacities in Ukraine involving highly qualified Ukrainian personnel.
“Japanese business will acquire a unique opportunity to sell almost duty-free goods produced in Ukraine,” he said.
KYIV. April 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ekspansia LLC (Vyshneve, Kyiv region), the operator of Fozzy Cash&Carry hypermarkets, has won a tender to select food supplier to long-haul trains of public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia.
Ukrzaliznytsia will officially notify all tender bidders on the decision made in the manner prescribed in Ukrainian law.
Ukrzaliznytsia on December 12, 2016 announced an open and transparent tender to select the supplier of food to sell it to passengers of long-haul trains. The main criterion to select the supplier is guaranteed high quality of food.
Fozzy Group has been working in Ukraine since 1997. The group includes Silpo supermarkets, Le Silpo premium format stores, Fora and Bumi convenience stores, Fozzy hypermarkets, Bila Romashka pharmaceutical supermarkets, the Bud Zdorov pharmacy chain, and the ringoo personal electronics chain.
As it was reported earlier WOG Retail was selected the operator for the provision of food services in high-speed trains.
KYIV. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State enterprise Ukrspyrt in January-March 2016 saw a 4.5-fold rise in exports of its products, to 70,000 decaliters.
The company said in a press release, 174 applications were placed in Ukrainian trade missions of different countries to expand exports geography.
Ukrspyrt has contracts with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland and the Dominican Republic. Negotiations with clients from other countries are being held.
Ukrspyrt Deputy Director Serhiy Bleskun said that a large obstacle in developing exports was the fact that the enterprise has been operating without a director for more than one year.
“Foreign clients who need stability and guarantees do not understand how it is possible to do with the state-run enterprise,” he said.
Ukrspyrt is subordinated to the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry.
The main volume of spirit was sold on the domestic market in 2015. Around 150,000 decaliters of ethyl spirit were sold on foreign markets. Exports accounted for 2% of total sales.
KYIV. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State-run enterprise Artyomsol seeks to increase supplies of its products to the EU countries by 15% in 2016, to 425,300 tonnes and open logistics centers in Ukraine and the EU.
“We plan to open logistic centers in Ukraine and the EU. This would help to resolve the problem of delivering cargos from producers to consumers in the shortest terms. It would bring our products closer to end consumers, increase the company’s profit thanks to avoiding intermediaries,” the enterprise said on its website.
A pilot project could be realized in Kyiv in the near term. Artyomsol specialists in March 2016 visited warehouses and industrial premises for placing a logistics center to handle, store and distribute salt on the territories adjacent to the ports of the Danube River in Galati (Romania) and Ruse (Bulgaria).
A representative office in the EU allows the company to take part in European salt procurement tenders.
Artyomsol shipped 367,800 tonnes of salt to the EU in 2015.
Artyomsol is the largest enterprise engaged in the production and sale of salt (NaCl) in Central and Eastern Europe.
DNIPROPETROVSK. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The revenue of regional and local budgets in Dnipropetrovsk region has amounted to UAH 3.4 billion since the beginning of the year, which is 23.4% up on the target, Dnipropetrovsk Regional Governor Valentyn Reznychenko said.
“In the three months, the region has managed to outstrip the target by UAH 640 million. Additional funds will be spent on local residents’ needs, namely on roads, water pipelines, hospitals, kindergartens, schools. Our task is to keep the pace of budget revenue excess,” Reznychenko told reporters in Tuesday.
The region’s consolidated budget consists of the regional budget, which is adopted by the regional council, and budgets of the towns, districts and territorial communities.
In particular, the revenue of the regional budget exceeded the target by UAH 44 million, and the revenue in the three months totaled about UAH 677 million. The revenue of the budget of the towns in the region exceeded UAH 2.2 billion, which was UAH 419 million up on the target.
January through March 2016, Dnipropetrovsk region’s districts posted revenue at over UAH 330 million, which was UAH 111 million up on the planned figure. The merged territorial communities managed to double their proceeds compared to the plans: the total income of 15 communities exceeded UAH 144 million.
“The overfulfillment of the budget’s plans is the result of joint work with tax authorities. [These are] legal jobs, transparent payments for land and timely payment of excise duties,” Reznychenko said.
