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

New General Secretary of ICBAC – Emma Turos, CUCC-Ukraine

On January 25, 2021 Alfred F. Praus, President of the Ukrainian-Austrian Association, after serving for two years as ICBAC General Secretary, handed over the General Secretariat of the International Council of Business Associations and Chambers in Ukraine, which is rotated yearly, to Emma Turos, Managing Director of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce.
We are looking forward to a fruitful and interesting work within the ICBAC framework and new projects to be completed. Stay tuned.

http://icbac.org/

Ukraine has opened strategic and critical minerals for international investors

January, 26, Kyiv – State Geologic and Subsoil Survey of Ukraine (hereinafter – UGS), Ukraine’s national upstream regulator, together with the state agency UkraineInvest, presented a list of strategic and critical minerals, which can be bought at electronic auctions. Their extraction and development can bring more than $10 billion of investments to the country.

The Director General of UGS, Roman Opimakh, presented a unique product, called an Investment Atlas, which is available online and also in English.

The Investment Atlas contains a list of 15 minerals and currently contains 30 promising fields of strategic and critical mineral resources, inter alia lithium, which is in high demand for batteries and computers.

The so called “metals of the future” are used in high-tech industries worldwide. Titanium and beryllium are important components of aerospace technology. An investor will also find proposals of gold, tantalum, cobalt and other rare earth minerals.

A special attention was paid to hydrocarbon fields, which Ukraine is also rich for. The UGS announced a number of new oil and gas concession licenses to be sold via electronic auctions. Also, a large oil and gas ‘Oleska’ block with an acreage of ​​6,324 km2, as the Production Sharing Agreement, was announced to be open for E&P partnership.

Ukraine has recently signed eight Production sharing agreements (hereinafter – PSAs) with the investors. The total acreages of signed PSAs cover an area of almost 10.000 km2. Total investment commitment during the first five years account for $390 million.

Ukraine also re-launched an ex-Shell PSA, ‘Yuzivska’ oil and gas block, with acreage of over 7,500 km2. The PSA has been re-signed between the Government, national company ‘Nadra of Ukraine’ and the national company ‘Naftogaz of Ukraine’.

The slides of the presentation are available online at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YgkJPOVVCP7zv7BCgJvFKBi7AdimAs8q/view

Open bids can be found under the link https://www.geo.gov.ua/en/open-bids/

***

State Geologic and Subsoil Survey of Ukraine https://www.geo.gov.ua/en

UkraineInvest https://ukraineinvest.gov.ua/

Industry recognition for N-iX, a long-time member of CUCC

We are proud to share that N-iX has been named a Rising Star in the 2020 edition of ISG Provider Lens™ Analytics – Solutions and Service Partners for the UK market.

The company is recognized as one of Ukraine’s top employers according to the 2020 Forbes.ua rating and listed in the Global Outsourcing 100® for the fourth consecutive year.

Find out more https://www.n-ix.com/news/isg-recognizes-n-ix-rising-star-data-engineering/

Remembering Anna Kisil

It is with great sadness and grief, we acknowledge the passing into eternity of a charming and kind woman, caring mother, excellent organizer, and a person of a big heart – Anna Kisil.

Her life was full of outstanding achievements; everything she touched transformed into a success. Neither business projects nor community events that Panni Anna worked on had any chance of failure.

Anna Kisil was a longstanding leader and voice for Ukrainian newcomers to Canada and women’s associations, an active member of Ukrainian Canadian Congress, World Ukrainian Congress and Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce. Her tireless work for the benefit of the Ukrainian community in Canada and Ukraine was noticed and recognized by both countries’ governments.

No words may fully express the overwhelming grief due to the loss of a remarkable human, who Anna Kisil undoubtedly was and she will forever remain in our hearts.

We express our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones and mourn with you.

May her memory be eternal.

Key business developments ahead for Ukraine in 2018

By Bermet Talant
Here are the Kyiv Post’s picks for some of the most exciting deals and events coming in the first half of 2018:

4G spectrum auction

The faster 4G — a dream for Ukrainian mobile operators and their customers — may soon come true. The state regulator finally set the date for the auction on the 1800 MHz spectrum, which includes the frequency ranges between 1710–1785 MHz and 1805–1880 MHz. The auction is scheduled for Feb. 26.

Ukraine launched 3G only three years, more than a decade behind European Union countries. But local providers — Kyivstar, lifecell, and Vodafone — are ready to roll out 4G.

New link with Europe

The Beskydy railway tunnel connecting Ukraine with Europe will be open in May, Ukraine state railway company Ukrzaliznytsya announced. The 1,822-meter long tunnel is a section of the fifth Pan-European transport corridor connecting western Ukraine with Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Slovakia. It will boost Ukraine’s trade capacity with the European Union.

New fashion brands

The first store of long-awaited Swedish retailer H&M will open in Kyiv’s Lavina Mall in spring. Leading Turkish retailer DeFacto plans to enter the Ukrainian market with a store in Odesa’s Riviera mall, company vice president Serdar Ersoy told the Retailers Association of Ukraine.

Chornobyl solar plant

The first solar power plant in Chornobyl exclusion zone is being prepared for launch within weeks, Yevgen Varyagin, the head of the Ukrainian-German company Solar Chernobyl, told Agence-France Presse. Located 100 meters away from the new Safe Confinement, installed in 2016, a one-megawatt power plant with about 3,800 photovoltaic solar panels can cover needs of about 2,000 households. Chornobyl zone’s state administration received 60 proposals from foreign companies including Chinese, Danish and American interested in solar developments in the exclusion zone

More flights

A new Ukrainian budget airline SkyUp will start flying in April. The company promises affordable charter flights from four Ukrainian cities to 16 foreign destinations in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Albania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

In addition, Bulgaria Air launches a direct flight Kyiv – Sofia in February, and Air Malta will start flying to four Ukrainian cities in April. And a Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air keeps expanding its presence in Ukraine, adding Kharkiv to its list. The company also announced two new flights from Lviv to Dortmund starting from March 26 and to London’s Luton airport from May 1.

Privatization start

Sumy-based chemical producing plant Sumykhimprom will be put on sale in February for Hr 248.8 million ($8.7 million). Although 99.99 percent of the plant belongs to the Ukrainian government, it is de facto controlled by oligarch Dmytro Firtash’s companies, according to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty investigation. In total, the State Property Fund plans to sell its stakes in some 100 enterprises for Hr 22.5 billion, or $773 million, this year.

 

Source: Kyiv Post

CUCC Statement on RES sector in Ukraine

  1. After the Revolution of dignity Government of Ukraine adopted new approach to attract direct foreign investments into renewable energy sector of Ukraine. It offered attractive tariffs on produced solar, wind, hydro and bio energy. This led to more than 5 bln USD investments into this sector from abroad with more than 4 bln USD invested over last two years. These funds where one of a pillars of direct foreign investments into Ukraine.

This being said, in 2020 from March to July Government of Ukraine (Guaranteed buyer) has not been keeping up with its commitments and paid out less than 5% of the total value of produced energy. Moreover, Government intended to retroactively make changes to the green tariffs.

In June 2020 RES sector companies, business associations and Government of Ukraine conducted a public dialogue which led to compromise deal under which green tariffs where lowered. Government committed to pay out all outstanding debts in few installments and continue to pay newly agreed tariff on a regular basis. Law on this matter became affective at the beginning of August. Nevertheless, payments made by the Government in August and September where only partial. What we see is regrettably non-compliance of the Ukrainian Government with its own commitments and obligations.

We urge Government of Ukraine and respective state authorities to address their attention to this and sort out a way to pay remaining debts out. By being able to stand by commitments Ukraine will demonstrate its devotion to principles of open and transparent business conditions as well as meet its deals with foreign investors.

  • Another point Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce would like to make is problems that one of our members – TIU Canada is facing.

According to information that was provided to the Chamber one out of four TIU Canada solar plants was disconnected from the electricity grid by Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant. This was made even though Ukrainian law does not allow to disconnect electricity producer from the power grid without its consent. TIU Ukraine and its parental company Refraction Asset Management are seeking immediate reconnection and may bring legal action in Ukraine and Canada to hold the party responsible for disconnection accountable and compensate losses.

TIU Canada is one of the first big Canadian investors in Ukraine. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi praised the company during the meeting with Economic Club of Canada in the course of his first visit to Canada in July 2019. The President called interested parties to follow an example of TIU Canada and invest in Ukraine.

Undoubtedly TIU Ukraine is a great example of successful direct foreign investment in Ukraine’s RES sector. Company produces and delivers its customers safe and clean power, conducts business transparently and socially responsible. Therefore, we call on the Office of the President and Government of Ukraine to take notice of this situation and keep facilitating and protecting foreign investments in Ukraine. We are willing to organize and conduct a meeting between Government of Ukraine and TIU Canada representatives to discuss the matter and find ways of resolving this issue.

Проект CUTIS та Канадсько-українська торгова палата (CUCC)

Проект CUTIS та Канадсько-українська торгова палата (CUCC) запрошують взяти активну участь у віртуальному круглому столі за участю провідних міжнародних експертів, а також українських компаній, що мають досвід співпраці з канадським бізнесом. Головна мета заходу – надати українському малому та середньому бізнесу практичні рекомендації щодо впровадження відповідальних бізнес практик, які допоможуть вибудувати міцні та взаємовигідні стосунки із канадськими байєрами. Дата: 20 жовтня
Час: 15:00 – 16:30Марія Гузман, провідна експертка ринку одягу Офісу з просування експорту Канади (TFO Canada), поділиться своїм досвідом виводу на канадський ринок компаній, що знаходилися на різних етапах впровадження політик корпоративної соціальної відповідальності (КСВ). З виступу Марії Ви дізнаєтесь:
• Як побудувати довіру та тривалі ділові відносини з канадськими імпортерами?
• Які особливості побудови успішного бізнесу в Канаді?
• Як правильно спілкуватися з канадськими байєрами та яких моментів варто уникати: практичні приклади Майкл Хопкінс (Michael Hopkins), співзасновник та член Інституту відповідального лідерства (Лондон), акцентує увагу учасників на важливості впровадження відповідальних бізнес практик в сегменті FMCG (споживчі товари). Ви дізнаєтесь:
• Які три фактори вибору партнера є визначальними для північноамериканського бізнесу?
• Які ризики для українського бізнесу несе ігнорування політик КСВ?
• Яким чином впровадження КСВ допомагає диференціювати бренд при виході на нові ринки? Ольга Шпепа, координаторка проекту CUTIS, розповість про основні уроки, що отримали українські підприємці, які в рамках проекту виходили на ринок Канади. Як компанії адаптувалися до викликів канадського ринку?Провідні українські виробники-експортери поділяться власним досвідом виходу на світові ринки.На завершення, Емма Турос, голова Канадсько-української торгової палати в Україні, розповість про сервіси CUCC для компаній, що зацікавлені в канадському ринку. Мова заходу: українська/англійська (забезпечуємо синхронний переклад).Реєстрація за посиланням (до 19 жовтня, 18.00) https://bit.ly/2SwRI4kПідтвердження та посилання на вебінар будуть надіслані 20 жовтня