The Council for Trade and Sustainable Development has selected two representatives of Ukraine to the Group of experts in accordance with Article 301 of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, thus Ukraine has completed the formation of its representatives in the Group, the Ministry of Economy reported on the website.
“Based on the results of the interviews with the candidates, two additional experts were selected by voting of the Council members. This allows us to fully form a pool of experts from the Ukrainian side and ensure the full work of the group by the end of this year,” the ministry said following the fifth meeting of the Council on Wednesday.
Additional recruitment of experts from Ukraine became a key issue of the meeting, the Ministry of Economy noted.
The ministry recalled that the expert Group should consist of 15 people: five each from Ukraine and the EU, as well as five people who are not citizens of any of the parties to the Agreement. The main task of the Group is to study any issue under Chapter 13 “Trade and Sustainable Development” of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, if this has not been satisfied through intergovernmental consultations.
Ukraine selected three experts during the fourth meeting of the Council, held in Kyiv in June 2019.
The approval of the full list of experts requires a decision by the Ukraine-EU subcommittee on trade and sustainable development, which is currently undergoing domestic approval procedures, the Economy Ministry added.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has called on representatives of the French business MEDEF International, who are on an official visit to the country, to participate in investment projects in Ukraine, the press service of the head of state reports.
In particular, the president drew the attention of investors to the implementation of the Big Construction national program. He called on French business to take part in the modernization of the road infrastructure of Ukraine within the framework of public-private partnership projects.
Among the large-scale investment projects, Zelensky also named railway communication, IT sphere, modernization and management of ports, airports, construction of metro and underground tunnels, etc. At the same time, the head of state emphasized the need to localize production in Ukraine.
Zelensky also proposed that Airbus, with which there is already a contract for the supply of helicopters, consider the possibility of participating in the implementation of a project to create a national Ukrainian air carrier and study the issue of attracting Ukraine to the production of the company’s products.
French businessmen confirmed their interest in cooperation in the mentioned areas.
“Today France is the sixth largest investment in Ukraine. Not a bad indicator, we can be glad. But we understand that it is better and much more can be done,” Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the president of MEDEF association, said.
Reportedly, some of the Ukrainian-French investment projects are already underway.
“A contract has been signed with Alstom company for the supply of 120 locomotives for the Ukrainian railway with partial localization of production in Ukraine (in the amount of 35%),” the report says.
In total, Ukraine and France have recently concluded intergovernmental agreements for more than EUR 1.3 billion.
The delegation of MEDEF association, which arrived in Ukraine, includes representatives of 20 large French companies from many sectors.
Verkhovna Rada has passed at first reading the President’s draft law on reducing value added tax (VAT) to 7% for representatives of culture, tourism, creative industries.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that some 273 MPs voted in favor of bill No. 3851 on amending the Tax Code of Ukraine to support culture, tourism and creative industries at first reading at the meeting on Tuesday, September 15.
“Since our field of work mainly requires offline performance and it is extremely difficult to shift to online mode, therefore we believe that… theatre, opera, ballet, music, concert, other performances, … production of … films and so on may be charged 7% VAT,” noted the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko at the presentation of the law.
He added that the bill provides for 7% VAT for operations related to temporary accommodation services provided by hotels, in view of the extremely high losses that this sector suffered due to quarantine measures.
“This law had been the subject of lengthy debates in the relevant ministries and I ask you now to lend a hand to the field of culture and creative industries,” Tkachenko summed up.
Representatives of the tourism industry have appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the government and the profile committees of the Verkhovna Rada with the request to create an anti-crisis committee with the participation of tour operators and to facilitate the mirror opening of borders with other countries, the press service of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) has said.
According to the appeal, the tour operators demand negotiations between the Foreign Ministry and the countries that have opened borders for other countries, excluding Ukraine, as well as the introduction of mirror and simultaneous opening of borders with them.
The representatives of the industry insist that inbound and outbound tourism should receive equal support from the state.
“Designate professionals who will understand the difference between inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. These are concepts that cannot be interchangeable. Why are anti-crisis steps today are taken in the format of replacing outbound tourism with inbound tourism? This is not a way out of the crisis for the industry, but only a substitution of concepts, which will lead to even greater decline,” the appeal states.
According to the tour operators, more than 250,000 people work in the industry, and during quarantine thousands lost their jobs. In addition, travel companies incur losses due to penalties for the return of paid and unused tours. At the same time, the industry representatives emphasized that they do not require financial subsidies or provision of jobs.
The appeal was prepared by representatives of the tourism industry together with the anti-crisis council of public organizations and the ULIE.
More than 20 representatives of the construction and consumer markets, including Olena Shuliak, Vadym Strunevych, Hanna Lichman from the Servant of the People party, Vadym Stolar and Dmytro Isayenko from the Opposition Platform-For Life party, and also self-nominees Oleksandr Feldman and Leonid Klimov pass to the Verkhovna Rada.
The list of the Servant of the People party included the head of the construction sector, board member of the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) Olena Shuliak (under No. 13), head of Kyivproekt and Ukrinvestbud Development LLC Vadym Strunevych (No. 39). Ukrinvestbud Development jointly with Saga Development is implementing the project of the Einstein Concept House residential complex at 24a Zlatoustivska Street in Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv.
The list of the party also includes the head of Biant development company (Kryvy Rih), the director of the enterprise for production of concrete Rastro LLC, Yuriy Kysil (No. 42).
CONSTRUCTION, CONSUMER MARKETS, REPRESENTATIVES, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with Chinese business representatives to discuss investment and the two sides made a preliminary list of joint projects with a potential investment of around $10 billion.
“The meeting attendees made a preliminary list of projects with an investment potential of around $10 billion, which Ukraine is planning to implement jointly with Chinese companies of private and public ownership. The projects will be coordinated by the national investment board led by the president,” the presidential press service said.
“We spend a lot of effort to attract investors to Ukraine. We are ready to protect investments. That requires a new parliament and government as well as our desire,” Zelensky told his guests.
He offered to discuss the potential investment in infrastructure development, agriculture and gas field development in Ukraine.
“One issue is to build a concession road around Kyiv,” Zelensky said.
For their part, representatives from a Chinese state corporation, which specializes in building military infrastructure, told about projects they could implement in Ukraine at their expense.
Representatives from a private Chinese company, which owns one of the world’s top 500 biggest banks, suggested a number of projects on infrastructure, agriculture, energy efficiency and financial services.
