Page 40 - UKRRptJune18

6.1.1 Budget dynamics - funding & privatization
The Council of the European Union has greenlighted a new €1bn macro-financial assistance (MFA) programme , the Council said in a statement on May 29. The new assistance will cover Ukraine’s financing needs over a period of two and a half years. The loans will support economic stabilisation and a programme of structural reforms. This will be the fourth MFA programme Ukraine to be signed with the EU, which is subject to approval by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. In late 2017, the European Commission refused to allocate the last €600mn tranche to Ukraine out of its previous MFA programme. According to Brussels, a primary instrument in the EU's overall strategy vis-a-vis Ukraine was to provide €1.8bn in MFA via the programme approved in April 2015, out of which €1.2bn has already been disbursed in two tranches. The European Commission transferred a second €600mn tranche from the MFA to Ukraine in April. That tranche was transferred without conditions, despite previous delays amid calls from Brussels to ensure Ukraine's parliament passed bills enabling a ban on timber exports to be lifted.
The Ukrainian government has excluded three state-owned companies from a list of large enterprises for privatization in 2018 , Interfax news agency reported on May 30. The companies are aluminium foil plant, Agrarian Fund and State Food-Grain Corporation. The move will unlikely have any significant effect on Kyiv's privatisation plans, because experts doubt Ukraine will be able to sell its large assets in 201802019 due to upcoming presidential (scheduled for March) and parliamentary elections. According to the amended list, Kyiv is going to offer potential investors 23 state-owned companies, specifically, five power supply companies, Centrenergo, Odesa Port Plant (OPP), Turboatom, Zaporizhia Titanium and Magnesium Combine, United Mining-Chemical Company and Sumykhimprom. In 2017, the Ukrainian authorities obtained UAH3.244bn ($123mn) from the privatisation of state-owned assets. Kyiv restarted its privatisation drive in August 2017.
Remaining conditions for allocation of EU financial aid to Ukraine named.
Ukraine is hoping not only for a new tranche from the IMF, but also one from the EU. Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk confirmed this during meetings with the EU in Brussels following deliberations with the IMF and World Bank in Washington. The European Parliament will in June consider providing up to EUR 1bn worth of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine, Ukrinform reports. Kyiv has already fulfilled all but four of the conditions set by the EU, and was working on the remaining ones. They concern the introduction of an automated system for checking electronic income declarations of officials, the opening of registers of final beneficiaries of companies, and the resumption of the programme of cooperation with the IMF.
Government committee approves list of large enterprises for privatization in 2018 . The 26 companies include five regional energy companies, Centrenergo, Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant, TuRUBoatom, Zaporizhia Titanium and Magnesium Combine, United Mining-Chemical Company,
40 UKRAINE Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com