NEWSBRIEFS (12/28/97)

NEWSBRIEFS

Adidas to sponsor Olympic team

KYIV - Adidas Ukraine signed a sponsorship agreement with Ukraine's National Olympic Committee on December 15. The agreement will secure valuable long-term funding for the team. (Eastern Economist)

June date set for first launch

KYIV - The Sea Launch company will start commercial launches of satellites in June 1998. According to Boeing, the construction of a base port in Long Beach, Calif., is almost complete. Sea Launch is a joint Russian-American-Ukrainian-Norwegian project. It will launch satellites produced by Ukrainian firm Pivdenne, the Russian firm Energia and the Boeing Commercial Space Co. from a mobile naval platform built by the Norwegian company Kwaener. (Eastern Economist)

Ukraine, Greece sign three treaties

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma and Greek President Konstantinos Stephanopulos signed three treaties in Kyiv on December 15. The treaties focus on international flight routes between the two countries, consular relations and economic, science and technical cooperation in the agricultural sector. Mr. Kuchma said that relations between two countries have been gradually growing. "We do not have any disagreements on economic and political questions," said President Kuchma, who thanked Greece for aiding Ukrainian efforts to integrate into European structures. President Stephanopulos said that trade relations between Ukraine and Greece are not at a satisfactory level but hoped this visit would change the situation. "We will do everything possible for Ukraine to get closer to the West European Union," he asserted. He also said Greece is ready to give a $40 million (U.S.) credit to Ukraine for the Chornobyl nuclear power station. (Eastern Economist)

Ukraine, Croatia to increase trade

KYIV - An agreement on the mutual protection of Ukrainian and Croatian investments was signed by Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Minister Serhii Osyka and Croatian Economy Minister Nenad Porges on December 15. Talks focused on the first meeting of the bilateral commission on economic cooperation scheduled for the first half of 1998. It is expected that the committee will meet once a year. Trade between Ukraine and Croatia fell disastrously in the 1992-1997 period. Ukrainian exports in the first 10 months of this year totaled $6.7 million (U.S.) and consisted mainly of metal and chemical products. Imports to Ukraine totaled $8.6 million (U.S.) and were concentrated in the paper industry, paints and varnishes, batteries and medicines. (Eastern Economist)

Russia to push for CIS integration

MOSCOW - Russian President Boris Yeltsin has sent an unequivocal message to the presidents of other CIS member-states outlining proposals for further integration within that body, presidential press spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii told journalists on December 17. The letter focuses on issues raised at the CIS summit held in Chisinau in October, at which several participants expressed extreme dissatisfaction at relations between member-states and at Russia's role. Responses to Mr. Yeltsin's letter will be incorporated into his address to the Commonwealth of Independent States summit scheduled for late January 1998. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia-Belarus budget approved

MOSCOW - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Russia-Belarus Union on December 15 approved the alignment's first joint budget, the Kommersant-Daily reported. That move, however, is not legally binding. Russia is to provide 65 percent of planned revenues amounting to 385,811,000 Russian rubles ($64,302,000 U.S.) and Belarus 35 percent or 206,196,000 rubles ($34,366,000). The largest single item of expenditure is financing cooperation between the internal affairs ministries, border guards and customs services, for which 42.1 percent of total expenditures are earmarked. Another 17.1 percent is for finance, military and technical cooperation, Interfax reported. Addressing the session, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valerii Serov said that a single currency may be established for certain unspecified financial transactions within the union. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine's foreign debt nearly $10 B

KYIV - According to information released by Finance Ministry sources, Ukraine's foreign debt as of November 1, 1997, stood at $9.568 billion (U.S.) The biggest creditor is Russia, which is owed $2.1 billion. Ukraine's debt to Russian AO Gazprom stood at $1.12 billion. Other debts include $1.196 billion owed to the World Bank, $2.333 billion to the International Monetary Fund and $56 million to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. (Eastern Economist)

Donor nations hold meeting on SIP

LONDON - The first meeting of the assembly of donors of the special Ukryttia Fund created by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the granting of funds for the Shelter Implementation Plan at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant took place December 16. Twenty donor countries have already invested $160 million (U.S.). These countries have pledged to donate a total of $337 million. Participants of the assembly's first session approved a number of documents on the fund's activities, especially on the beginning of two tender processes to create a group that would be responsible for managing the package of measures to be carried out at the Chornobyl plant and on preparation of technical documentation regarding the first projects to be carried out on the sarcophagus under the SIP. (Eastern Economist)

Lviv 'nationalizes' Soviet war monument

LVIV - The Lviv City Council voted to change a monument erected in honor of Soviet troops who liberated the city from Nazi troops at the end of World War II into one commemorating "fighters for the freedom of Ukraine," including the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and other groups that fought against Soviet power there in the 1940s and 1950s, ITAR-TASS reported on December 11. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Shadow Cabinet favors earlier elections

KYIV - One of the leaders of the Hromada association and chair of its Shadow Cabinet, Yulia Tymoshenko, said on December 2 that presidential elections should be held earlier than planned. In her view, the election is crucially important because President Leonid Kuchma has undertaken too many commitments and is unable to fulfill them. She added that the Ukrainian economy is being ruined through policies laid down in presidential decrees and governmental regulations. (Eastern Economist)

Ivano-Frankivsk institute graduates 30

IVANO-FRANKIVSK - The first 30 graduates of the Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of Management received their diplomas as newly qualified specialists in securities trading. According to the institute's director, Gennadii Bakaliar, the training of specialists of such a high caliber is carried out with the approval of the State Securities and Exchange Commission, from whom a license must be obtained. (Eastern Economist)

Ukrainian-Polish bank opens in Kharkiv

KHARKIV - The first joint Ukrainian-Polish Bank, UPB, opened in Kharkiv. The UPB was created on the basis of a local credit investment bank, which has operated on the Polish financial market since 1994, working with StaroPolskyi bank and Invest-Holding, an inter-bank investment consortium. UPB's statutory fund is 5 million ECU, with the Polish side providing 85 percent. UPB anticipates investing into long-term investment projects in agriculture and the processing industry in the Kharkiv Oblast. (Eastern Economist)

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