The UkraineInvest Office at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is currently accompanying investment in Ukraine in the amount of around $2 billion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said. “Our UkraineInvest Office is accompanying around $2 billion of investment. It is extremely important that these are real projects being implemented or that will be implemented in Ukraine and new jobs will be created,” he said at a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The UkraineInvest Office was created on October 19, 2016 aiming at boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) thanks to cooperation with investors, who want to enter the Ukrainian market. Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) finances the UkraineInvest Office.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman intends to visit Oslo (Norway) at the end of January of this year, where he will take part in a business forum.
“At the end of January, I plan an official visit to Norway. One of the events of the trip will be a business forum, which we will open together with the leadership of the Norwegian government,” Groysman said on Facebook.
According to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the potential of economic cooperation between Ukraine and Norway needs to be strengthened, and this is facilitated by both the political dialogue between the countries and the expansion of the areas of economic cooperation that has been observed recently.
It is noted that now more than 50 Norwegian companies operate in Ukraine. The range of investment is not only trade in goods traditional for both countries, primarily metal and food, but also advanced technologies, in particular, green energy – solar and wind.
“The planned volume of Norwegian investments in this particular area will reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Relevant energy projects will be implemented in the south of Ukraine,” the report says.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said that today Ukraine is a very strong player in the field of innovation, and the Ukrainian IT sector shows an increase of about 20% annually. “We need to increase dynamic growth, and we need new investments for this goal. Of course, we need new technologies and not only technologies that we can borrow, but I think that many people will agree that today Ukraine is a very strong player in the field of innovation,” he said at the Kyiv International Economic Forum on Thursday. The premier added that in the innovation sector, the country is showing dynamic growth, in particular, a significant increase is shown by the IT sector – about 20% annually.
“We understand that new technologies are in conflict with the number of jobs,” Groysman added.
At the same time, he stressed that in Ukraine there are sectors where new jobs are created, and official unemployment in the country is falling.
The premier also predicted a shortage of labor in the future.
Groysman noted that there are areas in Ukraine that have the 10-12-fold potential for growth, which allows it to be quite competitive in investment.
Privatization of small assets that are not of strategic importance for the Ukrainian economy will begin through the ProZorro system in June, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said. “I believe that privatization is the fund-raising for industry. This month, a new formula for the sale of small enterprises – through ProZorro – starts openly, publicly, without abuse,” the press service of the government quoted Groysman as saying. According to him, large, strategically important assets will be kept in state property, and those where it is possible to raise capital for updating technologies and multiplying jobs will be made ready with the help of well-known world advisers.
“This practice was carried out by countries with a high standard of living. And we, unfortunately, remained with a bunch of problems that now need to be resolved,” Groysman said.
Earlier, First Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade Maksym Nefyodov said that the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine had approved a list of more than 600 small-scale privatization facilities that are subject to privatization in 2018. The first auctions can be announced at the end of June.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said that the growth of the IT sector in Ukraine last year was 20%. He said that the similar growth is planned for this year. “In 2017, the IT industry brought $3.6 billion of export revenue to the country. The share of the IT sector of the country’s GDP is around 3.4%. As of early 2018, over 120,000 employees and engineers worked in the sector, and their number is permanently growing,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. He also said that in May it is planned to hold a new ‘deregulation’ meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers: “We will continue annulling piles of unnecessary regulations and approve the required decisions, first of all, for the IT sector.”
Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said that Ukraine intends to sign an agreement on a free trade zone (FTA) with Turkey before the end of 2018. “Tomorrow, a delegation headed by the first deputy PM is coming back. We are going to sign an agreement on a free trade zone with Turkey this year,” the head of the government said on the Inter TV channel on Friday. Groysman said that this agreement would positively contribute to the development of the country’s economy.
