NEWSBRIEFS

Kuchma says CIS is flawed, but necessary

ALMATY - Addressing Kazak journalists in Almaty on September 18, President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine said the CIS's shortcomings include its focus on political, rather than economic, problems and its attempts to unilaterally resolve unspecified problems between member-states. He said all CIS member-states share the blame for this state of affairs but that Russia is the biggest culprit. He also stressed that Kyiv favors "more active" bilateral relations between members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and rejects attempts to transform the CIS into a supranational organization. At the same time, he conceded that the CIS had facilitated the peaceful demise of the USSR and is "necessary," despite all its faults. President Nursultan Nazarbaiev of Kazakstan has frequently expressed similar reservations about the CIS. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainian helicopter crashes in Bosnia

KYIV - A Ukrainian UN MI-8 helicopter crashed Sept. 17 near the Bosnian city of Fostnitsa, 50km from Sarajevo, the Croatian Embassy reported. According to the Foreign Ministry, four Ukrainian crew and 12 passengers from Great Britain, the U.S., Poland, and Germany were on board. All four Ukrainians survived and are now recovering in a hospital. All the passengers were killed. An investigation is under way. (Eastern Economist)

Daewoo signs deal with Avtozaz

KYIV - South Korea's Daewoo Group on September 17 signed a deal creating a joint venture with Ukrainian car manufacturer Avtozaz. The venture, which will also involve the U.S. company General Motors, is to produce 255,000 cars a year, half of which will be for export and the other half for the domestic market. Some $1.3 billion will be invested over the next six years to modernize the Avtozaz plant in Zaporizhia, increase production capacity, and build a sales and service network in Ukraine. An Avtozaz official told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency that Daewoo will put up half of the venture's $300 million starting capital, and the 85 percent state-owned Avtozaz will offer the other half in property. The Daewoo Corp. also has factories in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. In related news, the Verkhovna Rada voted by 234-25 to free foreign companies investing more than $150 million in the Ukrainian automobile industry from import duties and tariffs for the next 10 years, Ukrainian Television reported on September 19. President Leonid Kuchma is expected to sign the bill, which observers regard as aimed at benefiting the Daewoo Group. In exchange for the tax exemption, Daewoo will hire 90 percent of its workers from among Ukrainians and contract for at least 70 percent of its parts from Ukrainian firms. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Crimean tourism official fatally shot

SYMFEROPOL - Crimean Vice Minister for Tourism Dmitrii Goldich was shot twice in the head by unidentified assailants in Symferopol on September 18, Reuters reported. The 26-year-old Goldich died on September 22 after being in a coma for several days. Interfax quoted investigators as saying they suspect the attack was a contract hit. Crimean news media have recently reported on several scandals involving the privatization of holiday resorts on the peninsula, which was once the favorite vacation destination of the Soviet elite. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine reports unexpected rise in GDP

KYIV - Premier Pustovoitenko confirmed a 1.3 percent GDP rise in the Gross Domestic Product in August, the first month of growth for 1997. August also saw zero growth in the price of consumer goods and services for the first time in 1997. Mr. Pustovoitenko said he believes the annual inflation will not exceed 15 percent. Mr. Pustovoitenko said as of August 1, payables equaled 95 billion hrv and receivables accounted for 66 billion hrv. More than 60 percent of total receivables and payables fall on enterprises in Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv oblasts. As of Sept. 1, back wages debts for budget workers equaled 900 million hrv which is 32 percent less than on September 1. (Eastern Economist)

Shpek believes Rada damages credibility

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada's rejection of a credit agreement with the World Bank on a loan to finance housing construction in Odesa, Lviv and Kharkiv will inflict financial and moral damage to Ukraine, as well as jeopardize Kyiv's relations with the WB, according to National Agency for Reconstruction and Development Head Roman Shpek. A housing construction project was to have been implemented in 1997-1999 in these cities, with repayment due next century. It involved construction of apartment blocks and renovation work on existing housing stock. The Parliament explained its decision by saying that in the light of the current economic crisis in Ukraine, the country should not take on an additional financial commitment. Mr. Shpek stressed that loan repayments would have been made from income received from the sale of apartments and would not burden the national budget. Nevertheless, Mr. Shpek confirmed that similar proposals to commence housing construction projects have been received by NARD from Poltava, Zhytomyr, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, as well as Kyiv and Sevastopol. Such projects would alleviate housing problems in Ukraine. Official statistics released by the State Committee on City Construction confirm that 87,000 families are on the waiting list for apartments in Lviv, 114,000 in Odesa and 96,000 in Kharkiv. (Eastern Economist)

Five Ukrainian miners killed in Norway

BARENTSBORG, Norway - Five Ukrainian citizens died as a result of an explosion on September 18 at a mine in Barentsborg, Norway, that belonged to ArkticUgola, a Russian enterprise. According to the Emergencies Ministry, 49 miners were in the mine at the time of the explosion. Although 13 miners died and 26 were rescued, 10 more are still missing. President Leonid Kuchma expressed his grief at the deaths and sent his condolences to the leaders of other countries whose miners were among the dead. He praised the courage and dedication of the victims. (Eastern Economist)

Moroz speaks on death penalty

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz told Interfax on September 23 that "Ukrainian society is not ready for the legislative repeal of the death penalty." When Ukraine joined the Council of Europe in 1995, Kyiv committed itself to abolishing the death penalty, but the Parliament has been unwilling to pass the necessary legislation. As a result, President Leonid Kuchma is likely to be subjected to close questioning on the issue when he attends the Council of Europe summit in Strasbourg on October 10-11. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine seeks to host regional summit

UNITED NATIONS - President Leonid Kuchma told the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 that Ukraine wants to promote good relations with all its neighbors. To that end, Mr. Kuchma said, Kyiv now seeks to hold a summit of countries in the Baltic-Black Sea region in 1999. That meeting would be a follow-up to the summit earlier this month in Vilnius. As he had promised before leaving Kyiv, the Ukrainian president called for Eastern European representation on the U.N. Security Council. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. invests $1.2 M in tax system reform

KYIV - The U.S. Treasury Department has invested a total of $1.2 million in reform of the Ukrainian tax system. According to the U.S. Ambassador William Green Miller, the Treasury Department and USAID have provided a grant of $600,000 for the establishment of a national center for training tax workers. Equipment worth $300,000 has already been supplied to the center. U.S. experts are working on preparing study plans and are acting as consultants to the center's Ukrainian employees. Mr. Miller said that the second part of the grant would be given at the end of this month. (Eastern Economist)

Lviv railways to extend corridor

ODESA - The Lviv Railway Administration on September 11 proposed the extension of the European transport corridor that connects cities of Germany, Finland, Greece and Ukraine by constructing a new line connecting Odesa to the Polish port of Gdansk. This will mean that Poland will be included in the corridor. The project, which was presented in the World and European Banks of Reconstruction and Development, has attracted considerable interest from investors. (Eastern Economist)

Tarasiuk named representative to NATO

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree on September 13 appointing Ukraine's ambassador to Belgium, Borys Tarasiuk, as head of the Ukrainian mission to NATO, the Presidential Administration reported. (Eastern Economist)

"Kozatskyi Steppe" maneuvers held

KYIV - A weeklong peacekeeping exercise involving some 420 paratroopers from the United Kingdom, Poland and Ukraine began at a military base in southern Ukraine on September 16. The paratroopers are taking part in a simulated ethnic conflict at the Shyrokyi Lan military base, 400 kilometers south of Kyiv. Defense Ministry spokesman Ihor Melnychuk said the paratroopers will practice trying to prevent such a conflict from developing into civil war. Named "Kozatskyi Steppe '97," this is the second major military exercise in Ukraine within the last month to involve NATO troops. "Sea Breeze '97" took place off the Crimean coast in August, with the participation of troops from the U.S., Turkey, and Eastern Europe. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Call for union with Russia, Belarus

KYIV - On September 10, 86 legislators in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada called for the creation of a union with Russia and Belarus, Interfax reported. The deputies issued a statement stressing the need to tighten ties between "brotherly Slavic peoples." They vowed to work for closer political and economic ties. In May, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a long-awaited friendship and cooperation treaty, but Ukraine has steered clear of agreements that would link the country with Russia and Belarus in a union. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Izmail International Airport opens

ODESA - A new international airport has opened in Odesa oblast. The city of Izmail, located on one of the most southern tips of Ukraine, is also the site of one of the Danube River's largest ports. Initially, the airport will primarily serve flights to the Balkans and other countries in the western Danube region. (Eastern Economist)

Romania reopens Ukrainian school

CHISINAU - Romanian President Emil Constantinescu on September 15 reopened a high school in the northern town of Sighetu Marmatiei, two kilometers from the Romanian-Ukrainian frontier, for Romania's 300,000-strong ethnic Ukrainian community, Reuters reported. The school, named after Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, was opened in 1945 and closed by Romanian authorities in 1968 on the grounds that there were too few pupils. Some 200 students have enrolled for the current academic year. Mr. Constantinescu said the reopening demonstrates Romania's respect for its ethnic Ukrainian minority. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moldova, Ukraine discuss customs union

CHISINAU - A Ukrainian government delegation spent two days in Chisinau to discuss the creation of a proposed customs union between the two countries, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on September 16. Viktor Hladush, Ukrainian first vice minister for foreign economic relations and trade, and Moldovan Vice Minister for the Economy Dumitru Bragis signed a protocol on setting up the planned union. They also agreed on the composition of working groups to achieve that goal. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Entrepreneurs council created by Cabinet

KYIV - The Cabinet of Ministers created an Entrepreneurs Council on September 16. The council is meant to create conditions for effective cooperation among businesses and with the Cabinet and other bodies of executive power to implement state policies on developing entrepreneurship and creating a market infrastructure. Orlan President Yevhen Chervonenko is to head the structure. The council also includes Shelton President Ihor Kyriushyn, Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Deputy President Andrii Dashkevych, and representatives of the Ukrainian Agricultural Commodities Exchange and the Council of Employers. (Eastern Economist)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, September 28, 1997, No. 39, Vol. LXV

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