KYIV. July 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s investment attractiveness could suffer due to incident involving the beach at the Zeleny Bereh recreation center in Odesa, businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky has said.
In an open letter, a copy of which has been sent to Interfax-Ukraine, he said that he supports idea of the country’s authorities to make Odesa region a model region and attract investors to it, although he insists that civilized methods must be used to achieve these goals.
The actions of Head of Odesa Regional Administration Mikheil Saakashvili constitute populism and an invasion of private property, he said.
The businessmen said that the Ukrainian authorities should focus on promoting business development that creates jobs without threatening businesspeople and using administrative resources.
He said that the unfinished recreation center Zeleny Bereh is in private ownership and is located on a legally leased land parcel under the agreement with Odesa City Council.
“Access to the beach was restricted in Soviet times, long before the property was bought and the leasing agreement was signed by the new owners,”
reads the letter.
Khmelnytsky said that on July 20 a representative of the city authorities gave instructions to present permits within 10 days or remove the fence.
However, the fence was removed at once, without a court ruling and or the presence of representatives of law enforcement services.
He also called on the country’s authorities to avoid populism which always results in poverty, saying the government should work on improving the business climate in Ukraine instead.
On July 20 Saakashvili, accompanied by the head of the Odesa police, emergencies service and a bulldozer at the Zeleny Bereh recreation center and organized the removal of a fence barring entrance to the beach.
KYIV. July 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers has established the interdepartmental commission for public investment projects which will select investment projects and determine the volume of their financing.
According to the website of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Cabinet by its decision of July 22 approved some issues of public investment management, including a new procedure of selecting investment projects by the interdepartmental commission.
“For a long time there has not been a system for selecting investment projects. Now decisions on the selection of projects will be made through an open procedure by the collegial body – the interdepartmental commission on public investment projects,” First Deputy Trade Minister Yulia Kovaliv said.
For the first time, new principles of public investment management will be used in the formation of the draft national budget for 2016. The selection of projects is scheduled to begin in July 2015, and the first meeting of the commission will be held in September.
The procedure of project selection provides for conducting state examination, a clear economic justification, and determining the expected economic effect.
KYIV. July 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg goods in Ukraine, increased egg production by 24% in January-June 2015, to 580 million eggs, the company said in a press release.
Egg sales grew by 41%, to 421 million, and exports grew by 2.3 times, to 98 million. Thus, the share of exports of total egg sales was 23%.
The company said that the average price of eggs grew by 70%, to UAH 1.20 per egg.
As at 30 June 2015 the company’s total flock has increased by 21% year-over-year to 6.0 million hens. Furthermore, the laying hens flock increased by 12% year-over-year, to 4.63 million hens.
In H1 2015, the volume of eggs processed increased by 8% year-over-year, to 161 million units.
Sales volume of dry egg products increased by 19% year-over-year, to 937 tonnes, while the sales volume of liquid egg products decreased by 9% year-over-year, to 2 689 tonnes.
The average selling price of dry egg products increased 1.9 times year-over-year to 101.26 UAH/kg; the average selling price of liquid egg products increased by 52% year-over-year, to 24.85 UAH/kg.
KYIV. July 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Iranian companies want to invest in the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex, specifically the construction of elevators and a handling complex in the south of the country, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine has reported on its website.
The chamber said that a delegation of leading Ukrainian companies will visit Iran on July 25-29.
On July 21, a meeting of an Iranian business delegation with the top managers of the chamber was held. Investment in the construction of elevator complexes and a handling complex in southern Ukraine was discussed.
“Iranian businesses are interested in holding exterritorial agriculture, leasing farmland to plant wheat, corn, barley and other crops in Ukraine,” the report said.
The project is intended to provide the Persian Gulf market with agricultural products. It is planned to create joint ventures with Ukrainian partners as part of cooperation.
“We need to use and expand infrastructure opportunities of our countries. The stirring up of Ukrainian-Iranian relations would allow for lifting international economic and financial sanctions from Iran,” the report said, citing Chamber President Hennadiy Chizhykov.
KYIV. July 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian Venture Capital Association (UVCA) has forecast that around $100 million will be invested in Ukrainian IT projects, UVCA Board Chairman and Managing Partner of AVentures Andriy Kolodiuk wrote on his blog.
He said that in H1 2015, 34 Ukrainian companies raised $11 million of investment, and 20 of them received investment for the first time.
“For all the skeptics and those who judge information only by sums, not paying attention to the core and trends, I have two peaces of news. The first one: $100 million will be invested into Ukrainian IT projects and startups by late 2015, which is several times up on 2014. The second news: two new international investors that are working on investment in the IT area are coming to Ukraine and will invest by the end of the year,” Kolodiuk said.
As reported, Kolodiuk told Interfax-Ukraine that the most promising sectors for investing in Ukraine are projects linked to healthcare, payments, cloud projects and mobile applications.
KYIV. July 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State enterprise Ukrspyrt plans to buy 50,000-60,000 tonnes of moist corn from agricultural producers in the western regions of the country in September-December 2015.
The company said in a press release that the plans are linked to the lower prices of grain at farmers compared to the prices at ports.
“According to the plan, in September-December 2015, a total of 50,000-60,000 tonnes of moist corn will be bought. It does not require additional processing at elevators. We have special sleeves at the sites which allow storing 5,000-8,000 tonnes of grain,” reads the report.
In H1 2015, Ukrspyrt paid a debt of UAH 61.6 million to farmers out of a total of UAH 72.76 million.
Ukrspyrt is subordinated to the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food. In 2014, Ukrspyrt plants produced around 15 million decaliters of alcohol, the entire volume was sold in the domestic market.
