http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/ Business http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122241/ General Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:02:20 +0200
Azarov said that that the recent conflict with Russia regarding the supply of Ukrainian cheese was "common practice in mutual relations between major trading partners, when companies are lobbying for various restrictive measures in the governments and are trying to protect their market."

He said that this should not be the case, as there are intergovernmental agreements that should ensure the free access of goods to the markets of the two countries.

The Russian consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor started withdrawing from sale in Russia and suspending imports to Russia of cheese from such Ukrainian producers as Prometei (Chernihiv region), Pyriatyn Cheese Plant (Poltava region) and Hadiachsyr (Poltava region).

According to Rospotrebnadzor Chief Gennady Onishchenko, these products do not comply with Russian quality standards.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122239/ General Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:46:05 +0200
Apart from basic agreements on the Black Sea Fleet's presence in Crimea, the two countries are actively working on agreements on a number of other issues related to the fleet's modernization, the procedure of informing Ukrainian authorities of movement of Russian military units around Ukraine, and the use of the Black Sea Fleet's navigation infrastructure, he said.

"We can declare now that the level of readiness of a number of documents is quite high, and it is quite possible that we could approach the signing of the necessary documents in the near future," Zurabov said.

Russia expects that the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and other institutions will soon make a decision on ratifying an agreement simplifying the border crossing procedures between the two states.

The demarcation of the land border between Russia and Ukraine is nearing completion, Zurabov said. All documents have been drawn up properly, and the field work has begun, he said.

"We can talk about significant progress in the delimitation of the Russian-Ukrainian marine border," Zurabov said. Russia also hopes that agreements on this will be reached in the near future, he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122236/ General Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:01:27 +0200
The likelihood that the two countries could reach mutually acceptable agreements is quite great, and this could happen soon, he said.

In describing the state of Russian-Ukrainian relations, the ambassador said "some problems in the energy cooperation area are still in place."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122209/ General Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:42:25 +0200
Sources at Ukrtransgaz said that the company has taken the steps necessary to ensure reliable delivery of natural gas to consumers during the current heavy cold spell.

In order to ensure that consumers in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are supplied with enough gas, the pipeline system Shebelynka-Dnipropetrovsk-Kryvy Rih-Izmail is being worked harder.

Full-time oversight of key Ukrtransgaz employees has been imposed and up-to-date reporting on any deviations in the operation of gas-transport system facilities is being conducted. The relevant subdivisions have prepared equipment and personnel for the event that weather conditions worsen.

Ukraine entered the 2011-2012 heating period with around 20.4 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in underground storage. At the end of last month, the volume of active gas in Ukrtransgaz storage amounted to about 15 bcm.

The head of national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, Yevhen Bakulin, predicted in mid-January that 3 bcm would be taken out of underground storage that month and 2.5 bcm this month.

With the arrival of severe cold near the end of January, Ukraine has been taking more gas out of underground storage. Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko has said that Gazprom had been moving less gas to Ukraine's eastern borders bound for Kyiv and countries in Europe, as provided for in technical agreements with Russia.

In response, the Ukrainian government expressed readiness to assist in ensuring enough gas gets to customers in Europe with gas from its own underground storage facilities. Boiko said in an interview that it an official proposal was received from Moscow Kyiv would be ready to help with its own gas.

Naftogaz Ukrainy, Boiko said, had on Ankara, Turkey's request been providing an additional roughly 10 mcm of natural gas from underground storage per day.
Ukraine will soon be prepared to announce a tender for evaluating its gas-transport system for the future creation of a gas-transport consortium. Kyiv thinks it would be the best route to set it up with Russia and European countries involved, which would make it possible to attract funds for the system's modification and increasing its operating efficiency and throughput capacity so as to meet the needs of all parties.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122203/ General Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:59:43 +0200
Read more here.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122169/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:40:06 +0200
Four five-star hotels, all built up with the fortunes of domestic businessmen, currently operate in this city of more than three million people. Four more are expected to open their doors within the next year or two, but don’t expect exorbitant prices for top-of-the-line-hotels in Kyiv to fall.

The doors to Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv, Kyiv’s fifth top-end hotel, will open on March 1. Located on the banks of Kyiv’s Dnipro River in the Podil district, the Fairmont will open in time to host guests attending the Euro 2012 games in June-July.

Spending a night in one of 258 rooms in this posh hotel will start at about 300 euros. Prices for 35 suites, including the extra-luxurious Royal and Presidential suites, will be much higher.

The hotel has a spa, a 1,000-square meter conference hall and a 480-square meter ballroom. The facilities also include a restaurant, a bar and two lounge rooms.

Part of the global Fairmont Hotels and Resorts chain, the new Kyiv-based Fairmount will be the first of its kind to appear in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian businessman Leonid Yurushev, who has developed several hotels in Ukraine including the five-star InterContinental and four-star Riviera, is the investor behind the $120 million Fairmont hotel in Kyiv.

The Fairmont group has also teamed up with another Ukrainian business group, KDD, in developing another five-star hotel in Kyiv, Swissotel.


Rooms at the new Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv will start at about 300 euros per night. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)

Construction of the Swissotel complex, located on Peremohy Prospekt, is currently under way. Upon completion this or next year, it is expected to be the biggest five-star hotel in town with more than 500 rooms.

The hotel will be part of the Sky Towers complex, reaching 165 and 210 meters, making the buildings the highest skyscrapers in the city yet.

Hilton is another internationally recognized hotel brand that is soon to break onto the Kyiv market.
Currently under construction across the Old Botanic Garden on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, the Hilton Kyiv is scheduled to open its doors this September.

The $70 million project is operated by Hilton International Corporation and is owned by International Business Centre Ltd. The hotel will offer 257 rooms, a presidential suite, a business center, 13 meeting rooms, a ballroom as well as fitness and spa.

The $100 million Sofitel, to be located in the heart of Kyiv on Lyuteranska street, is the most recent luxury hotel development project announced.

The nearly 300-room Sofitel will have two restaurants, a bar, spa and fitness center. According to the hotel’s director Robert Gaymer-Jones, the price of a room is expected to be about $300 per night.

Two new and more affordable four-star hotels, which Ukraine still lacks, are also expected to open their doors by the end of this year.

The 180-room Leipzig, located in the very heart of Kyiv near the Golden Gate, is being developed by Mohammad Zahoor’s ISTIL Group, which owns the Kyiv Post.

A Holiday Inn hotel is also scheduled to start operating in Kyiv this year.

Separately, the Radisson Blu, the first five-star hotel in Ukraine’s picturesque Carpathian Mountains, was originally scheduled to open its doors this month. But unexpected delays have put off a formal opening of the hotel, which is located close to Ukraine’s popular Bukovel ski resort.



Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached onyshkiv@kyivpost.com.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122167/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:31:21 +0200
The announcement came after the director of PL Leasing, a company with 100 percent Polish capital, met with Kharkiv Mayor Henadiy Kernes to discuss the lease contract, which had expired in December 2011 and the $9.4 million outstanding debt, of which nearly $1 million consists of late payment fees.
The total lease amount was $15 million for five years.

Kharkiv authorities said payment terms will be resolved following a Feb. 22 Kyiv city council session.

“We didn’t quite make peace,” Yuriy Svidzinsky, director of PL Leasing, told the Kyiv Post. “We came to a mutual understanding with the mayor. One can always reach a consensus. We just want to receive money based on the lease contract terms.”

Kharkiv leased 90 new Russian-made trolleybuses and 10 trams in 2006 after winning a tender.

Svidzinsky said regular payments stopped in 2007 and said he stopped receiving payments altogether in 2010.

Partial payment resumed in 2011, the leasing company director said he received Hr 2 million out of Hr 3 million owed to the company for that year.

Serhiy Dulfan

Kharkiv authorities said some $4.25 million of the $15 million was supposed to come from the state budget based on a national government program initiated during President Viktor Yanukovych’s second stint as prime minister in 2006-2007.

National government funding stopped when he left office because the program changed to provide financing for electric transportation manufactured in Ukraine.

The matter has gained international exposure.

The issue of non-payment was addressed in June 2009 at the Ukraine-Poland inter-governmental commission meeting, and was subsequently forwarded to the Kharkiv Oblast State Administration to be resolved by September 2009, but was unsuccessful.

According to Svidzinsky, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak has been notified of the situation. The leasing company director said that the Polish government has apprised Michel Platini of the situation, who is the president of Europe’s top soccer governing body.

Kharkiv is one of the eight host cities for the Euro 2012 that will kick off for three weeks in Ukraine and Poland on June 8. Kharkiv is scheduled to host three group matches during which thousands of soccer fans will rely on public transportation to access hotels and the stadium.

So far, Svidzinsky has won every court case in the matter dating to April 2008.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122166/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:21:15 +0200
That’s a 10 percent increase compared to 2008, when GfK conducted a similar survey.

Conducted in November-December 2011 through face-to-face interviews, the survey found that supermarkets are noticeably more popular – getting 45 percent of respondents saying they are their number one choice for retail purchases.

Meanwhile, 25 percent pointed to smaller convenience stores as their first choice.

Since 2008, the number of Ukrainians who said they do most of their shopping at bazaars has decrease from 22 percent to 15 percent.

The most popular retail chains, according to the survey, are ATB-Market, which has a strong presence in southern and eastern Ukraine, as well as Silpo.

Some 22 percent and 21 percent of respondents, respectively, said they regularly purchase food products at these stores.

“The share of respondents who named each of them as their main point of purchase increased by 13 percentage points,” GfK said.

GfK added: “On the other hand, Furshet and Velyka Kyshenya [supermarket] chains are losing regular customers: from 8 percent to 4 percent and from 6 percent to 3 percent during the 2008-2011 period, respectively.

While ATB-Market is the leader in terms of the main point of purchase, Silpo prevails in terms of spontaneous awareness.

57 percent of respondents could name Silpo and only 53 percent of them named ATB-Market among those known to them unpromptedly.”

A woman sells meat at a street bazaar. ]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122154/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:40:40 +0200
In Ukraine and parts of Russia's south, crops lacked a deep enough layer of snow to protect them from temperatures of about minus 25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit).

Russia's state forecaster, the Hydrometeorological Centre, said on Thursday Russia's south would continue to face extreme frosts in the coming days, with temperatures 12 to 17 degrees Celsius below multi-year averages.

The forecaster has been cautious about the impact of the cold on Russia's crops, and analysts say winterkill could turn out to be no greater than average when official statistics are released at the end of the month.

But in Ukraine, several days of record lows have been enough to kill most crops in eastern and southern regions, which were already weakened by drought during sowing, Adamenko said.

"The situation across Ukraine is very varied: we have enough snow on 60 percent of our land in the central and northern parts, while a lack of snow has hit the east and south," Adamenko said.

Adamenko said last week that Ukraine's harvest of winter grains could fall by 42-58 percent to between 10 million and 14 million tonnes due to poor weather during sowing and wintering.

Ukrainian agriculture officials and analysts say about 20 percent of winter grains have not come up because of drought during sowing, while 33 percent of those that had sprouted were in a poor state.

The Farm Ministry said at least 2 million hectares of damaged winter crops would be reseeded this spring mostly with barley and maize.

Adamenko said Ukraine might lose 40 percent of the sown area. Ukraine sowed 8.4 million hectares for the 2012 winter grain harvest, including 6.7 million hectares of winter wheat, 1.4 million of winter barley.

Ukrainian analysts have, by contrast, forecast losses of about 8 percent in Russia, in line with multi-year averages, although the harsh frosts in Russia's key southern exporting regions, if sustained, could cast doubt on next year's exports.

Russia is expected to reap 45.5 million tonnes from 16.4 million hectares sown to winter grains, SovEcon has forecast.

VOLUNTARY RESTRAINT

Both countries have broached the possibility of new export restrictions this year to preserve domestic supplies but have so far abstained from imposing limits.

Ukrainian agriculture officials have said they would avoid restrictions even if this year's wheat harvest shrinks, but traders say a small wheat crop could force the Farm Ministry to intervene in the market.

"They are worried about wheat and they are thinking what the policy should be," a large Ukrainian trader said.

"The idea is to sign a document with traders in which they would limit wheat exports".

Another trader said the exports of wheat could be limited to 1.2 million tonnes in February and March.

"It's enough for us. The exports of wheat will not exceed 500,000 tonnes in February, and 700,000 tonnes in March seem a real figure," trader said.

The ministry declined to comment.

Even without curbs, current exports from the two Black Sea powerhouses are already falling short of expectations due to cold, stormy weather, which has hampered loading in their key ports.

UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy said Ukrainian grain exports might total 1.3 million tonnes in January but could fall to 1.0 million in February because of icy weather hitting the ports. Russia loaded 1.4 million tonnes in January, slightly short of expectations, SovEcon consultancy said last week.

In Russia, Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port confirmed loading had resumed at its grain terminal on Wednesday after being suspended for the second time in a week, though conditions were difficult and loading of crude oil was stopped.

Shallow water ports on the Azov Sea, which can handle over a million tonnes of grain during peak months, remained iced over.

But UkrAgroConsult said a fall in the 2012 wheat harvest would not remove Ukraine from the lucrative export market and the country was likely to export 6.3 million tonnes of wheat in the 2012/13 season.

Ukraine, which consumes 12 million tonnes of wheat per season, harvested 22.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2011 and exported no more than 3.0 million tonnes of wheat so far this season.

"With this pace of exports, we could have enough wheat for local needs and for exports even in conditions of a critical fall-off in the harvest", a trader said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122151/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:15:39 +0200
Earlier, Rospotrebnadzor suspended cheese supplies by three Ukrainian producers - Prometey (Chernihiv region), Pyriatyn Cheese Plant (Poltava region) and Hadiachsyr (Poltava region). Their previously supplied products are being removed from the market.

"Ukrainian enterprises can make products of any quality using any documents for themselves, but if you supply them to the Russian market, they must meet the Russian standards," Onishchenko said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122150/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:59:26 +0200
"In addition, all Ukrainian cheeses that are sold on the Belarusian market have been certified by the relevant government agencies of the host country," reads the statement.

During further inspections, if any violations or inconsistencies with Belarusian requirements are revealed with respect to Ukrainian food, these issues will be addressed on an individual basis, the embassy said]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122149/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:37:21 +0200
The Verkhovna Rada passed the Customs Code on Nov. 3, 2011.

The president vetoed the Customs Code approved by parliament, claiming the document contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine and the current legislation of the state.

According to him, the bill violates the right to engage in entrepreneurship, and creates conditions for the growth of administrative pressure, as well as lacking a specific procedure of customs control.

In addition, the president said that the new version of the Customs Service could result in a violation of Ukraine's obligations to the World Trade Organization.

The MPs decided that the document should be revised.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122140/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:48:42 +0200
He said he had met Ukrainian Agricultural Policy and Food Minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk earlier the same day to discuss ways of resolving the dispute over the quality Ukrainian cheese products supplied to Russia.

Earlier, Russia suspended supplies from three Ukrainian cheese producers over failure to meet required quality standards. Previously supplied cheese is being removed from the market.

More than 250 cheese samples were taken in 43 Russian regions where Ukrainian cheese products are on sale.

Laboratory tests revealed the presence of other than milk fats in cheeses sold in ten regions, Onishchenko said.

Any cheese products that will fail to meet the Russian requirements will be removed, he added.

Onishchenko and Prysiazhniuk agreed that the Ukrainian side, including the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, would provide Rospotrebnadzor with all the necessary papers concerning Ukrainian cheese exports.



×èòàéòå îá ýòîì íà www.kyivpost.ua]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122097/ General Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:41:52 +0200
"This is usual dispatch work. We work like this every year. That's what the underground storage facilities were built for in Ukraine, to take gas from them in winter," Golubev said.

The storage facilities were built mainly in western Ukraine to support gas exports by the USSR. Gazprom dispensed with their services after large volumes of gas started to go astray. But the Ukrainian gas transportation system operates by a principle of substitution - transit gas from Russia is used in Ukraine's industrially developed east, and equivalent gas is pumped out of storage in the country's west and sent to Europe.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122080/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:20:56 +0200
"On the other hand, it exists parallel to the Ukrainian reality. And the level of piracy today, for example, in the IT sphere, is 85%, and this level has not fallen for three years and is even tending to grow, showing that a big piracy environment exists regardless of the legislation and is not influenced by law enforcers," Mykoliuk said.

According to him, 95% of Adobe's products in Ukraine are counterfeit.

He added that it is difficult to settle the problem in Ukraine until the society is ready.

"The latter example with ex.ua showed that the society is absolutely not ready to understand normal rules envisaged by the law," he said and added that the problem should be tackled in a range of ways, and not only at the level of legislation.

In turn, PR and Citizenship Director at Microsoft Ukraine Yaryna Klyuchkovska said that, according to the calculations of the IT company, if the level of piracy in Ukraine is cut by at least 10% over four years, this would bring investments in amount of $500 million to the country.

She added that Microsoft invests $9 billion in development of new technologies every year.

"Of course we want to protect these investments. Both the implementation of an idea and the idea itself has value in the post-industrial society. The legislation in the sphere of intellectual rights is not perfect. But we should discuss it and amend the legislation. The fact that someone does not like the legislation does not mean that he or she should steal," she said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122058/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:38:18 +0200
The Kinotochka channel will broadcast films, series, and documentary films, while the NLO-TV channel will broadcast programs about mysteries.

Oharkov also said that the TV channels are mostly broadcasting programs and films that were earlier shown on the Ukraina channel.

According to him, it is unreasonable to invest in channels that are not available to the mass audience at the moment.

While commenting on the future plans of the media group, Oharkov said that the group had decided not to develop the Novosti (News) channel, which was announced earlier.

"We are not planning to develop the Novosti channel, as we did not receive the license [for national digital broadcasting]," he said.

Oharkov added that the media group is planning to extend its news broadcasting on the Ukraina channel.

In a competition for digital broadcasting organized by the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting in August 2011, the Media Group Ukraine obtained the right to broadcast its three channels: Ukraina, Kinotochka and NLO-TV.

The group's Novosti and Sport channels did not receive licenses.

In October 2010, SCM announced that it had decided to build a media group based on the Ukraina TV channel, which also included the Futbol and Futbol+ sports channel, the Donbass regional channel, Mediapartnerstvo and Internet Holding Digital Ventures (the tochka.net portal).]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122044/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:52:47 +0200
In addition, the prime minister suggested carrying out a comprehensive energy audit in the country.

"The country needs a comprehensive energy audit in the heat power industry, industrial production, and housing and utilities sector. The audit will produce an objective picture of energy consumption, as well as show us where to apply our limited resources," he said.

The premier said he believes that Ukraine will succeed in using its energy resources more efficiently, as well as in the reforms in the housing and utilities sector.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122042/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:45:14 +0200 Read full story here.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122037/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:02:36 +0200
Ukraine plans to buy 27 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Gazprom this year, the company said.

According to the terms for transporting and delivering natural gas to Ukraine, daily consumption of imported gas could fluctuate over the year.

So, heavy consumption of gas during the heating period will be offset by low selection volume in the spring-summer period.

The total year's amount of imported gas remains at the level determined by contract," the statement says.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122034/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:33:38 +0200
In connection with this, Ukraine has started to tap more gas from its own underground storage facilities, he said.

Ukraine is not taking more Russian pipeline gas than the technical agreement stipulates, he said. "There is a technical agreement, a supplement to our contract, by which we work," he said.

Ukraine has also "given Turkey 11 million cubic meters of gas per day," he said.


×èòàéòå îá ýòîì íà www.kyivpost.ua]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122033/ General Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:11:10 +0200
The price of the gas for Ukraine in the first quarter of this year is about $416 per thousand cubic meters, according to the company.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122014/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:36:30 +0200
"Tax receipts transferred to the general fund of Ukraine's national budget over the period under review totaled Hr 16.435 billion, which was 22%, or Hr 2.959 billion, up on the same period of 2011. The non-tax revenues of the general fund of the budget amounted to Hr 1.556 billion," reads the posting.

According to the State Treasury, Hr 3.568 billion, including budget-sustained institutions' own receipts and subsidies from the local budget, was transferred to the special fund of the state budget in 2012.

The State Treasury reported that value-added tax (VAT) refunds in January 2012 made up Hr 3.589 billion. In particular, 236 taxpayers received Hr 2.048 billion in automatically refunded VAT.

The national budget for 2012 foresees Hr 332.82 billion in revenues and Hr 358.01 billion in outlays. The deficit limit is set at Hr 25.129 billion.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122009/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:59:08 +0200 Read the story here.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/122000/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:43:45 +0200
This year the Ukrainian Travel Award will be awarded in 21 nominations, including the best inbound tourism company, the most creative tour operator in Ukraine, the best company specialized in children's tours, the best tourism facility in Ukraine, hotels, hotel boutiques, and small hotels.

The winners are selected via a poll among experts in the sphere of tourism and the hotel business, representatives of state agencies, public organizations, trade unions and the media.

"Such an award is a way to single out and support those who provide the best quality and the best product. In the United States, for instance, there is even an award of the president for companies that keep their services at the top level. Unfortunately, we don't have such state policy. And, of course, public awards give incentives to improve the quality of services and information provided to consumers and tourists," Chairman of the State Agency of Ukraine for Tourism and Resorts Dmytro Zaruba said.

Crimean Resorts and Tourism Minister Oleksandr Liyev said that Ukranian Travel Awards would be one of the most important events as part of the Crimea. Resorts.

Tourism exhibition, during which the first Black Sea tourist forum will be held, with the participation of tourism ministers from the Black Sea region, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

"Earlier, we hade the Crimean Pearl award, but it existed only inside Crimea. We gave it up and proposed to spend its budget on the preparations for this event, so as to look better against other regions of Ukraine and be competitive," he said.

The Ukrainian Travel Awards ceremony has been held since 2006.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121984/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:32:26 +0200
The Ukrainian president also noted that the time had come to limit the powers of regulatory agencies and stop the practice, when economic activity is terminated by the orders of officials.

Yanukovych also said he expected the Ukrainian parliament to adopt the Customs Code soon.

"I hope that the Verkhovna Rada will consider my proposals for [the Customs Code] and will pass it soon," he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121962/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:43:02 +0200
"Of course we disagree with that valuation. And we'll have our figures after an international company with experience completes all valuation procedures, and when we have a deed that we can show you. But this doesn't mean we agree with this valuation," Boiko said.

Boiko has said that Ukraine intended to value the pipeline system with a view to forming a gas transportation consortium. Ukraine will present European partners to a three-party consortium to operate the pipelines once the valuation has been made, he has said.

Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftogaz expects major international companies will bid at the tender for the right to value the pipelines.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121951/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:49:17 +0200
Read more here.
]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121948/ General Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:11:30 +0200
Read more here.
]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121940/ General Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:49:55 +0200
The appeal was signed by the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the UAC, the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners of Ukraine, the Independent Association of Ukrainian Banks, the American Chamber of Commerce, the European Business Association, the Ukrtsukor National Association of Sugar Producers, the Ukroliyaprom Association, and the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine.

The appeal claims that limitations on land use by land tenants to an area of not more than 10% of the area of agricultural land in one district and not more than 100,000 hectares across Ukraine, and a ban on the purchase of arable land by legal entities "are unacceptable and groundless."

"The implementation of such requirements of the bill, if approved, would lead to chaos and legal uncertainty in the use of millions of hectares of agricultural land, pushing land tenure relations into the shadows, which will no doubt trigger devastating consequences for stable agricultural production and processing sectors in Ukraine," reads the statement.

In addition, agrarians and bankers are concerned that the bill provides a state land bank, which is being created, with the exclusive rights to operate on the market of agricultural land and rights to hold such land on collateral.

In this regard, the appeal asks the country's leadership to amend the bill that will give all Ukrainian banks equal rights to the land market, and will provide for the possibility to establish and operate municipal land banks.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121932/ General Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:41:23 +0200 Read the story here.]]>