Ukraine’s state investment and public-private partnership agency raised a total of Hr 4.47 billion ($550 million) last year, its annual report said released on April 9 after a full year of operation.
Its department of 17 national projects – essentially,
public-private partnership endeavors – raised Hr 3.17 billion with nine currently
in the implementation phase, the report said. The agency’s one-stop shop Invest
Ukraine department brought in an additional Hr 1.3 billion.
Almost two years after opening its doors, the agency said
that it had also signed memorandum of investment deals for a total value of
over Hr 65 billion ($8 billion).
“Declarations are fixed in memorandum deals,” said Vladyslav
Kaskiv, head of the the State Agency for Investment and National
Projects, which was founded by President Viktor Yanukovych to
promote Ukraine’s investment opportunities abroad and to work with foreign
investors. “We do not stress that all of them will be realized but they are not just ideas. They
are legally declared intentions.”
However, local media investigations have found no
evidence that Kaskiv’s agency actually raised money from investors, foreign or
domestic. In particular, an April 3 Forbes Ukraine article contends that the
agency has received only public money from state coffers. The figures the
agency reported for 2012 were declared, not invested money, Forbes wrote.
Kaskiv, in turn, has argued that the declared amounts
are part of legally binding contracts. He furthermore insisted that the
agency’s national projects don’t receive money from the state budget.
“Can we do better? Yes, we can,” said Kaskiv. “But
better is an enemy of good. We hope that we will improve our effectiveness.”
Kaskiv’s agency has instead made headlines recently
for bringing in phantom investors.
At the end of last year in front of TV cameras and
journalists, Kaskiv’s agency announced that it had sealed a cooperation agreement with a Spanish company to build a
liquefied natural gas terminal in Odesa
region. The document was signed by Jordi Sarda Bonvehi, who it turned out
misrepresented Gas Natural Fenosa. Soon after the signing, the Spanish company
denied signing any investment contracts with the Ukrainian government and said
that Bonvehi was not and never had been an employee of the company. Soon, the media
discovered that Bonvehi was a former ski instructor. The LNG terminal project manager, Vitaliy Demianiuk, explained that Bonvehi
was a professional commercial agent who has acted on behalf of many Spanish
companies.
Despite the embarrassing incident Kaskiv said
he’s not going to give up on the project.
“Next week we’ll sign binding
documents as a result of which in the first half of 2013 we will have an offshore
platform on the Black Sea coast that will accept liquefied gas,” Kaskiv said.
The LNG terminal is one of 17 national projects managed by the state
agency. If completed, it should further help Ukraine diversify its gas supplies
via imports and break dependency from Russia.
There are eight additional projects currently
underway, according to Kaskiv:
– a 30-kilometer high-speed train connecting Kyiv
and Boryspil airport;
– a national information and communication network for
schools using 4G technology
– a nationwide network of water purification plants
hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Carpathian Mountains;
– creating a network of modern prenatal centers;
– creating infrastructure for innovative
development and new technologies in five Ukrainian cities;
– building 10 modern solid waste recycling plants
implement GPS-technologies in ambulances.
Presently the agency said
it lacks financing to get several other projects off the ground, among which
are creating industrial parks and developing livestock.
And despite the general
belief, the state agency does not receive financing from the state budget for
the national projects, Kaskiv said.
“We always want more than we can, said Kaskiv,
summarizing his presentation. “Probably,
it seems that
we do not make enough efforts. But I assure you that we are here trying day
and night to achieve improvement.”
Sergiy Yevtushenko,
head of the InvestUkraine department, said that the agency secured Hr 150
million from Dutch company RedRiver which is going to build a sunflower seed processing
plant in southern Ukraine. Air Liquide, a French company, will invest more than
Hr 1 billion. It teamed up with Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest to construct an air
separating unit for Yenakievo Iron and Steel Works.
Last year InvestUkraine
processed 147 requests from potential foreign investors and now is accompanying
over a dozen foreign companies on their investment projects in Ukraine.
Kyiv Post
staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
