New Member – Craft Innovations
We would like to welcome Craft Innovations as the newest member of CUCC.
Craft Innovations is a research & design firm that helps entrepreneurs and enterprises discover actionable insights about customers’ needs, design products & services people are excited to use.
Founded in 2019, the company has offices in Canada, Ukraine, representatives in the EU, and Beijing. Among Craft Innovations’ customers are such brands as Mastercard, PrivatBank, RiverMall, Uklon, UNDP, British American Tobacco, CanadaVisa, Moldindconbank, and others.
CI helps clients create competitive market advantage and grow customer loyalty by:
– Customer experience & market intelligence
– New product ideas and monetization models validation
– Top user experience design: Websites, SaaS platforms and Applications
– Service design and product innovation consulting
– Development services
CI’s motto – We care bout clients project as it’s our own.
www.craftinnovations.global
New Member Alert – UMG Investments
New Member Alert!
We would like to welcome our newest member UMG INVESTMENTS.
UMG INVESTMENTS is an investment firm of Ukrainian origin that combines an ambitious entrepreneurial spirit with years of experience and а thorough investing process. It’s a captive private equity firm with a diversified portfolio of 11 assets located in Ukraine and some new brownfield projects in the EU & Turkey. As of January 2022, the company has ~$1 BN assets under management. Key areas for investing are green economy, agri-processing, logistics, industrial minerals, healthcare and niche manufacturing.
UCARE – creating ‘Ukrainian shelves’ in supermarkets all over the world
We would like to introduce you to UCARE.
In response to all the challenges, the leaders of the Ukrainian food market united in the UCARE by FoodTechShelf initiative. The first unique international impact project to support Ukrainian food producers. UCARE is not a national program, but due to the importance of the project, it cooperates with a number of government agencies. They establish bridges between Ukrainian food producers and retailers in Europe, USA and Canada creating special ‘Ukrainian shelves’ in foreign supermarkets. Thanks to this initiative foreign retailers are able to create a single channel to deal with Ukrainian companies and shelves with the best Ukrainian products in stores.
All products comply with EU, USA and Canadian standards. Logistics, product acquisition, marketing, and operational work are done by UCARE.
WHAT UCARE DOES?
✔️ Creating a permanent channel with Ukrainian manufacturers for the partner retail chain: placing custom landing with your requests on the project platform, provide targeted traffic, conduct one-time scouting among more than 2000 Ukrainian manufacturers and provide information on all targeted and verified manufacturers and their products
✔️Primary negotiations, collecting and structuring data and preparing information that allows retailer to quickly make effective decisions on goods purchase
✔️Logistics providing, monitoring shipments, money transfers and documents
✔️ Providing a set of ready-made marketing and communication texts and designs for promotion of the “Ukrainian shelf” in the partner stores and help to adapt them, taking into account the specifics of the retail chain
✔️Reporting on the funds allocated to charitable projects, provide press releases about the participation of the partner and its consumers in the assistance provided
UCARE objectives:
✔️Support Ukraine’s economy:
– High-quality, delicious Ukrainian products on the supermarket’s shelves all over the world to ‘TASTE THE REAL UKRAINE’
– Assist Ukrainian producers to replace losses in the domestic market through the exports
– A simple and profitable way for consumers to support Ukraine purchasing local products, receiving the best from Ukraine in response
✔️Form Ukraine’s FOODTECH ecosystem contributing the emergence and innovative food products scaling and technologies in food production
✔️Provide assistance to people in need by supporting a number of social and humanitarian projects – 50% of the project’s profits go to proven charitable foundations (TABLETOCHKI, UANIMALS, etc)
Advantages for retailer
✔️Commercial: increase consumer loyalty by creating a ‘Ukrainian shelf’ and participating in Ucare project
✔️ Innovative: a new range of products at attractive prices
✔️Operational: long-term relations with UCARE as reliable operator, aggregating food supplies from the best Ukrainian producers, increase revenue and profits
✔️ Marketing: powerful information occasion and strong promotion as a partner, links to a relevant sites and visual content
✔️Social and charitable additional recognition
To learn more please contact partner@ucare.foodtechshelf.com
or visit Ucare (foodtechshelf.com).
Rebuild Ukraine with the Private Sector: International Investment Fair
In order to present existing opportunities and draw attention of the international business community, UkraineInvest is organizing an international forum with the participation of leading business representatives and expert environment of Ukraine and the world.
The need to rebuild Ukraine creates a variety of attractive investment projects aimed at contributing to shaping a new economy of a free European country. Implementation of such projects will become an integral part of the recovery plan, its driving force in the development of entrepreneurship, and the involvement of Ukrainian businesses in regional and global supply chains. Annual private investment projects aimed at reconstructing Ukraine worth dozens of billions of US dollars is a vivid opportunity that requires thoughtful preparation and quality implementation.
Taking into consideration the need for unique mechanisms to stimulate investments in this difficult period, the organizers will begin the event with a discussion of the possibilities of insurance for private investments and other important topics for investors. We invite everyone to join the forum online.
Organizer: UkraineInvest
Format: Online Event with simultaneous Ukr-Eng and Eng-Ukr translation.
Date: September 29, 2022
Registration: https://bit.ly/3Q1MTMD
More details read on web-site UkraineInvest: https://bit.ly/3TSy95a
Happy Independence Day to Ukraine!
Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce becomes partners with Business Council of Canada
Business Council of Canada becomes partner of Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce
June 22, 2022
Toronto, Ontario – The Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce (CUCC) today announced it is welcoming the Business Council of Canada (BCC) as a formal NGO partner to promote increased trade and investment between Canada and Ukraine. CUCC partners in Canada already include the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Conference Board of Canada.
“In order to sustain their operations and help Ukraine fight war on the economic front, Ukrainian businesses are looking for new markets and partners in Canada. We are thrilled to partner with BCC and believe that together we can help Ukrainian companies looking to expand into Canada as well as to use the expertise of Canadian companies in rebuilding Ukraine”, said President of CUCC Zenon Potichny.
“The mission and mandate of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce have never been more important,” said BCC President & CEO Goldy Hyder. “Ukraine’s economy has been described by their Ambassador to Canada, Her Excellency Yuliya Kovaliv, as the ‘third front’ in fighting Russia’s illegal invasion. Strengthening our economic ties is in both countries’ interests.”
The BCC has supported the Government of Canada’s efforts to facilitate increased trade and investment with Ukraine, including its removal of tariffs on goods imported from Ukraine. The BCC has also urged government to modernize the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement to cover trade in services as well as review and remove any needless non-tariff barriers.
“Many of Canada’s largest employers are providing financial and other humanitarian assistance to Ukraine as well as supporting displaced Ukrainians,” added Mr. Hyder. “But Canadian business leaders also want to collaborate with their Ukrainian counterparts in areas where Canadian trade and investment are needed both at this crucial time and after Ukraine’s victory.”
For additional information please contact:
Olha Mandyuk: omandyuk@cucc.c
Business Council of Canada
Founded in 1976, the Business Council of Canada is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing business leaders in every region and sector of the country. The Council’s member companies employ 1.7 million Canadians, contribute the largest share of federal corporate taxes, and are responsible for most of Canada’s exports, corporate philanthropy, and private-sector investments in research and development. Through supply chain partnerships, service contracts and mentoring programs, Business Council members support many hundreds of thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs in communities of all sizes, in every part of Canada.
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Ukrainians Arriving To Canada Can Now Receive Financial Assistance
Financial assistance to help Ukrainian families who are in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel (CUAET)
On June 02, 2022, the Government of Canada announced that Ukrainians fleeing the war in Ukraine and arriving in Canada under the CUAET program are subject to a one-time non-taxable benefit.
Upon submitting the application, adults will receive 3000 CAD, minors (17 years and under) – 1500 CAD to their bank accounts within five days.
To find out more and apply, follow the link.
MEMO - June 2, 2022
CUCC meeting with Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine-Trade Representative
Ukrainian-Canadian business leaders voice distress over Russian invasion – The Globe and Mail
Business leaders in the Canadian-Ukrainian community say they are extremely concerned for the safety of friends and employees in Ukraine after Russia invaded the country Thursday.
Zenon Potichny, president of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 200 companies that do business in the two countries, said the situation on the ground is very serious.
He said he hopes all of Canada stands with the people of Ukraine, especially as more than a million Canadians are of Ukrainian descent.
Mr. Potichny is the president of Zhoda Petroleum, a company invested in two oil projects in Ukraine. The company lost control of one of those projects, an offshore drilling operation in the Black Sea, after Russia annexed the Crimea Peninsula in 2014. He said his company is still pursuing ownership of the project through international courts.
Production at the other, an oil field in Lelyaki in central Ukraine, was shut down Thursday because of the dangers of rocket attacks or tanks rolling through the area, he said.
The company also has a dozen employees in Kyiv, who are bunkering down at their homes.
“We did ask if, perhaps, we can assist them,” Mr. Potichny said. “Perhaps we can help them, move them at least to Western Ukraine or that area, but at this point they actually decided to stay with their families in Kyiv.”
He said Western countries should cast a wide net on sanctions to punish hundreds of Russian businessmen close to President Vladimir Putin and isolate Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system.
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a former Liberal MP and the owner of Future Bakery, a chain of bakeries in Toronto, said he is anxious about the humanitarian disaster unfolding. He said the large size and well-organized nature of Canada’s Ukrainian community means that this country can safely take in a large number of refugees, if necessary.
“Our ability to absorb and to bring Ukrainian refugees into our communities, into our homes, we have a capacity to do this on a very large scale,” he said.
As well, he said he is concerned about the living conditions and food supply in other countries that rely on Ukraine’s agricultural experts. He pointed to Lebanon, which is going through its own humanitarian disaster and relies on Ukrainian food for nearly half of its population’s caloric intake. Yemen and Libya are two other countries that rely heavily on Ukrainian grain exports, and a shortage of those products could cause dangerous spikes in food prices.
As a prominent member of Toronto’s Ukrainian community, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj has experienced his own share of aggression. One location of the bakery, which was founded by his grandparents, was vandalized with pro-Russian graffiti earlier this month.
“It was more than an attempt at vandalism,” Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said. “It was an attempt at intimidation. … The messaging that was spray-painted was hateful and clear in what it was saying.”
However, he said he did not believe the attack to be reflective of the Russian-Canadian community as a whole, only of some individuals who had been influenced by the propaganda of Mr. Putin’s government.
Mr. Wrzesnewskyj also said he was hopeful that Western countries would place a full economic embargo on Russia and make sure that Mr. Putin could not channel funds through other, third-party countries. He also urged the Canadian government to cancel the domestic broadcasting licence of RT, a Russian state-controlled television network.
As Ukrainian-Canadian organizations begin to organize fundraisers, some members of the community are rushing to send money directly to their loved ones.
Taras Pidzamecky, chief executive officer of the Ukrainian Credit Union Ltd., a Canadian credit union that serves members of the Ukrainian community, said he has seen a sudden surge in members wanting to wire money to family abroad.
He said the credit union is trying to quickly check on the status of the banking system in Ukraine, but that it is still not clear what is functioning.
“We just want to be careful, for example, that somebody doesn’t try to send some money and then it gets stuck somewhere because there’s nowhere to land or there’s been a disruption at the other end,” he said.
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