State budget financing, % of GDP
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The State Property Fund (SPF) has put up the Bdzhylnya Distillery in Vinnytsia region for privatization at an online auction with a starting price of UAH 68.5 million, said Vitaliy Koval, head of the SPF.
“The modernization of the production will help ensure economic efficiency for the new owner, as Vinnytsia region is a leader in the production and export of agricultural products. This gives the company logistical advantages and access to resources,” he explained on Facebook.
According to the report, the state-owned enterprise specializes in the production of alcohol and other chemical products of organic origin, but has not been carrying out financial and economic activities since June 2022.
The unified property complex of the Bdzhilnyansky distillery consists of 99 real estate objects with a total area of 11570.6 square meters, 23 units of transport and special equipment, as well as 727 units of equipment.
The online auction will take place on June 24 in the Prozorro.Sale electronic trading system.
Koval reminded that in 2024, the agency successfully held 4 online auctions for the sale of alcohol industry facilities. Their final value amounted to UAH 126.8 million, which is on average 2.1 times higher than the starting price.
“As a result, the enterprises get new owners and investments for modernization, and the budget receives funds from fair and competitive sales. We continue to work on the denationalization of the alcohol industry through privatization to unlock its potential,” summarized the SPFU chairman.
According to the SPF, distilleries are among the most popular assets for small-scale privatization. The agency planned to fully complete the privatization of alcohol industry enterprises in 2023, for which it was going to hold online auctions for the sale of 26 distilleries across the country. However, some of them did not take place.
Nova Poshta Group has expanded its network of Nova Post offices in the Czech Republic to five cities: after opening in Prague, Brno and Liberec, the company has expanded to Pilsen and Pardubice, its press service reports.
The press release, citing NovaPost CEO in the Czech Republic Andrey Artemenko, said that the next branches of the company will appear in Ostrava, Mladá Boleslav, and České Budějovice.
“We also plan to develop a network of branches within existing businesses, and therefore invite owners of shops, supermarkets, coworking spaces, dry cleaning salons, and others to cooperate,” Artemenko added.
It is specified that Nova Poshta currently has more than 35 thousand points of service for sending and receiving parcels in Europe, of which 90 are Nova Post’s own branches in 13 European countries: Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Moldova and the United Kingdom.
Change in consumer prices in 2023-2024
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
On June 17, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has agreed with MetLife PJSC, specializing in life insurance, to expand the scope of the license for direct insurance and incoming reinsurance.
According to the regulator’s website, the company has received the right to carry out insurance in the classes of accident insurance (including industrial injury and occupational disease) and sickness insurance (including health insurance).
The message also underlines that taking into account this extension the license of PJSC “MetLife” is considered to be reissued.
According to the statements of PJSC “MetLife”, the volume of insurance premiums of the company in the specified period amounted to UAH 2,489 billion, insurance reserves – UAH 6,186 billion.
For 2023 the insurer has paid out insurance indemnities in the amount of UAH 516,6 mln.
The share of the company by the volume of insurance reserves in the life insurance market is 31,3%.
Private JSC “MetLife” is a part of the leading world corporation MetLife. The company has been operating in Ukraine since 2002. The main lines of business are accumulative life insurance, accident and critical illness insurance, corporate insurance and bancassurance.
About 20% of Ukrainian IT specialists work abroad, while in 2023 their number increased to 65 thousand from 50-57 thousand a year earlier, according to the study AI Ecosystem of Ukraine: Talents, Companies, Education, prepared by the non-profit organization AI House and Roosh investment group with the support of the Ministry of Digital Information.
According to the data, the total number of IT specialists in Ukraine increased to 307 thousand in 2023 from 285 thousand in 2022.
According to Eurostat data cited in the study, Ukraine ranks second among Central and Eastern European countries in terms of the number of IT specialists, followed by Poland with 600.7 thousand.
At the same time, the number of AI/ML specialists has increased fivefold over the past 10 years, but as of January 2024, it amounts to slightly more than 1% – 5.2 thousand people.
“The active migration of specialists abroad as a result of the war leads to a shortage of qualified personnel in the domestic market, hindering the development of the industry,” the study says.
The most widespread professions among specialists are Data Scientists and ML Engineers, which together account for 63% of all AI/ML industry professionals. It is noted that these areas offer the highest salaries among IT specialties in the country. The average salary of a junior specialist in Ukraine is $1-1.5 thousand, and a senior specialist – $4.5 thousand.
Over the past 10 years, the number of product AI companies in Ukraine has increased by 3.7 times and reached 183 by 2023, while the number of service AI companies has increased by 46% to 60. Over the past four years, 34 companies specializing in artificial intelligence have opened. It is noted that 55% of the offices of Ukrainian AI companies are located in Kyiv.
At the same time, the country ranks last among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the number of venture capital investments attracted over the past three years. The leaders are Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic, which attract 12-16 times more funding than Ukraine, the study says. The probable reasons are the full-scale invasion of Russia and the registration of Ukrainian companies in European countries or the United States.
In 2023, the amount of venture capital investments that 22 Ukrainian companies managed to attract decreased by 31% to $10.8 million compared to 2022, which, according to the authors of the study, repeats the general trend of a decrease in such investments in the world. The war also complicates the process of negotiations between startups and potential investors to raise funding.
