Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill on the ratification of the Guarantee Agreement (a draft access to long term finance project) between Ukraine and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) passed by the Verkhovna Rada on April 5. “The agreement creates a legal framework for the development of cooperation between the parties, involving long-term investment resources in the economy of Ukraine in the amount of $150 million under state guarantees. The document calls for Ukreximbank to receive loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to provide Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with medium and long-term financing for production needs: investment lending and working capital financing,” the press service of the President of Ukraine said last week.
The implementation of the access to long term finance project will have a positive impact on the development of SME, expansion of production capacities of the real sector, preservation of existing and creation of new jobs.
New containment facility at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant is planned to be put into operation this December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said. “A new safe confinement is planned to be put into operation in December… Installation of equipment and systems is currently being completed there,” the president said at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko says that the reforms implemented in Ukraine are aimed at improving the investment climate. “We are resolutely implementing reforms to improve the investment climate significantly. The evaluation of the World Bank can be more trustworthy than the words of the president. In the Doing Business rating, Ukraine got from the 137th place, before my presidential term, to the 76th place – last year. No country has shown such dynamics. And we do everything possible to get to the top 50 shortly,” Poroshenko said in an interview with the German Handelsblatt business newspaper, quoted by the presidential press service on Monday.
According to Poroshenko, there was a thorough reform of the tax industry in Ukraine, reform in the education, medical and pension sectors, as well as energy sector in terms of state procurement and privatization, which the IMF did not initially believe in. Ukraine also carried out a revolutionary reform of the banking sector. “All these are very unpopular, yet required steps,” he said.
The president added that following the results of the competition for obtaining licenses for the use of 4G communications by mobile operators, Ukraine got UAH 8 billion instead of the expected UAH 5 billion.
“The most important thing is the opinion of investors, and many influential companies have come or returned to Ukraine,” the president said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has warned Germany against participation in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, suggesting, as an alternative, the modernization of a transit gas pipeline passing through Ukrainian territory.
In an interview with German business newspaper Handelsblatt, extracts from which were published by the Ukrainian service of Deutsche Welle, Poroshenko noted that Nord Stream 2 was a political project that is financed by Russia and has no economic justification.
“Nord Stream 2 is a political bribe for loyalty to Russia, imposing an economic and energy blockade on Ukraine, which will hurt us greatly,” he said.
According to him, an alternative solution is the modernization of the existing transit gas pipeline that passes through Ukraine. Poroshenko also said that the development of the gas transportation infrastructure in Ukraine would not require multibillion investments.
On March 27, Nord Stream 2 AG received the permit for the construction and operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline system in the German exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is to pass across the Baltic Sea, connecting Russian suppliers with European consumers at over 1,200 km in length. The pipeline will have capacity for 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The project has an estimated cost of almost 10 billion euros. Gazprom’s partners in the project are Engie, OMV, Shell and two German companies BASF and Uniper.
In early April, the Verkhovna Rada urged foreign parliaments, governments and the international business community not to participate in the preparation, financing or lobbying of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s income in 2017 has totaled UAH 16,303,874, of which 18% were returned to the state in the form of personal income tax levied on the wages and the deposits, and 1.5% in military tax. “The total amount of income received by Petro Poroshenko in 2017 is UAH 16,303,874, of them UAH 336,000 is salary, which the head of state annually remits to charity, and a total of UAH 15,795,874 in interest on deposits. These and other data can be found in the electronic declaration of Petro Poroshenko for 2017, which will appear in the public domain today,” according to the press release posted on the president’s website on Friday. The amount of funds on Poroshenko’s bank accounts have decreased over a year by $430,000.
According to the law, the president declared the expenses for the previous year – including the funds that were spent on vacation. This money was officially transferred in non-cash form from previously declared own accounts in compliance with the banking and tax legislation of Ukraine.
The report says that the amount of declared vacation expenses is half the figure that appeared in the media. “Not a penny was spent from the state budget,” the press service assured.
Last year, Poroshenko did not receive dividends from enterprises, whose ultimate beneficiary he is.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill deregulating the license issue in the oil and gas production sphere.
According to a posting on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the signed document was returned to the parliament on March 29.
The law permits the use of the servitude tool for the construction of oil and gas production facilities and pipelines (without changing the purpose of land use).
In addition, the need to obtain a patented mining claim is eliminated. Oil and gas production facilities are removed from the list of facilities of town-planning activity. The obligatory introduction of deposits to research, industrial and commercial development is canceled by the decision of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry.
The document gives the right to oil and gas producers after the completion of the period of research and industrial development of deposits to use land parcels on the basis of an agreement with the owner of the land parcels until the purpose of land use is changed and documents for the right to use land are registered (now companies are obliged to stop production for the period of processing documents).
The removal and transfer of soil for further drilling can be carried out without special permission on the basis of a detailed land management project.
The law grants deposit users the right to use their geological information without agreeing them with authorities. In addition, it is proposed to expand the range of entities that can conduct a geological and economic assessment of oil and gas reserves (now this right is owned exclusively by the State Commission of Ukraine for Mineral Reserves).
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted on March 1 at the second reading and in general bill No. 3096-d, which deregulates the license issue in the oil and gas production sphere.
