The USAID Competitive Economy of Ukraine program announced a grant program to create and support associations of businesses into export alliances with a total funding of $1.5 million, the Economy Ministry press service said Friday.
“Grant support for export alliances will strengthen the potential of Ukrainian enterprises and encourage them to unite for common goals of conquering new markets,” USAID project manager Natalya Petrova said in a statement.
The program offers about 15 grants, ranging from $35,000 to $150,000. Applications will be accepted till September 30, 2023. Given the considerable interest, reception and consideration of applications will be held in stages on June 30 and September 30, 2023.
The Ministry of Economy added that the goal of the grant program is to support businesses seeking to jointly promote their products in international markets. The initiative is implemented in partnership with the Office for Entrepreneurship and Export Development and the national project “Dia.Biznes”.
As the press service specified, the priority sectors for grant support are information technology, engineering, manufacturing, and creative industries and services. However, this USAID program is open to applications to support other sectors that meet the selection criteria.
The USAID Competitive Economy of Ukraine (CEU) program supports start-ups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their competitiveness in Ukraine’s domestic market and in international markets, assists in the development of a simplified and transparent business climate, and provides opportunities for Ukrainian companies to take advantage of international trade. A key instrument for implementing the USAID QEU program is the $12.5 million grant program at the national scale for 2018-2023.
The International Monetary Fund’s four-year extended EFF financing program for Ukraine also envisions the country receiving $80 billion from multilateral and bilateral donors during this period, including $20 billion in grants and $60 billion in concessional loans, as well as another $20 billion in debt flow relief, said Gavin Gray, head of the Fund mission.
At a press conference on Friday, after announcing the decision to approve the $15.6 billion EFF program, he recalled two announcements made last week: from a group of official Ukrainian creditors about their willingness to defer the country’s debt payments for the program period and about Ukraine’s intention to agree the same with the holders of Eurobonds and other external commercial debts.
The Ukrainian government in nine months since the start of grant programs to create gardens, berries and greenhouses sent 489.2 million UAH, the total area of plantations and structures amounted to 1 375.64 hectares, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy on Friday.
According to the agrarian ministry, the leaders under the program are hazelnut and walnut, which were planted 493.3 hectares, blueberry and blueberry – 350 hectares, as well as apple – 296.1 hectares.
According to the release, the most hazelnut will be planted in the Kiev region – 157.8 hectares and in Transcarpathia – 121.9 hectares. Lviv region is the leader in planting the blueberry – 73.5 hectares. Appleberry orchards will be planted in Transcarpathia – 97.4 hectares, in Vinnitsa region – 50 hectares and in Bukovyna – 41.8 hectares.
Under the terms of the program, the area of cultivated land for the development or establishment of a new orchard must be 1 to 25 hectares. For the development of greenhouses, grants are provided for the construction of a modular greenhouse with an approximate area of 0,4 ha to 2,4 ha according to the standard project. The main requirement of the program is job creation.
The grant program provides for co-financing: the participant provides 30% of his own funds, and 70% – the state. These funds can be used to pay for the costs included in the estimate, which the applicant must submit along with the application for participation in the competition.
At the meeting on December 9 the Government allocated additional 657 million UAH for grants under the project “eRabota”, including 398.5 million UAH – to create or develop processing enterprises and 203.7 million UAH – micro grants to create or develop own business under the program “Own business”.
“The development of processing is our strategic goal, we invest in this direction to produce and export more finished products with a greater share of added value”, – as quoted in the message of the Ministry of Economy on Saturday the words of First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko.
In addition another 54.8 million UAH in the specified amount are grants for the establishment or development of business for horticulture, viticulture and berry growing.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Economy, as a result of the implementation of the grantees of their projects as a whole more than 2.5 thousand new jobs will be created.
As it has been reported, project “eRabota” includes 6 grant programs aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial activity. In particular, these are grant programs for starting or developing own business, grants for creating and developing processing enterprises, planting orchards and viticulture, greenhouse farming, support for IT start-ups and start-ups in IT sphere.
Both current entrepreneurs and people with no business experience can apply for a grant. Applications are accepted through the Diya Portal.
The government on November 25 allocated UAH 152.7 million to finance establishment or development of processing enterprises and agricultural producers within the framework of the program “eRabota”, the Ministry of Economy said.
“Due to the funds allocated today entrepreneurs have to create more than a thousand jobs”, – as the first Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko stated in the release.
The department specified that 119 million UAH out of this amount is provided for the creation or development of processing enterprises, which will receive 22 enterprises and due to which 405 jobs are planned to be created.
The Ministry of Economy specified that 11 grants will be given for food production, four – for the repair and installation of machinery and equipment, two grants each for furniture production and chemical products, one grant each for the production of rubber and plastic products, wood processing and manufacture, as well as for textile production.
According to the release, the remaining 33.7 million UAH will be received by 6 companies in the form of grants for the establishment or development of horticulture, viticulture and berry growing. In particular, it is planned to grow apples, hazelnuts, walnuts, blueberries and blueberries, which should create 635 jobs (28 – permanent and 607 – seasonal).
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine has issued 57 orders granting grants to agricultural producers to establish orchards and build greenhouses for the total UAH 277.2 million.
According to the agency’s website on Friday, the grants to farmers range from 360 thousand UAH to 10 million UAH per recipient, the total area of future plantations and under greenhouses is 257.44 ha.
The Ministry also clarified that 52 of the 57 grants for the total amount of 242.2 million UAH will be allocated for planting gardens, and five grants for the total amount of 35 million UAH will be given for the construction of greenhouses. The participants of the greenhouses projects are farmers from Dnipropetrovsk, Zakarpattya, Odessa and Vinnytsia regions, the total area of the constructions will be 8.9 hectares.
Ministry of Agrarian Policy reminded that on November 15 the Cabinet of Ministers made a number of clarifications to the procedure for providing grants for the establishment or development of horticulture, berry growing and viticulture. In particular, grants are now available for the construction of modular greenhouses of at least 0.4 ha and not more than 2.4 ha in size according to the standard project and the number of new jobs created of at least 14 per 1 ha of greenhouse area. It is also possible to receive funds for the purchase of means of production (planting material, seeds, technological equipment), covering the costs of their delivery and commissioning the modular greenhouse.
There are set grant limits depending on the area of a modular greenhouse: for buildings 0,4-0,6 ha it shall not exceed 2 mln UAH, for constructions 0,8-1,2 ha – 3,5 mln UAH, for 1,6-2,4 ha – 7 mln UAH.
As it was reported, grants for greenhouses development allow agribusinesses to attract up to UAH 7 million of financing, and for gardening – up to UAH 10 million. In general, the state will allocate 16 billion UAH to finance such projects.
DEVELOPMENT, GRANTS, HORTICULTURE, MINISTRY OF AGRARIAN POLICY
