KYIV. Dec 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of up to EUR 8 million to Kremenchuk municipal trolleybus company (KTU) for the acquisition of 50 new low-deck trolleybuses, including spare parts and maintenance tools, as well as the workshop maintenance and diagnostic equipment for the new fleet, the press service of the EBRD has reported.
The loan, which will be guaranteed by the municipality, will be supported by an investment grant of up to EUR 2 million from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), to which the European Union is the largest contributor.
“The investment in Kremenchuk will be the first urban transport project in Ukraine to benefit from an E5P grant,” the press service said.
The bank’s press service said that Kremenchuk is an industrial city in central Ukraine with approximately 225,000 inhabitants. About 50,000 of them live across the Dnipro River and currently don not have full access to the KTU service.
“The project will allow the municipal public transport operator to increase its level of service to households, currently not fully covered by it, by restoring two trolleybus routes on the right bank side of the city. The municipality will also contribute to the project by rehabilitating necessary infrastructure,” the bank said.
The new trolley buses, which will be procured in 2017, will be 20% more efficient than the current ones, most of which are at least 15 years old. As a result of the renewal and the shift to energy efficient and environmentally friendly electric transport services, the municipality will benefit from the reduction of hazardous emissions.
“The EBRD project will allow for a complete renewal of the electric transport fleet in Kremenchuk for the first time in the history of the city. Its implementation will provide the residents of all districts of the city with comfortable, affordable and environmentally friendly public transport,” EBRD said citing Kremenchuk Mayor Vitaliy Maletsky.
“By financing this project we are not only supporting ecologically clean and modern municipal service. We are also providing affordable transport and services to low income families and senior citizen. The EBRD is grateful to E5P and the EU for their crucial support for the project, without which it would have never materialized,” EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Francis Malige said.
The project is implemented under the Ukraine Public Transport Framework approved by the EBRD in 2015. The facility is designed to help replace ageing municipal transport with new ecologically friendly rolling stock.
In October 2015 Odesmiskelektrotrans and EBRD signed a loan agreement for EUR 8 million to buy 45 new trolleybuses under the Ukraine Public Transport Framework.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12 billion through 369 projects since the start of its operations in the country in 1993.
©Source: Bloomberg
USD refers to the U.S. dollar, JPY – the Japanese yen, CHF – the Swiss franc, GBP – the UK pound sterling, EUR – the euro.
KYIV. Dec 21 (Interfax) – Ukraine bought nuclear fuel worth a total of $388.808 million in January-October 2016.
The State Statistics Service said that during the period, Russian fuel worth $288.217 million and fuel produced in Sweden for $100.591 million was bought for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Thus, the share of nuclear fuel purchases from Russia’s TVEL in value for the first 10 months was 74.1% and from Westinghouse (Sweden) it was 25.9%.
Ukraine purchased nuclear fuel for a total of $643.570 million in 2015: it bought $610.883 million worth from Russia and $32.688 million from Sweden.
KYIV. Dec 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has revoked 2% pension tax imposed on cash currency purchase transactions.
The requirement is outlined in bill No. 5132 amending the Tax Code to provide for the balance of budget revenue in 2017. The bill on the national budget for 2017 was adopted by 235 lawmakers in early hours of Wednesday, December 21.
The amendments were made to the law on the obligatory state pension insurance tax.
As reported, on November 1, 2016, bill No. 4741 on amendments to the Budget Code on ways to pull forex operations out of the shadows passed its first reading due to the support of 247 MPs.
Tax on forex operations for the first time was introduced in 1998 as a temporary anti-crisis measure. Its rate was 1.5% before 2006. It was then lowered to 1.3% and was cut to 1% in 2007, 0.5% in 2008 and further to 0.2% in 2009.
In January 2011, the Rada cancelled pension tax on forex transactions, but in 2014 it set the rate at 0.5% again.
From 2015, it was increased from 0.5% to 2%, but it is applied to purchases of foreign currency in cash with legal entities being exempt from this tax.
The initiators of the bill said that Ukraine’s shadow market exceeded 50%, which creates the additional pressure on the hryvnia and hampers the operations of the forex market in the country. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and international financial institutions (IFIs) backed the idea.
The second Ukrainian-Lithuanian forum, held in Kyiv with the participation of the Presidents of Ukraine and Lithuania, members of the governments, business associations, businesses, has strengthened a pragmatic component in bilateral economic cooperation. Over 320 entrepreneurs from both countries have managed to agree on a joint action plan to strengthen cooperation and contacts between Ukrainian and Lithuanian companies. What is more, a number of agreements, namely on interaction in the IT sector, organization of exhibitions, and other issues have been signed.
In particular, the participants in the event discussed investment cooperation, advantages and peculiarities of doing business in the markets of Ukraine and Lithuania, the possibility of setting up joint ventures, cooperation in free economic zones and industrial parks in Lithuania.
As President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Anatoliy Kinakh has said, the forum has a very clear task – to considerably develop business relations, as the economic potential of both Ukraine and Lithuania is much higher than foreign trade figures demonstrate.
“Our contacts are systematic in nature: we’ve implemented a number of projects, conducted business forums and meetings. The business councils we’ve created together with the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists work on a regular basis. As many as 250 companies with Lithuanian capital work in Ukraine now. The largest Lithuanian companies, representatives of big corporations that show particular interest in privatization in Ukraine are also present here today. They may become investors in Ukrainian ports and agri-businesses, for instance,” he said.
The ULIE has been implementing a number of projects with the Lithuanian side, namely a project for the use of specialized lasers, the creation of water treatment systems, reconstruction of infrastructure in small towns, the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, energy efficiency and so on.
The parties also agreed on the training of Ukrainian specialists in Lithuania. What is more, Lithuanian partners are particularly interested in Ukrainian information technology, agriculture, construction, architecture, etc.
Traditionally, the forum enjoys high status, as it was attended by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite for the second consecutive year. They confirmed the readiness to significantly strengthen economic and cultural ties. Grybauskaite in particular stressed Ukraine needs to do its own “homework:” root out corruption, boost corporate social responsibility, and establish dialogue within the “government-business-society” triangle.
The second Ukrainian-Lithuanian forum was organized by the ULIE, the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry from both countries and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Vilnius and Kyiv. Traditionally, this event is attended not only by members of the business community, but also by the heads of state, government officials and experts.
The Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia), which is in a plight at the moment, may get an opportunity to upgrade 80-90% of its old rolling stock by engaging Ukrainian-based machine-building enterprises. This initiative put forth by the business community – the Anti-Crisis Council of NGOs, the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE), a number of professional associations – was supported at a visiting session of the National Committee for Industrial Development in the town of Kremenchuk. The event was attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv, as well as other ministers, ULIE leaders, top managers of Ukrzaliznytsia, Kriukov railway car building works, Azovmash, and others.
Having visited the works and examined its problems, Committee members agreed to draw up a state program until 2021 for the procurement of new rolling stock for Ukrzaliznytsia. It is scheduled to be approved as early as in the first quarter of 2017.
“Thus, the initiative of the Ukrainian industrialists and entrepreneurs has been heard. The state has an opportunity to introduce concrete mechanisms to support domestic enterprises in the machine-building sector and maintain jobs for skilled workers, streamlining rail transport operations. Further ignoring these problems could translate into a complete loss of personnel, technological capabilities, and lead to a halt to the whole industry,” member of the Committee, ULIE President Anatoliy Kinakh has said.
The ULIE and business associations have repeatedly pointed to the critical situation in transportation by rail. The lack of freight cars has jeopardized key domestic industries. Losses for producers and exporters reach $70-80 million each month. Thousands of tonnes of freight lay idle each day.
For example, transport operations in the mining and metallurgical complex have fallen by almost 10%, which resulted in a reduction of steel production by at least 200,000 tonnes and a decline in the country’s foreign currency revenues by $70 million per month.
At the same time, manufacturers of transport equipment also sustain significant losses. For example, Kriukov railway car building works saw a decline in production by 85.7% compared to 2011, and its workforce more than halved.
Further, Anatoliy Kinakh announced a number of meetings scheduled between the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and representatives of metallurgical and machine-building enterprises on the principles of setting prices for their products in the domestic market.
Producers are also set to export their produce. In particular, on the agenda are talks with representatives of trade missions and embassies of the countries that are interested in Ukrainian-made products.
