Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

UBER SERVICE WILL WORK IN UKRAINE ONLY WITH INDIVIDUAL BUSINESSMEN AND LEGAL ENTITIES

KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Uber international technological platform in Ukraine will operate under local legislation, the press service of the platform has reported.

“Uber is a technological platform that connects riders and drivers. Uber in Ukraine will work only with individual businessmen and legal entities that will have all the required documents, including the licenses,” the press service said.

Uber in Ukraine will be presented by a local legal entity and will be managed by a team of local specialists.

“We support competition. We believe that it is of benefit to consumers. Uber provides affordable, reliable and safe way of riding the city and it is a supplement to local transport infrastructure. We don’t have the task to destroy the urban transportation market. On the contrary, Uber considerably widens the market, creating additional demand on rides,” the press service said.

The service said that this create additional economic opportunities for hundreds of drivers that is the possibility of the additional legal income. Money for rides becomes part of the local economy and an additional source for tax payments. All payments for rides are cashless, which guarantees transparency.

“After the launch of Uber, Kyiv will become one of 400 cities where citizens will be able to use the reliable, affordable and safe service for riding from point A to point B at the push of a button of the smartphone. We’re sure that the presence of so popular and acknowledged service will contribute in the attractiveness of Kyiv city as the popular direction for international tourism,” Uber said.

As reported, in December 2015, the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine announced the appearance of the Uber service in Ukraine and in July 2015 U.S. Uber Technologies Inc., the designer of the popular taxi application to order taxi, was looking for a manager for the Ukrainian market.

In February 2016, Uberlin company, an authorized partner of the Uber taxi service (the United States), started compiling a database of drivers in Ukraine for further connection to the service.

Currently five Ukrainian cities are available on the website of Uberlin for submitting applications from drivers, namely Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk. Three indicative tariff plans are offered for Ukrainian drivers: “Weekly” (for 40 trips per week the commission is 6% plus a 5% tax, payments are made once a week), “Daily Cashless” (a commission of 10% plus a 5% tax, funds are daily transferred to the card), and “Fixed” (a commission of UAH 500 a week).

The company does not disclose the concrete date when the service is launched, although some media reported that this could happen in the first quarter of 2016.

 

MEDICINE IMPORTERS NOT READY FOR NEW IMPORTS LICENSING REQUIREMENTS TO TAKE EFFECT ON MARCH 1 – EBA

KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Importers are not ready for new complicated medicine imports licensing requirements that could take effect on March 1, 2016, the European Business Association (EBA) has said.

“Few days are left until the date when they are obligatory for implementation. The absence of a possibility of meeting the Ukrainian requirements by international pharmaceutical companies means the absence of a possibility of importing medicines to our country,” the EBA said in a press release.

The association said that unfortunately, it is unknown what the state of the draft cabinet resolution that postpones the critical provisions for March 1, 2018 is.

“If the state is not ready to postpone [the introduction of new rules] supply of medicines from abroad could stop in five days,” the association said.

“The blind transfer of the whole complex of European practices in part of medicine imports licensing to Ukraine resulted in the postponement of all crucial provisions from March 1, 2013 to March 1, 2016 not to block imports of medicines to Ukraine. Since then the situation has not changed: today importers are not able to observe the requirements of Ukrainian law due to unbiased reasons,” the association said.

“The postponement of the provisions for March 1, 2018 is the forced tactic step. However, it is badly needed to avoid collapse in imports,” the EBA said.

The State Service for Medicinal Products of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that imports of medicines from March 1, 2016 would not stop.

“Importers have valid licenses, and it is incorrect to say that imports of medicines will stop,” the service said.

At present, the new license conditions are being agreed by central executive power agencies.

 

RETAIL TURNOVER OF ENTERPRISES IN 2015

Source: State Statistics Services

Source: State Statistics Services

Source: State Statistics Services

Source: State Statistics Services

1 Excluding the temporarily occupied territories, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and part of the anti-terrorist operation zone.

2 Data for 2015 may be revised.

METINVEST BUILDS UP OVER 52% STAKE IN ZAPORIZHKOKS

KYIV. Feb 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest international vertically integrated mining and metal group, increased its stake in public joint-stock company Zaporizhkoks from 51% to 52.1677% of the share capital.

Zaporizhkoks reported in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine, referring to data received on February 23, 2016 from National Depository of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2016, Metinvest B. V. increased its stake from 60.856 million to 62.249 million shares.

Zaporizhkoks produces about 10% of all coke manufactured in Ukraine, and has a full technological cycle of processing coke-chemical products. The company also produces coke gas and pitch coke.

According to the company, Metinvest B.V. owns a 51% stake in the plant, Zaporizhstal – 42.7653%.

The plant’s charter capital is UAH 12.193 million, its share face value – UAH 0.01.

Metinvest is a vertically integrated international mining and steel company which owns 24 assets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States, and also manages each link of the production chain – iron ore and coal mining and coke production through to semi-finished and finished steel production; including the manufacturing of plate and coil, pipe rolling, shapes and bars and other value-added products.

CABINET CREATES NATIONAL AGENCY FOR TRACING CRIME ASSETS

KYIV. Feb 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday adopted as resolution on the National Agency for Tracing, Recovery and Management of Crime Assets.
“The parliament passed several bills that were initiated by the government to improve anti-corruption legislation. Now the government did its duty and adopted the resolution on the creation of the National Agency for Tracing, Recovery and Management of Crime Assets,” the press service of the Justice Ministry reported, citing Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko.
He said that similar agencies exist in all EU countries. They have a possibility of quickly receiving information on assets, property and other foreign assets of persons who are suspected of committing crimes.
Petrenko also said that the cabinet asked the parliament to submit a list of their representatives to the tender commission to select agency members as soon as possible.

UKRAINE STARTS SOWING EARLY SPRING CROPS

KYIV. Feb 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine has reported that as of February 24, early spring crops had been sown on 1,700 ha in Odesa region and on 900 ha in Mykolaiv region.
The ministry said in a press release that out of 7.1 million ha with winter crops sprouts are seen on 6.5 million ha (92%), and crops on 4.3 million ha
(67%) are in good and satisfactory state and crops are weak on 2.2 ha (33%), and crops on 80 ha were killed.
The ministry said that 8% (600 ha) did not form sprouts, and Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions have the largest number of these fields.
Out of 665,100 ha with winter rapeseeds sprouts were seen on 586,900 ha, including crops in good and satisfactory stage on 389,400 ha (66%), weak crops on 192,400 ha (33%) and crops on 5,200 ha (1%) were killed.
Around 10% of crops (68,200 ha) did not form sprouts, and Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions have the largest number of these fields.