CUCC launches Rebuild Ukraine Committee

Dear friends,

As the tensions between Ukraine and russia reached another record high last Fall and beginning of 2022 that to our regret lead to full-scale invasion into Ukraine, CUCC tried to help its members and UA & CA businesses by consulting them about ways to relocate businesses, overcome challenges and prepare BCP.

For the whole period since February 24, our team members based in Kyiv (with temporary relocation to Western Ukraine) and Toronto were ready to deliver.   For more than two months CUCC was the only Canadian organization with staff in Ukraine ready to help and monitor the situation.

Understanding that Ukraine not only needs military equipment and funding to win the war we also acknowledge that the country will face even tougher period of rebuilding its economy, infrastructure and investment flows, the Board of CUCC decided to establish the “Rebuild Ukraine Committee”.

The committee is comprised of CUCC board members, executive team & willing member companies representatives. Participation is open and based on willingness to bring and execute new ideas and challenging projects that might be presented to the Government of Canada for funding and further implementation. Committee’s main focus areas are Investment flows, Construction, Agriculture, Oil&Gas, Energy, and ICT. Members meet biweekly, reporting on the progress reached and further steps.

Should you wish to join Committee’s activities please contact Sviatoslav Kavetskyi or Olha Mandyuk.

Large-scale privatization object in Ukraine

Dear all,

The State Property Fund of Ukraine, in line with the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated September 25, 2019 № 883-r, has completed preparations for privatization of the large-scale privatization object – JSC “United Mining and Chemical Company”. Auction for sale 100% of shares will take place in the third quarter of 2021 (late July).

This would be the first auction of large-scale privatization in the last many years, which is important for Ukraine’s economy, as well as a significant image basis for building Ukraine’s reputation as a country, which is open to large investments and foreign investors.

 

For More info click here

Presentations from the Development of Extractive Industries in Ukraine event

On April 22, 2021 CUCC in cooperation with US-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) hosted a webinar “Development of Extractive Industries in Ukraine”. More information about the event, including a recording you may find here.

An event gained a big audience and as a response to numerous requests, we are posting the presentations of the event speakers:

1. Presentation by Sergiy Tsivkach, Executive Director of UkraineInvest

UkraineInvest

 

2. Presentation by Taras Yeleyko, Deputy Chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine

SPFU

 

3. Presentation by Roman Opimakh, Head of State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine

Derzhgeonadra

Should you have more questions please inquire at skavetskyi@cucc.ca

Statement on the case between TIU Canada and the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFZ)

The Canadian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (CUCC) continues to closely monitor developments surrounding a lawsuit in which the Canadian renewable energy investor TIU Canada is defending its rights against the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant in connection with the illegal shutdown of its Nikopol solar power plant from the power grid.

The company, also a member of CUCC, appealed the initial decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv. The first hearing in the appeal process was supposed to take place on April 12, 2021, but was postponed due to the judge’s illness and a reported bomb threat towards the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal in Kyiv. The next meeting is scheduled for May 17, 2021, at 11.40 AM. According to TIU Canada, they are fully committed to asserting their rights, including with the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

As the largest Ukrainian Canadian business association, we cannot stand aside and express our hopes that the rule of law will prevail in this matter. What is also important is the continued public discourse this situation has gained abroad, especially in Canada, where high-ranking politicians have published direct statements on the matter. This continued attention may cause further negative impacts on Ukraine’s investment image and exacerbate the tendency to reduce foreign investment due to further negative signals regarding the investment climate.

We call on the Government of Ukraine to bring further attention to this case, promote equal conditions for doing business for all stakeholders in compliance with the norms and provisions set forth in the legislation of Ukraine. We also call on the Government of Ukraine to adhere to their own prior public statements on foreign investment protection.

Development of Extractive Industries in Ukraine

April 22, 2021, marked an unprecedented online discussion of 2021 development opportunities for Ukraine’s extractive industries sector between UkraineInvest, State Geologic and Subsoil Survey of Ukraine and State Property Fund of Ukraine and mining business representatives and investors.

The discussion was opened by Zenon Potoczny, President, Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce (CUCC) and Morgan Williams, President/CEO, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) and moderated by Morgan Williams and Emma Turos, Managing Director for Ukraine, CUCC.

The event was attended by over 300 participants representing the North American and global investment community.

Sergiy Tsivkach, UkraineInvest’s Executive Director, made a presentation on the role and activities of UkraineInvest as an investment promotion agency and the institution designated to provide support for investment in Ukraine, as well as on investment climate improvements, recent regulatory developments, and work in the regions in various fields.

Roman Opimakh, Director General of the State Geological and Subsoil Survey of Ukraine presented investment opportunities in the subsoil sector of Ukraine and Taras Yeleyko, Deputy Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, made the presentation on state property privatization objects in Ukraine’s extractive industries sector.

The presentations were followed by a lively and candid discussion with the participation of three companies who already invested in operations in Ukraine and are at various stages of their projects. The business community noted the progress which Ukraine has made recently in oil & gas upstream, mining and other areas and confirmed interest in further exploring investment opportunities which Ukraine has to offer.

The top management of the state agencies and the business community agreed to continue discussion of and cooperation in resolving various issues which are important for international and domestic businesses alike to further improve Ukraine’s attractiveness for investment.

The recording of the event is available at USUBC’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv2fd5fvFKg

Kherson region of Ukraine presentation

Dear all,

We would like to share with you the presentation of the Kherson region of Ukraine that was shared with the CUCC during the International Council of Business Associations and Chambers (ICBAC) where our Managing Director-Ukraine Emma Turos is currently serving as a General Secretary.

Should you have any questions regarding the presentation or would like to contact Kherson region investment office, please contact our team at info@cucc.ca

3. Презентація Херсонської області_eng

Ukraine-Canada Opportunities information session

Friends,

We would like to invite you to the online information session “Ukraine-Canada Opportunities”, organized by CUCC in partnership with the Province of Manitoba, Canada and WTC Winnipeg, that will take place on March 03, 2021, at 18.00 CET (10 AM CST). This event is addressed first of all at the Canadian business but may be of interest for Ukrainian entrepreneurs as well. Speakers are the representatives of Ukrainian Embassy in Canada and the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine, AGI, UkraineInvest and the CUCC team. To find out more, click the link

http://www.wtcwinnipeg.com/en/event/information-session-ukraine-canada-opportunities/

We would like to take this opportunity and announce the next online event with the Province of Manitoba, which is aimed at Ukrainian businesses and will take place at the beginning of April. More details on this event will follow.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law on Investment “Nanny”

Today, on February 10, 2021, the President of Ukraine signed the Law “On State Assistance to Investment Projects with the Significant Investments in Ukraine”.

The Law is aimed to increase state support for large investment projects exceeding EUR 30 million and lure international business to the country.

The law will offer tax benefits to big investors and provide them with so-called “investment nannies,” managers who will help them communicate with state officials, provide advice and generally help them navigate Ukrainian bureaucracy.

The law will focus on the following sectors:

  • processing industry (with some exceptions);
  • infrastructure;
  • waste management;
  • logistics;
  • education, science;
  • healthcare;
  • sports and tourism

Investors will also be able to have money allocated from state or municipal budgets to build the infrastructure needed for an investment project, including highways, communication lines, heat, gas, water and electricity supply facilities, and utilities. The total amount of state support won’t exceed 30% of the investment in a project.

https://www.president.gov.ua/news/prezident-pidpisav-zakon-shodo-derzhavnoyi-pidtrimki-investi-66453

Emma Turos, CUCC and ICBAC members met with the Head of State Property Fund of Ukraine Dmytro Sennychenko

The meeting was dedicated to discussion of a proposed amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On State Property Fund of Ukraine” and other legislative acts of Ukraine to promote investment through privatization and lease of state property”.

The purpose of the bill is to accelerate privatization by: improving the institutional mechanisms of privatization, establishing an efficient organizational structure of State Property Fund of Ukraine and clarifying certain aspects of legislation concerning privatization and corporate governance of state assets to ensure effective and responsive management while an SOE is being prepared for privatization.

According to Dmytro Sennychenko, Head of State Property Fund of Ukraine, suggested novelties will allow to protect state property rights, interests of foreign investors and make the privatization procedure more user-friendly. The Fund expects to attract a record sum of 12 bln UAH from privatization in 2021.

We will continue to follow the news on this.

More info on this meeting (in Ukrainian) http://www.spfu.gov.ua/ua/news/7179.html

Ukraine and Canada: a history of settlement and a future for investment

I have been in Ukraine since October 2014; I arrived soon after the Revolution of Dignity began. 

The revolution created both a strong desire for reform and a call for social justice, but at the same time it also led to the occupation of Crimea and the beginning of the Russian-backed aggression of Donbas. As a result, Ukraine has needed to deal with a very broad range of challenges, and all at the same time. This has meant that despite the efforts of many ambitious and smart people, reforms haven’t moved as quickly as many Ukrainians had hoped. Nevertheless, more has been done in these past three years than in the previous twenty-four years. It’s certainly encouraging and we’re beginning to see the results now. 

On the economic side, we can see the growth going ahead in bounds. Ukraine did not have a viable army in 2014; certainly not one that was combat worthy. Civil society and the population stepped in to remedy much of that, and the state has been catching up. It plays more a role as a deterrent, which we hope will make a peaceful solution more viable.

Obviously, many issues remain outstanding both with Russia, for example, as well as the international court and the challenge that was launched at the beginning of March in the Hague is evidence of that. Ukraine’s relationship with the EU continues to be redefined and Canada has been a strong partner throughout.

Our economic relations are fairly modest. In terms of exports from Canada, 2016 was a record year and the best since 1991, reaching 265 million Canadian dollars. According to our statistics, Ukraine’s exports to Canada were 107 million Canadian dollars. We are confident that more can be done now, with our Canada-Ukraine free-trade agreement.

The International Trade Centre in Geneva did a study, and Canada ended up in the top ten underserved markets when it comes to Ukraine, in terms of not fully using the existing potential. Because of that we believe that both the attention and the publicity surrounding the free-trade agreement, as well as the provisions of the document itself, will help remedy that. In order to help that process along, we’ve launched a Canada-Ukraine Trade Investment Support Project with the Conference Board of Canada and the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce which aims to help build Ukraine’s capacity to use these opportunities.

I think the other key element, which is not yet covered by the current version of our free-trade agreement, is trade in services but we are open to negotiating this over the next couple of years. When it comes to Canada, certainly sales of software and computer services probably are, by all accounts, greater than goods’ exports at this point, both in terms of product development, outsourcing and maintenance. There is a lot of activity, and sales into Canada. Certainly, I would say over 100 million Canadian dollars a year, if not 150 million. 

Thanks to the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada there’s a widespread awareness of Ukrainians, and by extension, Ukraine. It’s not something you need to explain to most Canadians. That makes Canada a little different from many other countries, and it means there are already people there with cultural empathy and openness to the market.

On the other hand, it also comes with some disadvantages. Some of these people, with personal links to Ukraine, tried to do business in the early years, of the 90s. Many of those business ventures did not work in the Wild West atmosphere that existed at the time and the bad memories of some of those smaller-scale (and larger-scale) problems persist. So, we need to overcome those. In the past year and a half we’ve seen the arrival of major Canadian players, such as Fairfax Financial, investing in Ukraine. We’re seeing bigger players with deeper pockets who are willing to take on board the Ukrainian risk in order to also take advantage of the Ukrainian opportunities.

I am of Ukrainian origin myself. I was born in Toronto and I lost some of my illusions about Eastern Europe there. I try to encourage people in Canada, from whatever background, to take a realistic view of the market.

Does Ukraine have an image problem? I think there’s no doubt that there are perception issues out there. In territorial terms, the military conflict concerns approximately about seven per cent of the country, if we include both Crimea and the Donbas, and three per cent, if just the Donbas. Certainly, one of the things that I remind my Canadian country people about is that it is 1,300 km from the western border to the line of contact in the conflict zone, and that’s a very long distance, indeed.

ABOUT ROMAN WASCHUK

Roman Waschuk is Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine. He began his career with the Department of External Affairs in 1987. First posted as second secretary (political) in Moscow, he subsequently served as counsellor (political) in Kyiv and counsellor (political) and minister-counsellor (political/economic) in Berlin. He also served as Ambassador to Serbia, with concurrent accreditation to Macedonia and Montenegro. He graduated from the University of Toronto (MA in History).

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