Industrialists and entrepreneurs support the cancellation of the existing additional tax on most imported goods at the rates of 5% and 10%. Such a move will boost multilateral trade and domestic production, reduce the import of raw materials and components, and will create preconditions for signing more contracts to produce high quality products at affordable prices.
This, in turn, will stimulate the internal market, create new jobs, and increase the population’s purchasing capacity. Ukrainian entrepreneurs from the most powerful union of industrialists and entrepreneurs —the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) and the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs —have urged the Ukrainian parliament to revisit the issue as soon as possible and eventually cancel the additional import tax.
They stress that this correlates with agreements reached with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union on abolishing this tax by the end of 2015.
Moreover, the fiscal impact of the tax is no longer relevant due to negative effects caused by higher prices of raw materials, technologies, equipment, and components.
The tax was introduced to stabilize the balance of payments of Ukraine and boost budget revenue. However, none of the goals was achieved, and thus there is no reason for keeping the tax.
On the contrary, when manufacturers get access to the required materials and technologies that are critical imports, they can develop production, increase the added value of produce, thus stabilizing prices and being successful in export, being competitive both in Ukraine and abroad. This, in turn, means the development of the economy, an increase in tax revenues to the national budget and, very importantly, the preservation and creation of new jobs.
Obviously, this is a scenario the foreign partners of Ukraine are interested in, as the insolvent market is not what Ukrainian and Western communities would want.
It is worth mentioning that the additional import tax set at 5-10% was introduced earlier this year to make Ukraine’s balance of payments more stable. In general, it involves about 100 commodity groups, except for so-called “critical imports,” i.e. fuel, some medicines and other products.
KYIV. Nov 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – American investors are very interested in Ukrainian markets, while before, most investors were European, Managing Director of DTZ international consulting company in Ukraine (Kyiv) Nick Cotton has said.
“Now I see a greater interest from America, the situation with investment is changing,” he said during the Real Estate Forum in Eastern Europe and Asia in Kyiv.
Cotton said that in 2004-2008, major investments in Ukraine in general, and in the real estate market in particular, mostly came from Europe.
“That is, Americans like news, and there has been a lot of news about Ukraine. I guess this is our opportunity,” he said.
DTZ was founded by Chesshire Gibson in Birmingham (Britain) in 1784. Since December 2011, it has been part of UGL Services, a division of UGL Limited.
The company opened an office in Ukraine in 1994 as the country’s first international consulting company. DTZ’s office is located in Kyiv (the company’s office in Odesa has closed).
KYIV. Nov 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine plans to send missions to Kenya, South Korea, Iran, and the Middle East to study existing legislation and the access conditions of Ukrainian dairy products to these markets, Deputy Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Shulmeister has said.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine and business representatives have organized the delegation.
He said that at present, the ministry is working on opening access to the dairy market of Azerbaijan, but he did not say when this could happen.
“A permit has not yet been received, and negotiations are underway. We’ve submitted a list of companies which are ready to export,” he told reporters at the Milk Business 2015 conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
KYIV. Nov 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – GLD Invest Group development company (Austria) is planning to focus on investing in agriculture in Ukraine instead of investing in real estate, according to managing partner of the company Lehr Clemens.
“We are interested in the agricultural business in Ukraine and the best of what is in Ukraine – agricultural land,” he said at the Eastern Europe and Asia Real Estate Forum n Kyiv.
According to him, GLD Invest Group remains somewhat interested in the real estate market. Until 2008, together with its financial partners, it has invested about $100 million in Ukraine.
“But the trouble is that external investors are more interested in the agricultural market, since it is export-oriented, unlike real estate,” the expert said.
He noted that foreign exchange fluctuations and the subsequent decline in rent rates for commercial premises in Ukraine had a significant influence on the investors’ choice in favoring other markets instead of real estate.
“Right now the rate is UAH 25 per $1, and it was UAH 8/$1. I do not know what the rate will be in a year or two. It is difficult to count,” Clemens said.
GLD Invest Group is an Austrian real estate development company headquartered in Kilb. It designs, builds and leases commercial real estate in Central and Eastern Europe.
Its representative offices are located in Vienna, Budapest (Hungary) and Kyiv.
KYIV. Nov 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Over the past 18 months the Kyiv authorities have realized investment projects worth over UAH 2 billion, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said.
“In the past 18 months we’ve raised over UAH 2 billion in investment. This is a small figure by ear, but this is a large figure given the current situation,” he said at the opening of the Eastern Europe and Asia Real Estate Forum in Kyiv on Thursday.
Klitschko called on potential investors to invest funds in Kyiv’s property market, as the conditions are perfect given the narrowing market.
“We’ve made very good steps against corruption and we’ve destroyed a lot of points of corruption,” he said, but he conceded that corruption still exists.
Klitschko said that as a part of the ongoing fight against corruption, the Kyiv authorities have introduced the open management process and made the operation of the budget commission and the formation of the Kyiv’s budget public.
“I want to say to each investor: if someone tries to use your business for corruption, I’m open for you 24 hours a day, and thus you can use me as a bodyguard for your business,” he said.
KYIV. Nov 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kherson Shipyard, part of the Smart Maritime Group (SMG), will build an oil garbage disposal vessel under the order of the Yuzhny branch of the Sea Port Authority of Ukraine (authority of the Yuzhny seaport, Odesa region).
The press service of SMG reported that the contract to build the ship, worth UAH 99.6 million, was signed in Kherson on November 24.
“Earlier, the shipyard won a tender of the Yuzhny branch of the Sea Port Authority. The offer of SMG was declared the best both in the cost and the terms,” the press service said.
The oil garbage disposal vessel can also be used as a ship handling tug and can be used to fight fires on vessels and at ports. The Ice 2 class will allow the vessel to operate in the winter, the press service said.
“We believe that this contract is one more chance to show the high level of qualification of our shipbuilders… I’m sure that we would not quit on the contractors,” SMG CEO Vasyl Fedin said.
Smart Maritime Group is the largest shipbuilding holding of Ukraine. It was founded in 2009 to manage marine assets of Smart-Holding of businessmen Vadim Novinsky. It includes Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (Mykolaiv) and Kherson Shipyard.
