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GENERAL DIGEST #70 Monday, 26 August 2008 |
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| Tuesday, 26/08, 19:00 EBA EuroDrink Ukrainian Night Museum of Hetmanate 16B Spaska St Wednesday, 27/08, 16:00 EBA Fuel & Energy Committee ad-hoc WG EBA office in Kyiv, 1st floor 1A Andriyivsky Uzviz |
Wednesday, 27/08, 18:00 General Membership Meeting with Lviv City Mayor Mr Sadovyy - EBA Western Ukrainian Branch Resort Ozernyy Kray 60 Stavkova St, Pustomyty |
Wednesday, 27/08. 19:00 EuroDrink Party devoted to Independence day of Ukraine - EBA Western Ukrainian Branch Resort Ozernyy Kray 60 Stavkova St, Pustomyty Thursday, 28/08, 17:30 EBA EuroDebates Paris Conference Room, Hyatt Regency Kiev hotel 5A Tarasova St |
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| 26 August, 19:00 EBA EuroDrink Party Garden of Museum of Hetmanate, 16B Spaska St |
| This time the EBA EuroDrink Party Ukrainian
Night will take place on 26 August 2008, 19.00-21.00. Guests of the Ukrainian Night will have an opportunity to enjoy the ancient spirit of Hetman's Epoch and plunge deep into a Ukrainian atmosphere spreading the very essence of history, culture, traditions and customs of the nation. While celebrating Ukraine's Independence Day, the attendees will exchange their experiences of vacation and bump into right people at the right place at the right time plus in an informal atmosphere. Event Partner - ISIDA Catering Partner - Orion Catering Business lottery partner - Ukraine International Airlines, Buymerovka Pine & Spa Resort Drink partner - Khortytsa Soft drink partner - Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine Beer partner - BBH Ice-cream partner - Dolce Italia Gift partner - Silk Route Event agency partner - SUN Event Printing partner - Konica Minolta Ukraine |
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| Highlights of the Event - performance by ethno-chaos music band "DakhaBrakha" and charismatic personality of Oleh Skrypka, famous Ukrainian musician, founder of NGO "Krayina mriy" (Dream Country), will enhance the tune of the Ukrainian Night. |
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| 28 August, 17:00 EBA EuroDebates Paris Conference Room, Hyatt Regency Kiev hotel (5A, Tarasova Street) |
| This time the EuroDebates will strive
to elaborate an answer to the acute question - Amended
Customs Legislation: Pros and Cons The attendees will have an opportunity to say YES or NO discussing the following issues: • if customs clearance requires simplifying • if amended customs legislation influences an invetsment climate in Ukraine • if amended customs legislation changes fiscul functions of Customs The EuroDebates will exhibit opinions and insights of top managers of Customs Service and Ministry of Finance, Verkhovna Rada deputies, representatives of diplomatic corps and experts in International Customs Law. |
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| Main Event Partner – DHL We are kindly requesting you to register your attendance at events@eba.com.ua till 27 August, 12:00. |
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| 13-14 September 2008 EBA Amateur Tennis Tournament 2008 We are pleased to inform our dear members that the EBA Tennis Tournament 2008 in memory of Yuriy Petrus takes place on 13-14 September at the Antei Courtson. This EBA Sport Event brings the EBA business representatives together to let them feel the true spirit of this wonderful competition or even taste a sweet victory, thus benefiting from sport and communication. Those wishing to participate in our Tournament are requested to fill in the EBA registration forms (to be distributed together with an invitation among the EBA members according to the EBA mailing list) and send it back to the EBA Event Coordinator at events@eba.com.ua. |
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| 26 August 2008 FTA Position Paper press-briefing The EBA officially handed over the FTA Position Paper to Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria and Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Valeriy Piatnytsky. On 26 August, 2008 the European Business Association arranged a press-briefing to present the Free Trade Area Position Paper initiated and developed by the EBA community embracing nearly 750 member-companies. Establishing Free Trade Area (FTA) between Ukraine and EU aims to extend and expand economic horizons for both Parties. Since recently Ukraine joined the WTO, the FTA negotiations became official. As this process raised issues of prime concern to business circles, Government requested numerous business players of Ukraine to outline their ideas and come up with their views and recommendations on developing such an area. Therefore, Ukraine's business community united under the European Business Association, the premier organisation for foreign business in Ukraine, was the first to develop its approach on a range of issues that are immensely crucial in terms of maintaining and enhancing economic and trade relations between Ukraine and EU. The EBA truly believes that this initiative will be very useful for Ukraine's Government while negotiating with European colleagues. The FTA Position Paper was presented by: • Trond Moe, EBA President • Anna Derevyanko, EBA Executive Director The press-briefing featured the following guest speakers: • Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria • Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Valeriy Piatnytsky |
Vice-Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyria stated that the
FTA Position Paper is a solid and coherent document consolidating
opinions of various businesses - both Ukrainian and foreign - working
in Ukraine. Mr Nemyria said: "Recently the Government called
business for its position. We are open for consultation with all parties
concerned in order to make Ukraine's position for negotiations as
strong as possible. And I would like to thank the EBA for taking the
lead in this process". He also added: 1. We created a European Integration Bureau - a coordination body in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers. It will allow us to ensure horizontal coordination within the Government to secure coherent policy of development and implementation, including consultations with shareholders (like those of EU-Ukraine FTA). 2. In addition, my staff prepared recommendations to the new draft of Rules of Procedure of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. For provisions and draft laws related to European integration and better investment climate we suggest cutting the time of their elaboration more than in half. At the same time, Prime Minister recently approached the Verkhovna Rada with recommendations to apply a simplified procedure for certain draft laws (again, European and better investment climate). Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria and Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Valeriy Pyatnytsky thanked the EBA community for making an effort to elaborate the FTA Position Paper. Furthermore, both high-rank officials stressed the great importance and value of the EBA document for promoting negotiations between Ukraine and EU. |
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| 6 August 2008 EBA Fuel & Energy Committee ad-hoc WG The Committee partcipants discussed the EBA Position paper to be elaborated by the EBA Fuel and Energy Committee members in view of the upcoming EU – Ukraine Summit which will take place on 9 September 2008 in France. The Position paper strives to outline a number of obstacles impeding development of the private fuel and energy sector in Ukraine and affecting its investment attractiveness. Therefore, the attendees agreed to focus on the problematic issues in the following spheres: • Green tariffs and alternative energy sources; • Kyoto Protocol; • Electricity pricing; • Upstream and downstream; • Natural gas markets. 14 August 2008 EBA Health Care Committee Registration Subcommittee On 14 August 2008 Health Care Registration Subcommittee met at the EBA Kyiv-based office to analyse and discuss the Order of the Ministry of Health No. 391 dated 30 October 2002 On Medical Drug Production Quality Systems Certification Procedure. The Committee participants agreed to focus their exclusive attention on this urgent issue. During the first part of the meeting the Subcommittee members discussed amendments to the Order outlined by State Service of Medical Drugs and Medical Devices. Previously some member-companies also forwarded their comments and changes to the Order. Conformity Assessment Procedure is closely connected with implementation of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No 902. Some provisions do not |
correspond to the WTO requirements and should be amended. Another agenda issue centred on the previous agreement with the State Pharmacological Center to hold the Seminar on the Pharmacovigilance. Companies expressed their great concern in this respect. Topic ideas are to be distributed among member-companies via e-mail. 19 August 2008 EBA Franchising WG Round Table Met at the EBA office in Kyiv to gather key franchising experts representing the business sector as well as state authorities. The participants discussed the Draft Law on State Registration of Commercial Concession (franchising) Agreements to be elaborated by the State Department of Intellectual Property (hereinafter - SDIP) in collaboration with the EBA Franchising Working Group members. Thus, the attendees managed to reach a consensus regarding the following burning issues: • types of commercial concession agreements to be registered without fail in the SDIP and respective amendments to be introduced to the Civil code and Economic Codes of Ukraine; • obligatory state registration of commercial concession agreements in view of the further state registration of sub-concession agreements; • state registration of franchising agreement termination; • publication of commercial concession (sub-concession) agreements, registered in the SDIP. Therefore, the participants agreed to elaborate and finalise the Draft Law including all EBA and SDIP comments and proposals and organise the next round table focusing on the final version of the above document in September 2008. |
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| 20-23 October 2008 II International conference "Cyprus is a land of treasury and field of battle. Strategy effective business plan" In October 20-23 DLL Top Consulting organize II International conference entitled "Cyprus is a land of treasury and field of battle. Strategy effective business planning" on Cyprus, Limassol. The conference aims to highlight the topical issues of business activity on the national and foreign (Cyprus, Great Britain, Switzerland, EU) markets. Main topics of Conference: • Organization and business planning in the conditions of foreign markets • Tax of Cyprus, Switzerland, Great Britain, EU • Estimation of investment projects • Organization and realization of audit • Finance methods of capital protections |
Organizer of conference: Consulting group DLL Top consulting Sponsor of conference: BOND Partners LLP, London (Great Britain) Information support: weekly business journal "Comp&noN", weekly professional newspapers "Legal practice", Ukrainian network of business information "LigaBusinessInform", "Press-club" Detail information and registration: www.dllcons.com Tel.: +38 (044) 287 73 69; +38 (044) 592 87 53; +38 (067) 624 80 02 |
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| Council Conclusions on the situation
in Georgia General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting, Brussels, 13 August 2008. The Council adopted the following conclusions: 1. The Council recalls that the Union had expressed its grave concern at recent developments in Georgia, and the open conflict that has broken out between Russia and Georgia. Military action of this kind is not a solution. This war has caused the loss of many human lives, inflicted suffering on the population, resulted in substantial material damage and further increased the number of displaced persons and refugees. A peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Georgia must be based on full respect for the principles of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity recognised by international law and UN Security Council resolutions. 2. In this context, the absolute priority is to stop the suffering and bring the fighting to an end. In this respect the Council welcomes the agreement subscribed to by the parties yesterday on the basis of the mediation efforts carried out by the Union. The principles to which the parties have subscribed are as follows: (1) Not to resort to force; (2) To end hostilities definitively; (3) To provide free access for humanitarian aid; (4) Georgian military forces will have to withdraw to their usual bases; (5) Russian military forces will have to withdraw to the lines held prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Pending an international mechanism, Russian peace-keeping forces will implement additional security measures; (6) Opening of international talks on the security and stability arrangements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Council calls on the parties to honour all these commitments, beginning with an effective ceasefire, and to ensure that they are implemented effectively and in good faith both on the ground and in the relevant fora. The international mechanism should be set up rapidly. 3. The Council emphasises the Union's commitment to contribute actively to effective implementation of these principles. They will be embodied in a UN Security Council resolution as soon as possible. Rapid reinforcement of the OSCE's observer capabilities on the ground is crucial. The Union will take action along to this effect at the OSCE. The Council urges the parties not to obstruct the observers' activities. The Council also considers that the European Union must be prepared to commit itself, including on the ground, to support every effort, including those of the UN and the OSCE, with a view to a peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Georgia. It asks the SG/HR, in liaison with the Commission, to prepare proposals on the matter with a view to the informal meeting in Avignon on 5 and 6 September. 4. The Council stresses the humanitarian emergency and the Union's resolve to provide vital assistance to the population. An outline has been given of initial measures undertaken, both by the Commission and by the Member States. The Council requests the Commission, in liaison with the Presidency, to continue to coordinate European assistance and to encourage pooling arrangements designed to enhance its effectiveness and relevance. It is essential that all parties undertake to respect international humanitarian law and to facilitate the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to all the population groups affected, without discrimination. |
In addition, in view of the destruction caused by the
conflict, the Council emphasises the need to identify reconstruction
requirements as of now and to prepare to make a significant contribution
to meeting those requirements at Union level. It invites the Commission
to report back to it on this matter before its next meeting. Euro area external trade deficit 0.1 billion euro The first estimate for the Euro area trade balance with the rest of the world in June 2008 gave a 0.1 bln euro deficit, compared with +7.5 bln in June 2007. While the first estimate for the June 2008 extra-EU27 trade balance was a deficit of 20.1 bn euro, compared with -9.1 bn in June 2007. These data are released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. The biggest growth of trade deficit was noticed in energy sector where negative balance during January-May 2008 increased by 30 percent comparing to the same period of 2007. In January-May 2008 it was -148,6 bln. euro while in January-May 2007 it reached -102 bln. euro. Among the largest importers from the Euro area are United Kingdom with 94.5 bln. euro during January-May 2008 which is 2 percent bigger than in 2007. The number one exporter to Euro area in Chine with 68.7 bln. euro in first half of 2008, showing 4 percent increase comparing to 2007. Read more >> Georgia: EU continues to deploy assistance to the conflict-stricken area The European Union is providing on-the-ground support around 100,000 civilians in the conflict-stricken area. Following a green light given by the French Presidency EU support is being sent via Member States and coordinated by the European Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC). Against the backdrop of the agreed Russian-Georgian ceasefire, the European Union has provided assistance to Georgia to help its thousands of civilians in need of shelter, food and medicine. Georgia requested civil protection assistance through the European Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), which is the central operating hub of the Community Civil Protection Mechanism linking the civil protection authorities of 30 participating European countries. The request has resulted in the substantial mobilization of technical assistance. Help was offered by the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, France, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Slovakia. The ongoing assistance includes shelter material (over 300 tents, 10,000 sleeping bags, mattresses, blankets, etc.), various relief items (including dry food), medicine and emergency health supplies including 35,000 bandages and lung respirators and mobile fire-fighting equipment. Since 17 August, the MIC has set up an office in the EC Delegation's premises with a team of three experts from Denmark, France and the UK, as well as a liaison officer. It is working closely with experts dispatched by the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO). The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) is present in Georgia since 1993. Since 1993, the Commission has provided humanitarian aid worth ˆ104 million for Georgia. Earlier European Commission has released ˆ1 million in fast-track aid to help cover the urgent humanitarian needs of thousands of civilians in the region of South Ossetia and beyond in Georgia. |
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| 25 July 2008 Ukrainian International Airlines bring Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to Kyiv On 25 July 2008 Ukraine International Airlines has brought to Kiev a patriarchal delegation headed by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. This delegation arrived in Kiev for the celebration of 1020th anniversary of Kyiv Rus christening. At 10:00 am. the special UIA flight from Athens to Kyiv via Istanbul arrived at ‘Boryspil’ International Airport, where Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine personally welcomed the Ecumenical Patriarch and his delegation. Read more >> 5 August 2008 In January-July 2008 Ukraine International Airlines had carried by 23% more passengers than in the same period of 2007 August 5, 2008. In July 2008 UIA operated 1830 flights. The passenger load factor in July 2008 has made up 74%, on average, in July 2007 – 63%. This exceeded the same index of the previous year by 11%. Totally 184 000 people were carried in July 2008. Its by 14,5% more than in July 2007. From January till July 2008 936 500 people were carried. It’s by 23% more than in 7 months of 2007. In July 2008 400 tons of cargo and mail were carried. Read more >> August 2008 Arzinger & Partners Company news • Arzinger & Partners strengthens its offices in Kyiv and Lviv • Arzinger & Partners gives a report on the Business Forum attended by the Federal Chancellor of Austria • Arzinger & Partners advised Ukrainian state bodies and business representatives on WTO issues • Arzinger & Partners holds the regular meeting of the legal press club • Arzinger & Partners actively cooperates with Invest Ukraine |
• Arzinger & Partners supports the “Third meeting:
Days of Ukraine in German Bundestag” Read more >> August 2008 In the name of her Majesty! It wasn’t long ago that sensational news spread thoroughout Ukraine: the administration of Pregnacare enables reducing increased bleeding sickness (hemorrhagic syndrome) in newborn infants more than twofold; and now it has been announced that Vitabiotics, the manufacturer of this multivitamin complex, has once again received the Queen’s Award for International Trade! There is no more prestigious business award in the United Kingdom than this! It is appropriate at this point to recall that Vitabiotics was founded in 1971 in London and for more than 35 years has been the leading English manufacturer of healthcare products. Read more >> August 2008 DTZ in Ukraine undertook the net asset portfolio revaluation for Karavan August 2008. DTZ, leading international property adviser, is pleased to announce the undertaking of the net asset portfolio revaluation for Karavan Group in 2007. Karavan is a local Ukrainian developer and operator of retail and leisure centres, hypermarkets, restaurants and boutiques in Kyiv and the regions of Ukraine. Presently, it is the largest retail portfolio of approximately 1.1 sq m potential GBA comprising of 19 properties, two of which are the existing and most successful shopping center in Ukraine, Karavan Megastore in Kyiv and Karavan Megastore in Kharkiv. Other projects include mall in the course of development in Dnipropetrovs’k (99,060 sq m) and all the others are at different stages of development in major cities of Ukraine, including Zaporizhzhya, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Mykolayiv and others. Read more >> |
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EBA Partners 2008
Argus | BCC | Dialog | Hertz | Kyivstar | Romyr | Terrasoft | Ukraine International Airlines | Vasil Kisil & Partners |
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