Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said about his vision of how to make Ukraine the really rich country and called on business to invest money, time and ideas in Ukraine.
“We are carefully studying the experience of countries that are successful. We understand that they, first of all, invested in education, technology and infrastructure. Ukraine will do the same. Therefore, the role of the state in the economy in the next five years will be reduced to three things: do not interfere business; to build an excellent infrastructure for business and create conditions for doing business in Ukraine was simply convenient; third, focus on education, science and technology,” he said at a meeting with the business community in Kyiv.
Zelensky said that he was not used to catching up, therefore he is looking for creative breakthrough and innovative solutions for Ukraine with his team, and will tell more about them in the near future.
The president said that “to turn from a poor country into a middle-income country is not so difficult.” “The recipes are simple, success stories are known. All these is a mandatory program for us, and we will do it in the next five years,” he said.
At the same time, Zelensky is convinced that Ukraine needs to become a “truly rich country.”
“According to the World Bank, in 1960 there were 101 countries that are developing, and only 13 of them were able to become developed rich countries. In addition, most of them did it at the expense of natural resources. Economists have a special term: “middle income trap.” Its essence is very simple: poor countries compete with cheap labor. As soon as a country receives an average level of income, competitive advantages disappear and the country ceases to develop rapidly. According to this scenario, the country almost never becomes rich, the highest level is “medium,” he explained.
“Half a year ago I decided to invest the most precious thing I have – my time – in Ukraine. I urge you to do the same: invest time, money, ideas in Ukraine. Let’s change Ukraine together!” Zelensky said, addressing business at the end of his speech.
BUSINESS, EDUCATION, INVEST, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGIES, ZELENSKY
Italy’s Ernest Airlines to open office in Kyiv and plans to invest EUR 100 mln in Ukraine
KYIV. June 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Italy’s Ernest Airlines will open its office in Kyiv this summer, and in 2020 plans to place two planes in Kyiv, according to a posting on the website of the Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport. As the airport press service said, Ernest Airlines has already invested more than EUR 30 million in the Ukrainian market over the past two years, and plans to invest more than EUR 100 million in the next two years.
“In 2020, it is also planned to place two aircraft in Kyiv. This will give even more opportunities for work to even more people in Ukraine,” the airport said.
According to the airport, Ernest Airlines services 13 destinations from Ukraine to Italy. In 2018, the airline transported more than 200,000 Ukrainian passengers, and in 2019 it is planned that the number of passengers from Italy to Ukraine and back will exceed 500,000 passengers.
“This year, Ernest will open a call center in Ukraine to attract even more Ukrainian operators who will be able to more effectively help all its passengers. Ernest also employs more and more crew members who speak Ukrainian to have such specialists on all their flights,” the airport said.
In addition, Ernest Airlines already has a special call center in Italy with Ukrainian-speaking employees.
Ernest Airlines is an Italian airline headquartered in Milan. The main operations center of the company is located in Tirana (Albania). The airline is a low cost carrier and serves the Italian and Albanian markets. The airline flies from Kyiv to Rome, Milan (Bergamo and Malpensa), Naples, Bologna and Genoa, and also from Lviv to Rome, Milan (Bergamo), Naples and Venice; from Kharkiv to Rome and Milan (Malpensa), and from Odesa – only to Rome.
The corrugated cardboard box plant Dunapack Tavria (Oleshky, Kherson region) plans to launch another corrugated cardboard processing line with an annual capacity of 16-18 million square meters in August, Dunapack Tavria CEO Kostiantyn Turyhin said at a briefing at the plant on June 11. “Investment in the launch of this line in total with peripherals will be about EUR 2 million,” he said.
According to Turyhin, over the past three years, the demand for corrugated cardboard has increased by 3-7% per year.
At the same time, Dunapack-Tavria said that the waste paper market in Ukraine is very opaque, and the waste paper itself is not enough to ensure the need of Ukrainian enterprises.
As reported, according to the UkrPapir association, in January-April 2019, Dunapack-Tavria increased the production of cardboard boxes 22%, to 22.7 million square meters.
Austrian Dunapack Concern in 2013 opened the Dunapack-Tavria plant in Oleshky (Kherson region) for the production of corrugated packaging, investment in which amounted to EUR 38 million.
CORRUGATED CARDBOARD, DUNAPACK TAVRIA, INVEST, PROCESSING LINE
Baltic Beverages Invest AB (BBI, Sweden) has increased its stake in PrJSC Carlsberg Ukraine (Zaporizhia), one of the largest brewing companies in Ukraine, to 100%.
According to a company report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the squeeze-out procedure was completed on June 12, 2019. As reported, Baltic Beverages Invest planned to buy out 12.6 million shares of Carlsberg (1.2% of the number of its shares) for UAH 185 million.
Carlsberg Ukraine in 2018 saw net profit rise by 1.5 times compared with 2017, to UAH 1.634 billion. Carlsberg Ukraine is part of Carlsberg Group, one of the leading brewing groups in the world, whose products are sold in more than 150 countries. Carlsberg Group in Ukraine consists of three breweries in Zaporizhia, Kyiv, and Lviv.
U.S. Trident Acquisitions Corp., which submitted one of the four bids in a tender to develop the Dolphin section on the Black Sea shelf under a product sharing agreement (PSA), has said that the company is ready to invest $1 billion. “We proposed investment in the amount of $1 billion to Ukraine, the start of production in three and a half years if the reserves are discovered and the most experienced offshore fields development team,” Trident Acquisitions CEO, former Deputy of the State Duma of Russia Ilya Ponomarev, who became the Ukrainian citizen under a decree of Petro Poroshenko in May, wrote on his Facebook page.
“We see what rivals would say, we are keeping our fingers crossed and looking forward for [the results],” he said.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on April 12 announced a tender to develop the Dolphin Black Sea shelf section under the PSA. The term of the PSA is 50 years. The winner of the tender must provide a geological survey of the subsoil at the site, including the drilling of at least five wells during the first stage (five years) of geological exploration. The minimum investment that must be made in this period will be determined by the results of the tender, but must be at least UAH 1.5 billion.
The initiative to develop the Dolphin section belonged to another U.S. company, Frontera Resources Corporation, which also applied its bid for the tender.
Two other participants are Caspian Drilling International Ltd, a state-owned oil company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), and Ukrnaftoburinnia, one of the largest private gas producing companies in Ukraine.
Henkel Bautechnik (Ukraine) plans to invest around EUR 400,000 in the modernization of plants in Vyshgorod (Kyiv region) and Balakliya (Kharkiv region).
“The automatic line will be modernized at the plants in Vyshgorod and Balakliya from May of the current year, resulting in increased effectiveness and safety. The quality of product packaging will also improve. The amount of investment is about EUR 400,000,” Director General of Henkel Bautechnik (Ukraine) Olha Stupina told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to her, the company’s turnover in 2018 amounted to UAH 2 billion, forecasts for 2019 are positive, growth is expected. The company has significantly increased its financial performance compared to 2014, despite the loss of a quarter of the sales market.
“We estimate the results of last year as good. For the second time, Ukraine became the best company in the world in the Henkel adhesive division by consolidated financial indicators. I believe that in the conditions in which Ukraine is located relative to other countries of Europe and the world, this is a very big achievement,” Stupina said.
The total production capacity of the four factories of Henkel Bautechnik (Ukraine) is about 600,000 tonnes of products per year.
In the market of water-dispersion paints with a volume of about 150,000 tonnes, the share of Henkel Bautechnik (Ukraine) is about 17%, the press service of the company said.
