Business news from Ukraine

WORLD BANK SUPPORTS IDEA OF CREATING CREDIT GUARANTEE AGENCY IN UKRAINE TO FINANCE PURCHASE OF LAND BY FARMERS

The World Bank invites the Ukrainian government to consider the creation of the Partial Credit Guarantee Agency as a special financial tool that will allow small and medium-sized agricultural producers to receive financing for the acquisition of land after the launch of the market. “Partial guarantee for loan contributions is the best option for Ukraine,” Lead Financial Sector Specialist for the Finance and Markets Global Practice in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Vahe Vardanyan said at a press conference on Thursday.
According to him, at least half of the countries have introduced government partial guarantees as a way to facilitate access to loans. There is also the practice of creating specialized partial guarantees designed specifically for agriculture, for example, in Mexico and Colombia, he said.
In order to receive partial guarantees, the farmer applies for a loan to a bank, which analyzes the application and determines the need for partial guarantee, then the bank contacts the Credit Guarantee Agency. The latter checks the compliance criteria and carries out risk analysis, approves and provides a partial credit guarantee, receives a fee from the bank for issuing the guarantee. Further, the bank provides a loan secured by partial guarantees.
In addition, the World Bank said that the Credit Guarantee Agency (company/fund) is usually a non-banking financial institution, it has its own: management, governance, capital, operating procedures. The legal structure of the agency allows for a mixed type of ownership at a certain stage, the government is not always a full owner. The National Commission for Financial Service Markets Regulation exercises supervision as over a non-banking financial institution.
All over the world, guarantee agencies are state-owned, co-financing, public private partnership is possible, but this is about joining after the first year of the institutions’ work, World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova Satu Kahkonen said.

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BILL EXTENDING LAND MORATORIUM IS REGISTERED IN UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT

A group of people’s deputies on the initiative of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council on December 4 registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine bill No. 9355-5 extending the land moratorium until January 1, 2020, the association said. “Despite the fact that Ukraine is constantly debating on the possible introduction of the land market, we have not yet been submitted a draft law on farmland turnover. This issue is extremely worrying for domestic farmers and raises many questions. Under such circumstances, it’s too early to talk about lifting the moratorium,” deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council Denys Marchuk said.
The authors of the draft law on amendments to the Transitional Provisions section of the Land Code of Ukraine regarding the extension of the ban on alienation of agricultural land were Oleksandr Bakumenko, Petro Yurchyshyn, Mykola Kucher, Valeriy Davydenko, Leonid Kozachenko, Andriy Kot, Mykola Liushniak, Serhiy Labaziuk, Valentyn Didych, Ivan Kyrylenko, Anatoliy Kuzmenko, Oleh Kulinich, and Vadym Ivchenko.
The association noted, with reference to the explanatory note to draft law No. 9355-5, that political speculation that the land market will be introduced from January 1, 2019 creates tension in the society and does not contribute to citizens’ confidence in the reforms that are implemented in the state.

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KYIV CITY COUNCIL CUTS TAX ON LAND FOR HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS BY 100 TIMES

Kyiv City Council on October 18 at second reading passed a decision to set up the rate of a tax on land meant for the construction and maintenance of high-rise buildings at 0.01% of the recognized estimated monetary value of land. The current rate is 1%.
The respective changes are stipulated in Kyiv City Council’s decision on the establishment of local taxes and fees in the city of Kyiv dated June 23, 2011, which was taken as a basis on July 19, 2018.
Leonid Antonenko, a member of the Kyiv Team group of deputies, said that the changes had been introduced to provide reduced rates for multi-apartment building co-owners associations, however, in its current state the adopted norm can be enjoyed by real estate developers as well.
“Real estate developers have been given a gift – a tax on land meant for the construction and maintenance of high-rise buildings that was decreased by a factor of 100! The first decrease from 1% to 0.1% was voted for in July at first reading,” the deputy said in a post on his Facebook page.

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