NEWSBRIEFS (08/09/98)

NEWSBRIEFS

Consortium to reinforce sarcophagus

KYIV - An international consortium has won a tender to reinforce the sarcophagus covering the damaged reactor at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the Associated Press reported on August 4. The consortium, headed by the French company Technique Atom, includes British, German and U.S. companies. The $5.4 million deal is the second stage of a broader project on improving Chornobyl's safety. The funds will be used for, among other things, technical maintenance and repairs of the sarcophagus. Some 20 donor nations have pledged $400 million to make the concrete and steel sarcophagus environmentally safe. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka says reunion is "inevitable"

MIENSK - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has said in answer to questions by readers of Pravda-5 that reunification of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus "is inevitable and that no opponent will be able to prevent it," Interfax reported on July 31. He said such a union will appear "very soon" if "the reunification problem passes from the area of election outbursts into the area of practical daily work." He also expressed hope that the Belarusian- Russian Union Parliamentary Assembly will soon pass laws to establish union citizenship and that the two countries' parliaments will approve that legislation. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Pentagon continues funding disarmament

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Defense Department will continue to provide financial assistance to Ukraine to destroy its weapons of mass destruction, ITAR-TASS reported on July 30. Ukraine will receive $76.7 million to destroy SS-19 missiles, some 40 strategic bombers, and some 1,000 cruise missiles. The Pentagon will also allocate $630,000 to help enforce non-proliferation of arms outside Ukraine's borders and $73 million for conversion of defense enterprises. Over the past six years, Ukraine has received $520 million in such aid. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv funds to assist Crimean Tatars

KYIV - The Ukrainian government has allocated 1 million hrv ($475,000) to help resettle Crimean Tatars who were expeled from their homeland by Joseph Stalin during World War II, the Associated Press reported. The funds will be used to improve gas and water supplies to Tatar settlements near the Crimean capital, Symferopol. Another 7 million hrv will be provided to Tatars in the form of construction materials and equipment. A United Nations-sponsored conference of 26 donor countries held in Kyiv in July pledged some $5 million to build infrastructure, create new jobs and provide for cultural needs of the returning Tatars. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Outgoing Canadian ambassador feted

KYIV - A group of 40 business and government leaders met on July 23 to bid farewell to Canadian Ambassador Chris Westdal at a dinner organized by the Canada-Ukraine Business Initiative and the Canadian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce. Guests included Ukrainian and Canadian deputy ministers; Jaroslav Kinach, representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; and the heads of many Canadian and Ukrainian projects and businesses, including Epic Energy, Kadima, Semex, UkrNaftoGas, Nadra Resources and Monsanto. (Eastern Economist)

Marchuk discusses the shadow economy

KYIV - "The shadow economy accounts for around 40 to 60 percent of the Ukrainian market. One of the main reasons for the development of the shadow economy is high taxes. The worst thing is that many people are forced against their will to work in the shadow economy," Yevhen Marchuk told the Union of Journalists on July 8. He added that at least $10 billion (U.S.) has been exported from Ukraine and put into Western banks and recommended providing an amnesty for this capital. However, this decision can be made only by the president or by the government. "The politician who gives the order to amnesty flight capital will take a very great risk with his reputation, and everyone is afraid of doing so," Mr. Marchuk said. He warned that owners of flight capital would not be in a hurry to return their money to Ukraine. He predicted that in the amnesty's first year approximately $1 billion (U.S.) would return. Compared to the $2 billion in foreign investment that Ukraine has received since independence, this is a very significant sum, he noted. (Eastern Economist)

Ukraine's production up over 1997 levels

KYIV - For the first time in the last nine years, Ukraine's industrial production has increased, rising by 0.7 percent in the first half of 1998 over 1997 levels, First Vice Prime Minister Anatolii Holubchenko said on July 6. According to the Cabinet Press Service, Mr. Holubchenko said that, as a result of National Bank of Ukraine measures taken to support domestic manufacturers, the increase was broad-based. Production of consumer goods increased 4 percent. The wood-processing industry had the best rate of growth at 22 percent, and the construction materials sector boosted production 12 percent. Production increased in 17 oblasts, the city of Kyiv and Crimea. (Eastern Economist)

P&G to expand production in Ukraine

KYIV - Procter & Gamble plans to expand its activity in Ukraine. In addition to modernizing its Tampax-plant at Boryspil, outside of Kyiv, it plans to open a new plant that will produce items it currently imports from other countries. Out of the 300 or so items P&G produces, 15 are currently sold in Ukraine. P&G has invested $48 million (U.S.) in Ukraine in the last three years, paying $25 million (U.S.) in taxes in the last two years. The company plans to increase its investment to $230 million (U.S.) in the next five years. (Eastern Economist)

How many Ukrainians own computers?

KYIV - Of 10,000 people who responded to a questionnaire distributed by Kvazar Micro and Intel computers during their joint TekhnoShow '98 tour of 13 Ukrainian cities, 26 percent have a computer at home and 19 percent plan to buy one in 1998. The results also indicate that the most important factor in choosing a PC is the assembly quality (65 percent) and brand (31 percent). Forty-three percent of respondents agreed that it was better to purchase PCs containing licensed software. (Eastern Economist)

Talbott speaks before Baltic council

KYIV - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said that everyone would benefit if Russia would not view the Baltic states as a "zone of its own interests" but as a "gateway" to a new Europe, BNS and Interfax reported. Mr. Talbott was speaking in Riga on July 8, where he attended the first meeting of the U.S.-Baltic Partnership Council, established earlier this year by the Baltic and U.S. presidents. That meeting yielded a communiqué providing for joint efforts to secure the Baltic states' accession to the World Trade Organization and to promote regional security cooperation that would also include Russia. Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Valdis Birkavs noted that the council's first session was taking place at a "rather significant time," when the Latvian economy was under attack from Moscow. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Your insurance card, please ...

KYIV - The Cabinet of Ministers has ordered that border guards must check to see if Ukrainian citizens crossing the border in automobiles have insurance policies. The governmental press service explained that the regulation is the result of Ukraine's June 1997 entry into the international Green Card drivers' insurance system. The organization's rules state that, if Ukrainian drivers do not have insurance, damages in international accidents must be paid by Ukraine's insurance bureau. (Eastern Economist)

Israeli minister notes money laundering

KYIV - Israeli Internal Affairs Minister Avakham Kokhav said that a high volume of shadow capital has been transferred from CIS countries, including Ukraine, to Israel. Speaking at a joint press conference in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Yurii Kravchenko, he added that he is unsure about the exact volume of Ukrainian funds being transferred to Israel. Mr. Kokhav said that there are no relevant Israeli laws against money laundering and, as a result, former Ukrainian citizen Semen Yuta, who has received large amounts of money through fraud, now lives in Israel and has no legal problems because "he does not violate the law." Mr. Kravchenko said that because of an absence of necessary documents, it is impossible to prove the accusations against Mr. Yuta. (Eastern Economist)