KYIV. June 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers plans to sell 60.2% of shares of PJSC Zaporizhiaoblenergo power distribution company and 25% plus one share in PJSC Odesaoblenergo power distribution company until December 31, 2015.
This is stipulated in Cabinet resolution No. 626-r dated June 17, 2015, which is available on the government’s official website.
In keeping with Zaporizhiaoblenergo’s sale schedule, 5% of its shares will be sold at an auction between June 30 to September 30, 2015, and 55.248% of shares will be put up for sale June 30 through December 31, 2015.
Odesaoblenergo’s sale schedule foresees the sale of 25% shares at an auction between June 30 and December 31, 2015.
For sale will also be offered Mykolayiv combined heat and power plant and PJSC Sumykhimprom chemical enterprise.
In particular, a 5% stake in Mykolayiv combined heat and power plant will be sold at an auction from June 30 to September 30, 2015, another 94.17% of shares will be offered for sale between June 30 to December 31, 2015.
Sumykhimprom’s sale schedule foresees the sale of 5% of the chemical plant’s shares at an auction between May 31 to September 30, 2015, and a 94.995% stake will be sold from June 30 to December 31, 2015.
KYIV. June 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Premier Arseniy Yatseniuk has ordered for trade agencies to be set up in the countries which account for most of Ukraine’s international trade: United States, European Union (Brussels), Germany, France, China and in the Middle East.
“Don’t get scattered. But by the end of this year this [the opening of the agencies] should be promptly done,” he said during the extended board meeting of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry.
Yatseniuk praised the work of the trade representative of Ukraine – deputy minister Natalia Mykolska, who was commissioned with organizing the work of the prospective trade agencies.
Yatseniuk stressed that Ukraine needs a quality system to promote its economic interests abroad.
“The government should be an economic lawyer of the Ukrainian business abroad. Any international trip or [the trip] of the member of the Cabinet of Ministers must be met by a definite economic proposal,” he said.
KYIV. June 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says that local budget revenues have already grown by 40% in the current year due to budget decentralization.
“We’ve already got the first results of budget decentralization. As of today, we’ve got the first statistics, which show that it’s the financial base of the local budget which has for the time grown by up to 40%, the local budgets have for the first time earned real money,” the president said during a meeting of the National Reforms Council in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to Poroshenko, initiators of a respective bill were severely criticized back then. “Much anger was released against the initiators of the bill, which was once proposed to the public, [claiming that] it wouldn’t work, calculations were wrong, and these or those interests were not taken into consideration! But it’s exactly the opposite,” he stressed.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State enterprise Ukrspyrt plans to export 2 million decaliters of ethyl spirit by late 2015.
“We have very ambitious plans on exports. Preliminarily we have contracts for almost 2 million decaliters, and this would allow [for] launching four or five more distilleries,” acting director of Ukrspyrt Roman Ivaniuk said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
He said Ukrspyrt is focusing on the use of the annual quota for duty-free imports of spirit to the EU.
He said that at present, over 14 out of the 41 Ukrspyrt distilleries are operating. It is planned that with the start of wine-making season, demand for Ukrspyrt’s products will grow, which will load more enterprises.
“At the best of times Ukrspyrt exported 10 million decaliters. I think that in 2016 we should orient to this figure,” he said.
Ukrspyrt is managed by the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food. Last year Ukrspyrt distilleries manufactured about 15 million decaliters of alcohol, the entire volume was sold in the domestic market.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The National Commission for Communications Regulation (NCCR) has asked international companies to draw up a road map to introduce the LTE (4G) communications standard in Ukraine, Commission Head Oleksandr Zhyvotovsky has said.
He said the working group for 4G which was created in August 2014 has defined several ranges which can be used for 4G commercial services – 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz.
“A stocktaking of the whole radio frequency spectrum should be made to understand where commercial operators work, where special users work and how long would they work and if the conversion is required,” Zhyvotovsky said.
“Jointly with the operators we have formed the core tasks and drew up a draft work sheet for conducting studies. We’ve sent requests to ten leading international consulting companies specializing in telecommunications and having experience of the realization of the re-farming projects in various countries, including Europe. We received feedbacks from six companies, and after more consultations we’ve formed a portfolio of three offers from famous British companies with the descriptions of work, their volume and the probable cost,” he said.
“To avoid long discussions of the cost, we should prepare an offer based on forceful arguments. The analysis of the formation of prices on the telecommunications markets of various countries should be taken as a basis. It is to be conducted with the involvement of independent experts. It is clear that the cost of frequency bands in various ranges is different – high frequencies cost less than low frequencies,” he said.
“There are three instruments allowing the launch of new technologies – technical neutrality, re-farming and sale of new frequencies. We should use all the three instruments to ensure equal competitive opportunities for market players,” Zhyvotovsky said.
Commenting on the possible tender, he said that this could be a tender for frequency band packages.
He said the operators are currently studying the materials to prepare offers on the selection of the key provider, cooperation with it and the financing scheme.
“We invite all market players to participate in the project. There are no barriers. However, we understand that in fact it would be four or five companies with ambitions of introducing 4G technology,” he said.
By late 2015, the NCCR plans to finish preparatory consultations and formalize the plans by a cabinet resolution on a presidential decree. Then, agreements with western consultants will be signed and the study will be launched.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Air Express National Project to construct a high-speed passenger rail service between Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky railway station and Boryspil International Airport has been transferred to the management of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine.
This is stipulated in cabinet resolution No. 418 of June 17, 2015.
The Air Express national project is funded by China EximBank. The total loan amounts to $372 million. The loan will be issued in two tranches.
The first tranche of $52 million was released in 2013 and was aimed at design and preparatory work. The second tranche of $320 million will be used for the construction of infrastructure.
Acting Deputy Director General for Operations at Boryspil airport Anton Borysiuk said in December 2014 that it was unlikely that the initial stages of the Air Express project would have created high passenger demand.
In April 2015 Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarsky said that the project is economically unjustifiable.
In June 2015 it was reported that Ukraine and China are willing to discuss the possibility of redirecting loan funds provided for the project.
According to Pyvovarsky, the feasibility of the Air Express project has not been confirmed, therefore the ministry is ready to propose alternative projects that can be funded using Chinese money.
