A guarantee agency can be created for lending to agricultural producers, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Maksym Martyniuk told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We did not ask for this postponement [of the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land], but since lawmakers decided so, then in the next 12 months we will concentrate on the establishment of the State Agricultural Guarantee Agency – this is a working name,” he said.
According to him, the said structure can be a state financial institution that would act as a guarantor for loans that agrarians want to borrow.
“The agency’s charter capital can be formed at the expense of 1% of GDP allocated for the support of the agro-industrial complex. If we allow [farmers] to get loans and they will be cheap, I think this will remove the populist question: “Where does the farmer take money to buy land?” he added.
Ukraine’s parliament extended the moratorium on the sale of farmland until January 1, 2019.
Ukrainian Sawmills, a company with Swedish investment, on December 21 opened a first woodworking plant in Kostopil (Rivne region) to produce pine sawn timber for production of furniture, joinery and construction materials, the press service of Rivne Regional Administration has reported.
“We are launching the plant in Kostopil and finish the initial phase of our investment project. Ukrainian Sawmills is a high-tech production facility with a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters of products meeting European quality standards. We invested about EUR 25 million in this project and created 150 jobs in Kostopil,” the press service said, citing Swedish co-founder of the company Johan Dunbäck.
The plant was opened by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utility Services Hennadiy Zubko, his Deputy Lev Partskhaladze and Head of Rivne Regional Administration Oleksiy Muliarenko.
According to the press release, the implementation of the project became possible after the introduction of a moratorium on the export of unprocessed wood in the country, which was a decisive factor for investors.
“The opening of this enterprise proves that Rivne region is interesting for investors and it is comfortable for them to work here. We will be able to abandon the primitive export of wood, but we will process it ourselves, creating new jobs, filling local budgets and developing the woodworking industry in the region,” Muliarenko said.
Insulin producer Indar plans to build a new workshop to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) by the middle of 2019, Indar Board Chairperson Liubov Vyshnevska said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
“We have switched to the design stage of construction of a new workshop for production of API. By the middle of 2019 we will complete this issue and will have new capacities with a significant increase in production of API, as well as production of our own three analogues of insulin,” she said.
Vyshnevska said that at present, the scientific division of the company has completed development of three strains of insulin analogues.
Commenting on the results of the company’s work in 2017, she said that Indar brought two sugar-reducing drugs to the market in tablets, began delivering its drugs to Mozambique and Cote d’Ivoire, and also won 100% of insulin shipments to Moldova and Tajikistan.
Indar was created under a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers in 1997 under the aegis of Kyiv meat processing plant. The producer is on the list of state-owned companies of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state.
Indar is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine.
The National Commission for State Regulation of Communications and Information Technology has officially published an announcement about a tender to sell radio frequency licenses to introduce radio technology “International Mobile Telecommunications IMT” (4G, LTE, or Long Term Evolution) in the radio frequency bands 1710-1785 MHz, 1805-1880 MHz.
The tender will begin on February 26, 2018, the commission said in the announcement on its website.
To bid for each lot, the head of a company or an authorized person should notify the commission by the deadline indicated in the announcement about plans to participate and submit other documents related to the bid.
The commission accepts the notice of intention to take part in the tender and other documents of the tender offer on working days from 09:00 on December 26, 2017 until 16:45 on January 26, 2018.
The tender is conducted consistently on six lots in the following order of radio frequency bands in all regions of Ukraine: lot No. 1 with 1710-1725/1805-1820 MHz, lot No. 2 with 1725-1750/1820-1845 MHz, lot No. 3 with 1750-1770/1845-1865 MHz, lot No. 4 with 1770-1775/1865-1870 MHz, lot No. 5 with 1780-1785/1875-1880 MHz, and lot No. 6 with 775-1780/1870-1875 MHz.
The minimum payment for each lot (without taking into account the cost of conversion of the radio frequency resources of Ukraine) is as follows: UAH 795 million for lot No. 1, UAH 1.325 billion for lot No. 2, UAH 1.060 billion for lot No. 3, UAH 265 million for lot No. 4, UAH 265 million for lot No. 5, and UAH 265 million for lot No. 6.
The cost of conversion is UAH 940.259 million.
The validity of licenses is 15 years.
PJSC Borschahivsky Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant has won a tender organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for the supply of drugs under the program of pediatric oncology and oncohematology due to the balanced price offer.
Commercial director of the plant Yevhen Sova told Interfax-Ukraine the production of sterile antibiotics, including the direction of oncohematology, is one of the core business of the plant.
“When forming the price offer, we take into account a number of factors: from the price of substances we buy abroad from the same suppliers with which the major international producers work to the cost of manufacturing the drug, including energy costs,” he said.
He stressed the company had opportunities, in particular due to the modern production process, “to offer a price that was lower than that of other participants.”
Sova noted that the plant can compete on an equal basis, in particular with foreign companies, due to reasonable costs for production of medicines.
“This is also possible due to the strict global requirements the plant follows in accordance with the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), energy management standards (ISO 50001) and a number of others,” he said.
State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Volodymyr Bondarenko has signed a joint action plan with the Canadian partners for implementing the best practices of strategic planning in the Ukrainian government based on results-based management principles.
“Canada will provide experts to the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, who will assist in the development of strategic planning instruments and analysis of state policies and will train Ukrainian specialists. This will allow the government to plan state policy more effectively and coordinate the implementation of strategic plans in a comprehensive manner using key performance indicators,” the press service of the Ukrainian government said.
In addition, the parties during a meeting of Cabinet Minister Oleksandr Sayenko and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland in Kyiv discussed the progress of reforms in Ukraine and cooperation next year.
“One of the areas of active cooperation is public administration reform. The joint action plan, we’ve signed, foresees, in particular, cooperation to enhance the capability of the Ukrainian government and public institutions, the implementation of a methodology for analyzing public policies, gender impact, developing a reform monitoring system, and providing international expertise. It also provides for measures for training and exchange of experience for specialists on the reform issues,” Sayenko said.
