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site. In particular, the ministry is planning to simplify the closure of registered small businesses, and replacing the classification of forms of economic activity. “The current procedure is absurd,” he said. The same day, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhaylo Fedorov said the government’s “Electronic Residency” project plans to enable foreign investors to be able to register a business and open a bank account in Ukraine online, without having to visit the country.
Drawing on Estonia’s experience, Ukraine’s government is drawing up a draft law to establish “Electronic Residency” in Ukraine, says Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation. “We want it to be convenient to open a company in Ukraine, to conveniently open a bank account in Ukraine without coming to our country - to receive an ID card at the embassy, and to have the opportunity to conduct business here,” he told a tech conference in Lviv last week. In the five years since Estonia started its e- Residency program, Ukrainians account for the third-largest nationality.
9.1.9 Utilities sector news
The Russian authorities has been blocking exports of coal from its territory to Ukraine through the territory of neighbouring Belarus, according to Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining. Belarusian exports of anthracite coal to Ukraine jumped 340-fold year-on-year in 2018 to 102,200 tonnes, according to the nation's states statistics committee Belstat. In January-July, Belarus raised coal exports to Ukraine by 500-fold y/y to 1.2mn tonnes. 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes of coal was supplied to Ukraine through Belarus monthly, Ukrainian MP Mykhaylo Volynets wrote last week on his Facebook page. He said that Russian Railroads had refused to transport Ukrainian-bound coal to Belarus since the start of October. That raises the prospect of massive coal shortages in Ukraine during this heating season, he warned. Earlier this year, the Russian government restricted direct coal exports to Ukraine, prompting suppliers to start exporting it via Belarus.
Ukraine has resumed commercial imports of electricity from Russia
following a four-year pause, the nation's Ukrenergo transmission system operator said on October 2. The move followed September's approval by the nation's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, of amendments to the country's legislation, which allowed buying electricity under bilateral agreements from the countries that are not members of the European Energy Community. The motion was proposed by MP Andriy Gerus, who is widely believed to be close to controversial oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Gerus explained the need for his corrections by improving competition in the country's electricity market, which could lead to lower electricity prices for industrial consumers, news agency Interfax reported on October 2. On October 1, import of electricity from the Russian Federation on a flat schedule with a capacity of 100 MW was carried out by United Energy LLC. In 2019, United Energy signed several contracts on gas supply for JSC Dniproazot, controlled by Kolomoisky, who has sponsored the 2019 presidential campaign of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
As winter approaches, Russia is blocking shipments of thermal coal to Ukraine via Belarus, reports Liga.net, citing Mikhail Volynets, chairman of Ukraine’s Independent Trade Union of Miners. “The situation of filling coal depots of thermal power plants on the eve of winter was already unsatisfactory,” he writes on Facebook. “Now it will become disastrous.” Due to Russia’s new coal export permit system, coal stocks are 62% of last year’s
68 UKRAINE Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com