BUSINESS IN BRIEF (01/07/01)

BUSINESS IN BRIEF

Small enterprises produce 10 percent of GDP

KYIV - Goods and services produced by small enterprises account for around 10 percent of the GDP, said State Committee on Entrepreneurship Vice-Chair Hennadiy Bilous. He added that this shows the growth of small business production, since in recent years this figure was 5-6 percent of the GDP. Mr. Bilous claimed that action on the part of his committee helped spur this growth saying that now the SCE was paying more attention to passenger transportation, land relations, construction, pharmaceutical and hotel industries. (Eastern Economist)

"Buy Ukrainian" policy proposed to government

KYIV - The Party to Support National Producers in Ukraine has sent a memo to the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet and the president proposing to prohibit the purchase of imported goods for budget needs. "It's a crime to pay millions of dollars to foreigners while the country is in deep economic crisis," said party head Yaroslav Fedoryn. He added that the government should purchase only nationally produced goods for its purposes, unless production of equivalent products in Ukraine will be more expensive than importing them from abroad. Mr. Fedoryn said that the possibility of passing such a law would be about 50 percent, although he insists that his party's members will work hard to convince deputies of the need for such a law. (Eastern Economist)

Europay credit card fraud reduced 60 percent

KYIV - Commercial banks have reduced the number of frauds with Visa and Europay international payment cards in Ukraine by more than 60 percent. According to a report by the Europay bank association, this became possible after the implementation of certain measures, including random checks by trading companies of the identification of clients making large single purchases. Trade companies will now be responsible for seeing that transaction documents are in order, while banks will have the right to suspend payment for the duration of an investigation and check on shop assistants for compliance with the client service procedure. A wave of credit card frauds, which amounted to 5 percent of the total volume of concluded transactions, was attributed to the invasion of international con artists specializing in credit card swindling. In the first three quarters of this year the number of issued cards has grown by 84.3 percent, from 395,000 to 728,000. (Eastern Economist)

Russian, Ukrainian exchanges cooperate

KYIV - The Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange and the Moscow Stock Exchange have signed a cooperation agreement. Pursuant to this agreement, the countries will jointly develop Ukrainian and Russian securities market infrastructure, exchange related information and implement mutually beneficial projects on organizing securities trading. (Eastern Economist)

Dutch treat Mykolaiv to 600 new jobs

MYKOLAIV - The Okean Shipbuilding plant, in which Dutch Damen Shipyards Group purchased a 78 percent stake, will be renamed Damen-Ocean and, according to company insiders, plant management expects production to reach 1991 capacities by 2001. Damen purchased the stake for 26 million hrv, and is obliged to pay off 11 months of wage arrears to workers and 230 million hrv of shipyard debt. Damen has already supplied material, equipment and documents needed to construct new vessels at the Mykolaiv site. Okean has also hired 600 more workers for construction of ships that were recently ordered. (Eastern Economist)

Number of farms increases by 1,700

KYIV - The number of farms in the first nine months of 2000 increased by 1,700 reaching 37,600, stated the State Statistics Committee. Farmers use 2.058 million hectares of land and on average have 55 hectares of land each, up from 32 hectares in 1999. Forty-six percent of the land used by the farmers is rented. (Eastern Economist)

Lithuania sells new shipping corridor

ODESA - Ukrainian and Lithuanian port and shipping company representatives have initiated the creation of a transport corridor called Baltics-South. The corridor will operate from Germany through Klaipeda, Lithuania, and Odesa, Ukraine, to the seaports of the Caucasus. Corridor capacity will depend on the effective use of ferries on the Black Sea. UkrFerry Commercial Director Volodymyr Cherniyevskyi stated that a privileged tariff should be introduced for transport through the corridor. (Eastern Economist)

Farmers join U.S. backed feed program

IVANO-FRANKIVSK - Farmers in Prykarpattia became members of the international Ukrainskyi Kombikorm or Ukrainian Mixed Feed program, a U.S.-backed support extension service to agrarian producers, said agricultural service co-op Hrono member Myron Petryshyn. Local farmers will prepare concentrated feed that ensures daily weight gains of livestock and record milk yields with the help of U.S. assistance. The first stage of the program will begin this year. (Eastern Economist)

Kyiv is upgrading city transport system

KYIV - Kyiv's public transportation fleet will be completely renovated by 2002, said Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko during the presentation of the public program titled Buy Ukrainian Goods - Strengthen the State. Mr. Omelchenko added that this year Kyiv has already signed a contract with the Lviv bus plant for 100 buses. Fifty, he said, have already been received, while another 20 to 30 are expected by the new year. Mayor Omelchenko added that an agreement has been signed with a Hungarian company on leasing 100 buses. The mayor also said that the city plans to purchase 120 to 150 Mercedes buses, capable of carrying 180 to 230 passengers. Moreover, he said that "a metro station at Palladina street will be opened next year, connecting Palladina to the city's Teremki district. (Eastern Economist)

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