International Affairs
On February 23, 2018 the Chamber of Commerce of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, in close cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in Brussels, organized a country seminar on business and investment opportunities in Ukraine, in anticipation of the Trade Mission to Ukraine from April 22nd to 27th
The fifty participants received “first hand” information on Ukraine’s reform success story and answers as regards current business environment and investment opportunities in Ukraine.
Mr. Jeannot Erpelding, Director International Affairs, welcomed the honored guests, His Excellency Mr. Mykola Tochytskyi, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of Belgium, Mr. Maksym Nefyodov, First Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and Mr. Yuriy Butsa, Deputy Finance Minister for European Integration of Ukraine, who presented the reforms implemented in Ukraine (a country of 45 million people) over the last four years.
September 1, 2017 marked the full entry into force of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Today, the EU is the key trade partner of Ukraine, representing over 40% of Ukraine’s overall trade. This was greatly due to the core element of the Association Agreement: the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area. For Ukraine, AA/DCFTA serves as a comprehensive blueprint of political, social, and economic reforms allowing the country to increase international trade in goods, first and foremost with the EU, to crucially improve its position in the World Bank’s Ease of Starting Business ranking (having moved from 70th place in 2015 to 52nd place in 2018), as well as to achieve the GDP real growth.
A recently adopted law “On privatization of the state property”, in line with Ukraine’s commitments to the IMF, paves the way to a comprehensive, transparent, and streamlined privatization of more than 3,000 big, medium, and small enterprises that previously belonged to the state property.
Mrs. Evgenia Paliy, President of the newly founded Ukraine-Luxembourg Business Club took the opportunity to present the organization, its mission and its upcoming events before leaving the floor to a number of company representatives: Robert Schaus (CEO, Presta Cylinders), Siemon Smid (Director, PwC), Irina Bogdanovich & Andrey Golubnichiy (Finance controllers of ACIS segment, ArcelorMittal) and Jean-Jacques Soulacroup (Senior Corporate Banker, EIB). The testimonials based on their experiences in the Ukrainian field completed the seminar and gave the audience of 50 participants a realistic picture of how to do business in Ukraine.
For further information about the Trade Mission to Ukraine from April 22nd to 27th 2018, feel free to contact Steven Koener (tel: 42 39 39 - 379; steven.koener@cc.lu) or via CIS@cc.lu.
Ukraine in figures: Ukraine has had a +2% growth of GDP in 2017 (forecast +3% in 2018) and in on 76th place in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (4 points up from 80th place in 2017, 20 points up from 96th place in 2015). Ukraine’s sectorial strengths include engineering, aerospace engineering (Ukraine produces the 4-stage engine for the European carrier VEGA) and aviation (famous giant cargo planes Ruslan & Mriya are produced in Ukraine). There are also over 1000 Ukrainian ICT service companies, 1000+ start-ups, 100+ international R&D institutions based on long history of tech innovations in Ukraine.
