The British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (“BUCC”) brings together companies and individuals doing business in Ukraine or the UK, including in the City of London, the international financial capital for Europe, Africa and the Middle-East. During 2019, the BUCC organized or participated in holding over 50 events in Kyiv, London and Lviv, and conducted numerous other activities for our Members. The BUCC holds monthly networking events in Kyiv, and is beginning to do so in London. After holding two major events in 2020, the BUCC is now organizing online events due to the global health crisis, and aims to, as soon as possible, also resume holding live events.
CURRENT BUCC INITIATIVES
The BUCC has a number of initiatives to solve important problems for Ukraine, including:
UK-Ukraine Trade Treaty. The BUCC, including in particular through its Ukrainian Week in London promotes the priority execution post-Brexit of a new UK-Ukraine free trade agreement with much reduced agricultural tariffs. Because the UK imports more than half of its food, Ukraine, as one of the world’s largest food exporters, should be a major beneficiary from Brexit as soon as a new UK-Ukraine free trade agreement applies to replace, for the UK, the restrictive EU-Ukraine DCFTA. 
Legal Ombudsman Proposal. For Ukraine’s judicial reforms and anti-corruption programs to actually help protect UK and other foreign investors into Ukraine, the BUCC has developed a proposal for a Judicial Ombudsman for Ukraine (in addition to the Business Ombudsman that focuses on administrative issues), as was successfully used by Sweden when corruption in the Swedish courts was a problem in the early 1900s. This proposal would allow litigants to take court decisions at any level that constitute an abuse of justice to the Judicial Ombudsman for immediate review and potentially a quick re-hearing before different judges.
Political Risk Insurance. Ukraine needs greater availability of insurance for political/conflict risk, so that such risk does not discourage foreign as well as domestic investment in Ukraine. The BUCC’s proposal for this is based on increasing the level of political/conflict risk insurance available from the World Bank’s MIGA, as has been previously successfully organized, for similar reasons, for the West Bank and Gaza and many other countries experiencing conflict.
Oxford and Cambridge Scholarship Program. We are raising funding to assist students accepted to Oxford, Cambridge and other leading British universities to be financially able to attend (please see our GoFundMe appeal for Karyna Nechyporuk, a Ukrainian mathematics prodigy who has been accepted to attend Trinity College, Cambridge).
Ukrainian Educational Programs. The BUCC is organizing the creation of foreign LLM and IT educational programmes in Ukraine.
Digitalization of Ukrainian Books and Drawings and Other Works of Art. The BUCC is encouraging the digitalization of the enormous number of important Ukrainian books and works of art held abroad to make them accessible to all Ukrainians, both in Ukraine and abroad.
We also include within our focus the Commonwealth nations.
THE BUCC’S MEMBERS DISCOUNT E-CARD
The BUCC’s Membership “E-Card” gives discounts to our Members of 5% to 35% at many leading restaurants, hotels, shops and other establishments in Ukraine and the UK, the savings from which may exceed the cost of BUCC membership.
SPECIAL EVENTS
The BUCC held many important events in 2019 and 2020, including:
EBRD Presentation. On 26 February 2020, the BUCC held an event with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) at the London Room of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, where Matteo Patrone, their Managing Director, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, made a presentation on lending and investment projects and opportunities for Ukraine. Since 1991, the EBRD has been Ukraine’s largest investor, with over Euro 14.5 billion spent in 461 projects in Ukraine, including $1.1 billion last year. Mr. Patrone spoke on the many examples of successful EBRD financed projects realized in Ukraine, and the strategic priorities for the EBRD’s future work. He then answered many questions from the audience, and met with participants afterwards to consider individual cases.
John Hughes Memorial Dinner. The BUCC resumed last year holding the John Hughes Memorial Dinner in honor of John Hughes, the British founder of Donetsk and of the steel and coal industries of Ukraine, at the Opera Hotel, with the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) and the John Hughes Business Club. The Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Timofiy Mylovanov, Marcin Swiecicki, the Business Ombudsman, and Gennadii Chizhikov gave speeches on the economy and investor protection as well as on the situation for Donetsk and Lugansk. After a lively question and answer session, this event continued until late.
We have held many other significant events this past year, including with (1) Transparency International, the State Enterprise Prozorro and the State Geology and Subsoil Service on Prozorro and Oil and Gas Licensing, (2) speakers from the Atlantic Council and other organizations and publications analyzing the Ukrainian Presidential elections, (3) Sharp Spring on AI website management, with David Walker on website optimization, (4) Franklin Covey on Improving Business Efficiency and Productivity, (5) WebPromoExperts on search engine optimization, (6) the filmmaker Reece Lynch on his films on the situation and conditions in the Donbas and (7), at our annual event at the Leopolis Jazz Fest in Lviv, an EBRD presentation on Financing Ukrainian IT.
COMMITTEES
The BUCC focuses on major projects and issues to address important business needs for Ukraine through the following Committees:
Trade, Investment and Brexit Committee, which is reacting to Brexit with activities to encourage a new UK-Ukraine trade treaty and help develop further trade.
Agriculture Committee is currently focusing on (1) future UK markets post-Brexit for Ukrainian exports, (2) developing proposals for further reform of the moratorium on sales to foreign purchasers of Ukrainian agricultural land and (3) encouraging greater irrigation farming to respond to the problem of decreasing crop yields in southern Ukraine from more frequent droughts, apparently due to climate change.
British-Ukrainian IT Committee brings together IT associations and clusters, IT companies and others involved in IT in the UK and Ukraine. Ukraine is increasingly important to UK IT, as (1) Ukraine is one of the world’s leading IT outsourcing destination and the leading IT outsourcing destination for the UK, (2) Ukraine is a leading destination for western IT firms to invest in branch offices for software development and (3) leading Ukrainian IT companies increasingly have branches in the UK, presenting cutting edge innovative ideas.
Law and Accounting Committee has projects to reform many Ukrainian laws and to create UK LLM law programs at Ukrainian law schools.
Real Estate Committee is obtaining significant improvements to the laws and regulations on the OSBBs that manage buildings in Ukraine.
Infrastructure and Transportation Committee is concentrated on improving freight port and rail transport into, through and from Ukraine.
Tourism Committee promotes tourism in Ukraine and the UK, presently focusing on encouraging tourism for Ukraine from London, Europe’s largest market.
Art, Design and Culture Committee, that among other cultural initiatives, has been holding exhibitions and receptions to restore the reputation of the Ukrainian artist Mykhailo Tkachenko, a prominent impressionist in Paris in the 19th century, working with Professor James Rubin, one of the world’s leading experts on Impressionism.
UKRAINIAN WEEK IN LONDON
Last year, the BUCC organized Ukrainian Week in London, attended by over 1,000 participants at the Savoy Hotel, the EBRD and RUSI, the largest event ever held abroad on Ukraine, at which the UK Secretary of State for Trade announced that Ukraine now receive priority consideration from the UK for a new post-Brexit free trade agreement.
JOIN THE BUCC FOR 2020 !
The BUCC is a very active Chamber, but we need your support to carry out our activities for a better Ukraine. To join the BUCC, please contact us at +38 (044) 490-6000 or 278-1000 or by email to [email protected]. For further information, including membership forms, please see www.bucc.com.ua and the BUCC Facebook Page.
