Ukraine needs foreign direct investment (FDI) to provide stable growth, and one of the fastest instruments for attracting at least $15-20 billion could be the offer of state-owned agricultural land estimated at 10 million hectares, Managing Partner of ICU Investment Group Makar Paseniuk has stated. “Land reform would be a huge driver for the further development of our country, as it can be done quickly and it will quickly attract FDI,” he said at the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by ICU in Odesa.
Paseniuk said that the total area of agricultural land in Ukraine is estimated at 20-25 million hectares, of which about 10 million hectares still belong to the state. According to him, the average rent rate is $140-150 per hectare a year, which, taking into account the conservative estimate of a 10% rate, entails the cost of land of $1,500-2,000 per hectare.
“Thus, the cost of all state farmland is $15-20 billion, which can be compared with the existing IMF program in the amount of $17.5 billion or more, which twice as much as the NBU’s net reserves of $6.8 billion,” the expert said.
He urged the state to actively offer large investment projects in other sectors.
“I cannot name an economically viable project in which a private investor can now invest $1 billion,” Paseniuk stated.
Ukraine and Norway are negotiating about investments in renewable energy projects for EUR300-400 million, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said. “We are starting work with a number of Norwegian companies that come to build relations in renewable energy. The matter concerns serious investment of EUR 300-400 million,” the minister said at a joint press conference with the Norwegian foreign minister in Kyiv.
According to Klimkin, the matter concerns projects, in particular, related to solar energy.
Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein Alois advocates the increase in investment of his country in the Ukrainian economy. “We talked about expanding economic cooperation. There are Liechtenstein firms that are already working in Ukraine… We talked about the possibility of developing this cooperation and attracting more Liechtenstein investments to Ukraine,” the prince said in a statement to the press after a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv. He said that in recent years Liechtenstein participated in various projects in Ukraine – both in supporting the reform process and in the humanitarian sphere.
In turn, Poroshenko said that half of the investments that come from Liechtenstein to Ukraine are directed to industry. “This shows the long-term and strategic nature of Liechtenstein investors’ plans for Ukraine,” the head of state said.
The volume of investment in agriculture and provision of serviced related to them totaled UAH 10.52 billion in January-March 2018, the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine has reported. According to the report, this was 9.5% more than a year ago. In addition, investment in production of food, beverage and tobacco products totaled UAH 4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2018, which was 56% more than a year ago.
The key source of financing of capital investment is own funds of companies, which share of total investment was 76.2%.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a list of 477 investment programs and regional development projects for the total amount of over UAH 4 billion, which will be financed by the State Regional Development Fund in 2018.
“We have approved the first list of investment programs and regional development projects that will be financed from the State Regional Development Fund in 2018. Now 477 projects for a total of more than UAH 4 billion are approved,” the press service of the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine reported with reference to the decision of the government on Wednesday.
Some 80 educational facilities (regular schools and kindergartens) for the amount of UAH 1.3 billion will be built in the regions at the expense of the State Regional Development Fund, 95 facilities of public health and social protection – UAH 804 million, 78 sports facilities – UAH 740 million, 36 water supply and sewage facilities – UAH 200 million, 25 facilities of road and transport infrastructure – UAH 334 million, and 26 cultural facilities – UAH 397 million.
The draft resolution on financing at the expense of the State Regional Development Fund includes projects that have been submitted to the Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regional administrations and Kyiv City Administration.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure considers it necessary to invest in the construction and repair of runways at regional airports, Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan has said on the air of Channel Five. “A lot of airlines are ready to enter Ukrainian regional airports, but there are no conditions for that. There are no runways, there are no terminals that would accelerate servicing, while this is one of the key issues for low cost air carriers. Therefore we must invest in the runways as a state to get a highly competitive market and business for the state as well,” he said.
According to Omelyan, the development of airports will ensure a quick return on investment. Earlier, the minister said that the reconstruction of the airport in Odesa is to be completed in 2019. It is also planned to additionally allocate UAH 1.17 billion for the construction of a runway at Odesa airport. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the construction of a new runway will allow Odesa airport to accept heavier aircraft, including Boeing-767, which, in turn, can double passenger traffic.