EBRD On Ukraine Draft
EBRD On Ukraine Draft
EBRD On Ukraine Draft
DRAFT
2011 - 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
Ukraine
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Estimate Projection
1 3
According to ILO methodology. Weighted average over all maturities.
2 4
IMF definition. General government includes the state, municipalities and Refers to payments on official debt only.
extra-budgetary funds, in 2009-10 Naftogaz, bank recapitalisation costs,
and issuance of VAT bonds.
70
3
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Ukraine is committed to and applying the principles of multiparty democracy, pluralism and
market economics in accordance with the conditions specified in Article 1 of the Agreement
Establishing the Bank, although application of these principles during the previous Strategy
period has been somewhat uneven.
The past three years have been challenging for Ukraine. Despite having made significant
progress in democratic reform following the Orange Revolution in 2004, the absence of
political consensus within the Orange coalition, and between the government and the strong
political opposition, led to a period of instability and political deadlock. Profound
disagreements between the executive and legislative branches resulted in the stalling of
reforms, particularly in the vital areas of public governance and combating corruption.
The presidential elections held in early 2010 were deemed by international observers to have
been free and fair. However, steps taken since the election have the potential to impact the
constitutional checks and balances in the political system. The challenge for the new president
and government now is to maintain the democratic gains of the past five years while ensuring
political stability and strengthening the accountability of public policymaking.
Ukraine is one of the countries most affected by the recent financial crisis. Its key pre-crisis
vulnerabilities included dependence on commodity exports (in particular, steel), high foreign
currency refinancing requirements of the private sector, dependence on subsidised gas imports
from Russia and the lack of effective policy coordination mechanisms. The collapse of demand
for, and price of steel at the end of 2008, together with a rise in gas import prices significantly
reduced the contribution of net exports to growth. At the same time, domestic demand suffered
from the reversal of external capital inflows and the impact of the crisis on company balance
sheets was compounded by the instability in the banking sector, the severe contraction of
lending by banks and the accumulation of large VAT refund arrears by the government. As a
result, overall output contracted by 15 per cent in 2009 and FDI fell. The public sector balance
sheet deteriorated as the authorities utilised fiscal policy to cushion the impact of the crisis.
The economic situation improved in 2010 following the February elections. The new
government has responded to the crisis by implementing fiscal, financial sector and some
structural reforms. In May 2010, the new government unveiled an ambitious medium-term
reform programme, which encompasses a wide range of strategic initiatives aimed at creating
preconditions for economic growth. Investor confidence has improved somewhat, especially
after the authorities reached agreement with the IMF on a new medium-term arrangement in
July 2010 but appears to have since lost some of this positive momentum. Yields on public
sector debt have fallen, the stock market has recovered and the National Bank of Ukraine
(NBU) has been able to replenish foreign exchange reserves.
The post-crisis recovery is expected to be protracted due to weak domestic demand, ongoing
adjustment to the terms of trade shock, lingering problems in the financial sector, the limited
capacity of government to provide further fiscal stimulus to attract inward investment. The
announced structural reforms, if implemented fairly, should contribute towards increasing the
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country’s long-term growth potential and help mitigate the post-crisis macroeconomic
vulnerabilities.
Challenges
The key immediate challenge for the authorities is to put the public sector debt onto a
sustainable path and complete post-crisis stabilisation of the financial sector. Measures in this
area are being implemented with the support of the IMF and other international institutions. In
addition, it will be necessary to significantly improve the business environment and reduce the
perceptions of endemic corruption in order to attract large scale quality investments that would,
over time, help to reduce Ukraine’s dependence on several low value added and energy
intensive export sectors.
Ukraine continues to face important transition challenges in all key sectors, which include:
Strengthening energy efficiency and energy security. Ukraine is a major net importer
of oil and gas, and an important transit country. At the same time, its economy remains
one of the most energy-intensive and inefficient in the region. The energy sector has
suffered from years of serving primarily quasi-fiscal or political, rather than
commercial, objectives. Ukraine’s accession to the Energy Community with the EU and
the decision to raise domestic gas prices to import parity over time is expected to
strengthen the gas and electricity sectors, create conditions for greater energy efficiency
and conservation and support Ukraine’s ambition to remain an energy transit country.
Improving governance and transparency in the sector, as well as commercialisation and
unbundling of NAK Naftogaz, will be needed to strengthen its ability to raise additional
finance to modernise the gas transit system and develop its natural resource base.
Providing good quality and reliable infrastructure. Recent years witnessed some
improvement of the transport and municipal infrastructure, which suffered during
Ukraine’s prolonged transition recession. As the state’s ability to allocate significant
investment resources to this sector will be limited after the crisis, it will be important to
engage the private sector in the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and seaports,
and encourage competition in the rail and aviation sectors. Although the municipal
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utilities are decentralised, they have suffered from the politicisation of tariff setting,
governance problems and from restrictions in their ability to finance commercially
viable projects.
Dealing with the legacy of the crisis in the financial sector. Ukraine’s highly
dollarised financial sector continues to suffer from post-crisis de-leveraging, reliance on
short-term funding as well as the long-standing governance problems. The role of the
state in the sector has increased during the crisis as state owned institutions received
significant capital injections and several banks were nationalised. State ownership may
reduce the sector’s long-term efficiency and, ultimately, hamper economic growth
potential. The international banks supported their Ukrainian subsidiaries during the
crisis, however, their future in Ukraine will depend to a large extent on whether the
authorities adopt supervisory methods in line with international best practices, establish
effective coordination with home supervisors and fair competition. The non-banking
sector is in the nascent stages of development and local currency capital markets remain
largely underdeveloped.
During the post-crisis economic recovery the Bank will focus on addressing the key transition
challenges in line with the government’s reform programme, in close coordination with other
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and bilateral donors:
Energy. The Bank will support safety upgrades in the nuclear sector, electricity
transmission networks, operations that would integrate Ukraine into the European
energy market and operations that will increase the overall energy efficiency and
decrease the carbon intensity of the sector. The Bank will also support the
modernisation of Ukraine’s gas transportation and distribution system, provided the
authorities pursue a comprehensive and credible reform agenda, including restructuring
of NAK Naftogaz.
Enterprises. The Bank will support FDI and local enterprises to help diversify the
economy and restructure old energy-intensive industries with a focus on improving
their governance, transparency and energy efficiency. In recognition of Ukraine’s great
potential as an agricultural producer, the Bank will support investments along the whole
value chain and especially the instruments that support primary producers, including
seasonal working capital. The Bank will assist Ukraine in the development of its
knowledge intensive industries and its better use of its human and scientific potential,
as well as support the government’s privatisation programme of remaining state
enterprises.
Infrastructure. In the road sector, the Bank will support the completion of the
modernisation of the main transport corridor connecting the country to the European
Union. The railway sector, which suffered from the emergence of major bottlenecks
before the crisis-related recession, can be supported only after the authorities make
credible steps to corporatise the national rail operator and permit entry of private
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operators. The Bank will also support commercialisation of municipal utilities through
projects with large demonstration effects or energy efficiency gains.
Financial Sector and Capital Markets. Main priorities will include providing the
banking sector with targeted long-term loan and equity funding together with technical
assistance to help support activities that will help to limit the sector’s future instability,
including strengthening governance, diversifying long-term funding sources and
supporting local currency lending to the extent possible. The lending instruments would
focus on MSMEs, financing energy efficiency improvements and trade facilitation,
with the use of appropriate technical assistance. In cooperation with other IFIs, the
Bank will help the authorities strengthen the role of private capital in the banking
sector. The Bank will work with other IFIs and the NBU to address remaining issues
preventing the Bank from structuring loans in local currency.
The success of the Bank’s ambitious operational strategy in Ukraine will to a large extent
depend on implementation of reforms in all main sectors. Slow reform progress will inevitably
lead to reduced investment by the Bank, particularly in the public sector. In the coming years,
the Bank will be actively involved in policy dialogue with the authorities together with other
IFIs. The recent experience of coordinating discussions in the gas and financial sectors sets a
good precedent which the Bank will seek to emulate in other sectors.
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1. BANK’S OPERATIONS TO DATE AND CURRENT PORTFOLIO
Ukraine is the Bank’s second largest country of operations. From 1992 to the end of 2010, the
Bank signed over 280 projects in Ukraine accounting for a net cumulative business volume of
over EUR 5.9 billion.
Drawn
Sector Undrawn Commitments Total
Commitments (Operating Assets) Portfolio
Energy Private 24 79 102
State 328 45 372
Financial Institutions Private 106 997 1,103
State 0 0 0
Corporate Private 210 841 1,050
State 8 5 13
Infrastructure Private 54 30 84
State 628 313 941
Equity Funds Private 69 80 149
State 0 0 0
Total Private 462 2,025 2,488
State 963 363 1,326
Grand Total 1,426 2,388 3,813
The current private / public debt ratio (as a percentage of the total portfolio) is approximately
65 / 35 which is in line with the Bank’s 60 / 40 mandated ratio.
The Bank’s strategy approved in September 2007 set the following priorities:
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Improve the efficiency and reliability of key infrastructure, power generation, transmission
and distribution, municipal infrastructure and of the oil and gas transport systems; but also
improve the nuclear safety standards, as well as prepare for decommissioning of Chernobyl
NPP and the creation of a New Safe Confinement (NSC) for its Unit 4.
The Bank was well under way to delivering on its strategy up until the last quarter of 2008,
meeting transition targets and having substantially increased investments with high energy
efficiency impact. The energy efficiency component in the Bank’s transactions more than
doubled from EUR 163 million in 2007 to EUR 348 million in 2008. However, the onset of the
financial crisis prevented further significant investment and the investment in energy efficiency
reduced to EUR 139 million in 2009.
In May 2008, the Bank successfully held its annual meeting in Kyiv that raised the profile of
Ukraine, but also the awareness of EBRD activities in both political circles and in the business
community, and the importance of the Bank’s engagement in the reform process in Ukraine.
At the end of 2008, Ukraine experienced the unprecedented impact of the global financial
crisis. The enterprise sector was severely affected through the devaluation of the Hryvnia,
cessation of bank funding, significant reduction in FDI, and liquidity constraints imposed by
the Government’s inability to refund VAT in a timely manner.
In response to the crisis, the Bank quickly adjusted its focus to provide an extensive country
specific crisis response programme that focused on the banking sector that had expanded
rapidly in 2007-2008, but suffered badly from the combined effect of weak internal governance
and controls, large scale foreign currency lending to un-hedged borrowers as well as a poor
institutional and regulatory environment. In coordination with strategic investors and
regulators, the Bank invested over EUR 1 billion in the financial sector in 2008-2009,
including over EUR 600 million to support the capital base of banks. The extent and speed at
which the Bank engaged in a difficult period, was considered a significant success that helped
to save the Ukrainian banking sector from a systemic crisis, complementing support from other
IFIs.
In the area of domestic capital market development and associated long-term credit lines
provided to banks, the EBRD has achieved limited success, due to the lack of a macro
prudential focus on the importance of limiting dollarisation and stimulating domestic savings.
Moreover, the Bank, along with other IFIs, has long been attempting to secure the necessary
regulatory permissions (including those from the NBU) to raise, manage and lend local
currency. To date, regretfully, this has not been achieved.
The Bank met its strategic goals related to improving nuclear safety at operating nuclear power
plants (NPPs) and to facilitate the donor funded activities necessary to convert Chernobyl into
a safe state - including the creation of a NSC for Unit 4 which was destroyed in the 1986
accident. In February 2009 the Bank made its largest ever grant to a single project (EUR 135
million). Design for the Chernobyl spent fuel storage facility (ISF-2) was completed in the
summer of 2010. The Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP), financed from the Chernobyl Shelter
Fund (CSF) in order to develop and implement a technical solution to transform the shelter
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around the destroyed Unit 4 into a safe state, made important progress. The NSC construction
site and its infrastructure are largely completed. Most of the other donor funded Chernobyl
projects, including the crucially important stabilisation of the shelter finalised in 2008, have
either been completed or are nearing completion. The K2R4 project, safety upgrade of
Khmelnitsky 2 and Rovno 4 nuclear power units to internationally accepted standards, was
completed in 2010. The K2R4 projects set a new benchmark for nuclear safety and successful
project implementation in Ukraine.
During the strategy period, the Bank significantly increased investment in Ukraine, from EUR
650 million in 2007 to approximately EUR 1 billion in both 2009 and 2010, investing about
EUR 3.2 billion during the strategy period of September 2007 to end-2010. The Bank
supported Ukraine’s financial sector with over EUR 1.3 billion of investment, providing
further EUR 900 million to the enterprise sector; nearly EUR 1 billion to address necessary
modernisation and reliability of the key energy, transport and municipal infrastructure.
However, one disappointing aspect has been the low level of disbursement of committed
funding to the municipal sector, due to the difficulties associated with the approval and
issuance of the municipal guarantees.
The Bank’s portfolio grew from less than EUR 2 billion from the end of 2007 to over EUR 3.8
billion by the end of 2010. More importantly, the portion of equity and quasi-equity
investments in the Bank’s portfolio increased four-fold, from EUR 242 million to over EUR 1
billion, increasing from 12 per cent to 28 per cent of the total EBRD portfolio in Ukraine and
clearly demonstrates the Bank’s capacity to take higher risks during the crisis.
Table 2 below highlights the growth of the Bank’s annual investment in Ukraine between 2007
and 2010. This performance should be viewed in the context of the financial crisis, the lack of
meaningful reforms and the ongoing political and economic instability – all of which badly
affected the Ukrainian economy and negatively impacted the confidence and growth
aspirations of both domestic and international investors.
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Active Pipeline Stock 1,670 1,598 2,205 1,998
Private Sector Share (% 66% 67% 70% 65%
Portfolio)
Non Sovereign (% 69% 72% 76% 72%
Portfolio)
EBRD’s portfolio in Ukraine has not been immune to the effects of the financial crisis. No
sector has been spared and a significant number of the Bank’s clients have experienced
financial stress and many have had to implement measures to adjust their business plans and to
reduce their debt burden. That said, the level of non-performing loans in the Bank’s portfolio
remains small and is concentrated within a small number of clients. This performance is a
testimony to the Bank’s strong focus on client selection, the high level of due diligence
undertaken, and the application of appropriate financing structures. It is also a result of a
significant crisis response activity and the high quality of portfolio management. Significant
challenges however remain as commercial bank lending remains scarce and de-leveraging
continues.
Following the formation of the new government in March 2010, the focus has been on assisting
the new authorities to deliver crucial reforms in infrastructure and energy in close cooperation
with other IFIs. Within a short period of time, the Bank managed to agree key criteria with the
authorities for further reforms in the power sector, some sub-sectors in transport (road and fuel
taxes), and in gas, the latter having been conducted in close cooperation with the EU and other
IFIs.
In April 2010, the Bank consolidated its locally based resources in a larger, new office in Kyiv,
closing a small regional office in Dnipropetrovsk that had been in operation for 3 years. The
impetus behind this decision was to focus the Bank’s efforts where there was already a critical
mass and thereby optimising costs and better serving the needs of Ukraine.
Since September 2007, 5 per cent of the Bank’s projects in Ukraine were ex-ante rated
“Excellent” and 87 per cent were rated “Good”. This is above the institution-wide target of 80
per cent of projects to be rated “Good” or “Excellent.” Only 5 projects were rated
“Satisfactory,” most of them during the pre-crisis period. As the crisis hit the region and the
Bank’s additionality increased, so did the transition impact potential of new projects.
Transition impact potential of the portfolio deteriorated slightly during the crisis, especially for
older projects, but this trend has balanced out recently with downgrades and upgrades
remaining at par.
As Figure 1 indicates, key transition objectives across projects have been the building up of
markets; restructuring; improving corporate governance and competition, as well as promoting
skills dispersion.
1
See Annex 5 for key lessons learned from previous strategy period
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Figure 1: Percentage of projects pursuing given transition objectives, 2005 - 2010
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Compet it ion Market Ownership Framework Skills Demo. Demo. Demo. Corporat e
Expansion for market s Dispersion P roduct s Rest uct uring Financing St andards
During the crisis period of 2008-2009, the Bank’s policy dialogue in Ukraine focused on the
stabilisation of the financial sector. The Bank engaged in policy dialogue with the NBU and
other partner IFIs on the regulatory response to the financial crisis and co-organized round
table discussions with the authorities, representatives of the leading foreign banks represented
in Ukraine and IFIs with a view to ensuring continued commitment of the bank groups to their
Ukrainian subsidiaries. The Bank also offered technical assistance to a large group of medium
sized banks to ensure they would comply with the requirement to undertake their balance sheet
diagnostics.
More recently, the Bank’s main policy dialogue has involved discussions of (i) the authorities’
plans to modernise the gas sector and restructure Naftogaz (in coordination with the EC and
other IFIs); (ii) food security, including improved implementation of the warehouse receipts
system, including best practices cereal balance forecasts; improved EU-Ukraine grain trade and
sustainable grain production methods; (iii) policies to improve management of the road
network and increase fuel taxation in line with the international practices; (iv) best practices on
fiscal decentralization and debt management by the local authorities with the view to enabling
commercially oriented municipal projects; (v) policies needed to develop capital markets,
reduce dollarisation and other issues related to the Bank’s potential hryvnia lending operations;
(vi) challenges in the area of public sector governance facing Ukraine’s corporate and financial
sectors.
The enactment of the new Law on public procurement in line with best international standards
and EU directives, as well as the development and enactment of the new Gas Law will
establish the legal basis for regulatory harmonization with the EU and Ukraine’s participation
in the Energy Community Treaty. The measures requested by the EC and IFIs as pre-
conditions for engagement in the sector include, among others, tariff increases to cost-recovery
level (with protections for the poor), elimination of cross-subsidies and false price signals with
respect to energy efficiency investment, improved metering and collection rates and the
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elaboration of a plan to restructure and legally un-bundle Naftogaz. The Bank is also
coordinating a feasibility study for the modernisation of Ukraine's gas transit corridors and
underground gas storage facilities which is funded by EU NIF. One of the key objectives of
this study is to make an assessment of the risks associated with Ukraine's role as a gas transit
country and to recommend an appropriate investment plan to enable Ukraine meet its likely
obligations.
2. OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
The political environment in Ukraine has been marked in recent years by an absence of policy
consensus and sharp disagreements among the presidency, government and opposition.
Ukraine had two parliamentary elections and three governments over the past four years, which
resulted in a significant slowdown of political and economic reforms. Political uncertainties
were exacerbated by unclear and overlapping constitutional authority between the executive
and legislative branches. Nevertheless, throughout this period the democratic achievements of
the Orange Revolution – genuine if unruly political competition, a pluralistic media landscape
and free and fair elections that resulted in a change of political leadership – were preserved.
This period of uncertainty came to an end with the presidential election in February 2010 and
the subsequent formation of a pro-presidential government. The new Government is committed
to responsible policymaking and the implementation of the vital reforms that were postponed
during the preceding Strategy period. This is most evident in the Government’s commitment to
fiscal responsibility and structural reforms as enshrined in the IMF programme that was agreed
in July 2010.
However, concerns have arisen with regard to the protection of the democratic process in
Ukraine. This is particularly true in the areas of media independence and freedom, which have
come under pressure in recent months, as well as the proposed reversal of constitutional
reforms undertaken in 2004, which were intended to strengthen checks and balances within the
political system. Preserving Ukraine’s democratic institutions while strengthening the rule of
law and ensuring responsible public policymaking will be essential to ensuring Ukraine’s
successful transition and facilitating the country’s integration with European and global
markets.
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2.1.2 Business Environment
Despite recent improvements, Ukraine continues to face significant institutional and structural
reform challenges. The country continues to rank low among its international peers in global
surveys of business environment, corporate governance and efficiency. Significant hurdles
remain in the areas of competition policy, setting up new businesses and bankruptcy
procedures. Businesses face difficulties when accessing land, which remains largely non-
tradable. Ukraine’s future macroeconomic stability depends to a large extent on the authorities’
ability to implement fiscal consolidation, following the rapid increase in public debt during the
crisis.
Improving the business environment and reducing corruption are key structural reform
priorities which are likely to have a direct impact on the inward flow of foreign investment.
Objectives in the institutional area include the establishment of fair conflict resolution
procedures (including political checks and balances, honest courts and public administration),
the resolution of long-standing uncertainty about land ownership and use rights, and the
avoidance of policies that could be perceived as unfair by investors. This should help create
conditions for diversifying export sectors away from energy intensive and low value added
steel and chemicals.
Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe with rich natural resources, including
important energy sources such as coal and large mineral deposits. Around 17 per cent of its
territory is covered by forests and about half of the country is covered with exceptionally fertile
chernozem (“black earth”) soil. Most of the country is upland plain, with the Carpathian
Mountains in its western part and a lowland area of wooded bogs and marshlands in the north.
Two rivers of high regional importance, the Dnipro (Dnepr) and the delta of the Danube, are
located in Ukraine.
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The Ukrainian government recognises the importance of addressing current environmental
problems and over time has developed the legal and regulatory framework for this purpose. A
number of environmental protection policies, programmes and concepts were prepared, setting
out strategic directions of sustainable development implementation at a national level.
However, it is critical for Ukraine to ensure that sufficient political will, financial resources
and adequate mechanisms for effective implementation of these commitments into practice, are
made available.
Over the period of the last strategy there has been some relevant new legislation in the
commercial sector; most notably the new Joint Stock Company Law entered into force in 2009.
In addition, certain areas of activity for corporates and individual entrepreneurs have been de-
regulated such that licences are no longer required. However, there remain important gaps and
inconsistencies in the commercial law sector. In particular, whilst the new Joint Stock
Company Law (the "Law") has generally been positive, protection of minority shareholders
remains a problem and many changes such as provisions on the issue of convertible shares
have been left to be regulated through adoption of regulations pursuant to the new Law and
such regulations have not yet been adopted. Partly as a result of the financial crisis and the
conditions imposed on further IMF funding, Insolvency and Tax law reform have been
identified by the government as a priority reform for the next strategy period. There has been
limited progress in reforming the judiciary and related institutions which remain ill-equipped to
meet investors’ expectations when compared with other EBRD countries of operations. This
was exemplified during the last strategy period when a Supreme Court resolution stated that
shareholders' agreements relating to a Ukrainian company must not be governed by foreign law
and Ukrainian courts must have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any related disputes. As a
result, foreign investment in Ukraine has largely been made in off-shore holding companies
where shareholder rights can more clearly be enforced by other courts and arbitral tribunals
under foreign law. For a detailed review of Ukrainian commercial legislation see Annex 3.
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central bank interventions and exchange control measures. The public sector balance sheet
deteriorated rapidly as the authorities increased spending to cushion the impact of the crisis. In
2009, Overall deficit of the general government, including recapitalisation of nationalised and
state-owned banks and national gas monopoly, reached 11.3 per cent of GDP in 2009 and
around 10 percent of GDP in 2010.
The economic situation has improved more recently. In the fourth quarter of 2010, industrial
output and real GDP are estimated to have increased by 10.7 per cent and 4.1 per cent (year-
on-year), respectively. Investor confidence improved following the February 2010 Presidential
elections and especially after the authorities reached agreement with the IMF on a new
medium-term arrangement in July 2010. Yields on public sector debt declined, the stock
market has boomed and the central bank has been able to replenish foreign exchange reserves.
However, competitiveness gains from the 2008 devaluation have proven short-lived as the
annual rate of inflation has remained high in 2010.
The process of recovery is expected to be slow. GDP is estimated to have grown by about 4.5
per cent in 2010, largely due to base affects of the post-crisis rebound achieved in the second
half of 2009, as well as recent stabilisation of the market sentiment. The recent strengthening
of the independence and accountability of the NBU and the setting of price stability as its
primary objective, once credibly implemented, should help bring down inflation over time.
However, downside risks remain considerable and partly reflect the authorities’ ability to
deliver on commitments under the IMF-supported programme. Domestic consumption and
investment are expected to remain weak as households adjust to lower real incomes and
corporations improve their balance sheets. Public debt is increasing rapidly, access to capital
markets remains difficult and the government needs to focus on improving the country’s image
to potential investors.
Cost of capital for Ukraine has increased during the crisis and is expected to remain above the
pre-crisis level over the medium term as emerging market risks continue to be differentiated in
line with their fundamentals. During the crisis emerging market countries with weak
institutions, pegged exchange rates, large current account deficits, including Ukraine, suffered
from greater loss of confidence than better run transition economies. As the banking sector
continues to de-leverage and the government attracts a greater share of local currency savings
to cover the fiscal needs, the private sector continues to suffer from limited access to finance.
Households and MSMEs remain largely cut off from credit. Although the equity market has
recovered much of the losses, the ability of enterprises to attract equity finance through the
stock market remains limited. The corporate bond market is nascent, although the Eurobond
market has begun to recover recently. FDI declined during the crisis and remains low.
Developing a well functioning local capital market and encouraging local currency lending will
be crucial to Ukraine’s economic recovery and future prosperity.
Ukraine continues to face significant institutional and structural reform challenges across the
board. Despite recent improvements, Ukraine ranks low among its international peers in global
17
surveys of business environment, corporate governance and efficiency. Significant hurdles
remain in the areas of competition policy, setting up new businesses and bankruptcy
procedures. Businesses face difficulties when accessing land, which remains largely non-
tradable. Ukraine’s future macroeconomic stability depends to a large extent on the authorities’
ability to implement fiscal consolidation, following the rapid increase in public debt during the
crisis.
Improving the business environment and reducing corruption are key structural reform
priorities. Objectives in the institutional area include establishment of fair conflict resolution
procedures (including political checks and balances, honest courts and public administration),
the resolution of long-standing uncertainty about land ownership and use rights, and the
avoidance of policies that could be perceived as unfair by investors. This should help create
conditions for diversifying export sectors away from energy intensive and low value added
steel and chemicals.
Ukraine continues to face important reform challenges in all main sectors (summarised in
Annex I). Reform progress will directly affect the risk perception and country risk ratings of
Ukraine, and therefore investment.
Key challenges with operational implications for the EBRD over the medium term will
include:
Ukraine is a major net importer of oil and gas and an important transit country. At the same
time, its economy remains one of the most energy-intensive and inefficient in the region. The
energy sector has suffered from years of serving primarily quasi-fiscal or political, rather than
commercial, objectives. Ukraine’s accession to the Energy Community with the EU creates
conditions for the energy sector reform, greater energy efficiency and conservation and support
Ukraine’s ambition to remain an energy transit country.
The key challenge in the natural resources area is the modernization of the gas sector.
Following on the recent steps required to integrate Ukraine in the European Energy
Community and the decision to raise domestic gas prices to import parity levels, the state-
owned energy company, Naftogaz, should be corporatised, unbundled and be made more
transparent to strengthen its financial viability and help raise additional finance to modernize
the gas transit system. The regulatory framework has to be improved to mitigate the impact of
the still monopolised market structure. The state run coal sector remains inefficient, with many
mines financially unviable. Challenges to private investment into oil and gas extraction include
price regulations as well as administrative obstacles.
Although the power sector is unbundled and partly privatised, reforms are far from complete.
The wholesale market is not yet operational. Competition in retail and generation is
constrained by the dominance of state-owned incumbents. Until recently, the regulator has
been politicised although the authorities are attempting to provide it with more independence.
18
Transmission tariffs, although close to recovery levels, do not encourage efficiency
improvements and network extension. Ukrenergo is not yet corporatised.
Ukraine carries great potential across the whole agribusiness sector and is capable of helping
to address global food security challenges over time. Specific challenges in the sector include
raising farming efficiency and yields, improving farmers’ access to financing, developing
storage, transport and distribution infrastructure, modernising food processing and agricultural
processing especially in industries with strong linkages to other sub-sectors, across the whole
economic value-added chain, and supporting the development of local companies with high
potential, which have been among those the hardest hit by the crisis. Uncertainty about the
future of the land ownership limits investment and yields in the sector as large swathes of
agricultural land remain under- and un-utilised. Recent government intervention and the
imposition of grain export restrictions are having a negative effect on grain producers.
The manufacturing sector is expected to benefit from Ukraine’s recent accession to the WTO
and the deep and comprehensive trade area under negotiations with the EU. However, the
sector has suffered during the crisis from the collapse of commodity prices during the crisis
(especially steel in late 2008), gas price increases, un-hedged foreign currency borrowing after
the devaluation and reliance on short-term whole sale borrowing to finance long-term
investment projects. The Governments failure to meet the VAT obligations in 2008-10 in a
timely manner had a major negative impact on many export oriented enterprises. Close links
between business and politics, weak corporate governance and transparency, and poor
enforcement of competition hamper industrial development and inward investments. High
value added, export-oriented companies are yet to emerge on a significant scale.
Recent years witnessed some improvement of the transport and municipal infrastructure in
Ukraine, which suffered during Ukraine’s prolonged transition recession.
In the transportation sector, reforms progressed in the road sector but are significantly
delayed in railway and ports. As the state’s ability to allocate significant investment resources
to this sector will be limited after the crisis, it will be important to engage the private sector in
the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and seaports through competitive Public-Private
Partnerships (PPPs), output based contracting and expanding best practices to the regional
road, which continue to suffer from neglect. The railway sector continues to be operated by an
integrated state-owned national railway company, which makes it difficult to mobilize
transparent financing and encourage efficiency through competition. Seaports are also under
state ownership, although, the number of privately owned terminals is increasing. After
permitting the entry of low cost carriers in 2008, progress in liberalization of the aviation
market has stalled.
Although municipal services are decentralised, they continue to suffer from politicization of
tariff setting and utilities governance at the local government level and central government
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restrictions on municipal guarantees. The utility setting is expected to be less politicised as new
independent regulator of municipal tariffs (district heating and water) becomes fully
operational. Poor cost performance, including wasteful energy use remain key challenges in the
municipal utilities sector, and needs to be addressed with bold cost restructuring and focus on
commercially and economically viable projects.
After expanding rapidly during the pre-crisis years, the banking sector suffered badly during
the crisis from the combined effect of weak governance, large scale foreign currency lending to
un-hedged borrowers as well as poor institutional environment. The government nationalised
three medium sized banks and expanded balance sheets of two large state owned banks. The
sector remains fragmented and, thus, difficult to supervise. Lending to SMEs suffered in the
credit crunch, and mortgage lending seized. The challenge for the sector is to re-start lending to
the real sector without returning to the pre-crisis vulnerabilities. This will depend to a large
extent on the authorities’ ability to establish supportive macroeconomic and regulatory policy
frameworks and stimulate development of the local currency capital market. Several IFIs could
be instrumental in this area by expanding the range and maturity of the hryvnia products
available in the market.
The non-bank financial sector and financial sector infrastructure remain underdeveloped.
Market for insurance, leasing and asset management products remains small. The pension
system — still dependent on very large and unsustainable pay-as-you-go pillar — is yet to
undergo a structural reform. The leasing market also remains small.
The overarching strategic directions of the Bank reflect the assessment of remaining transition
challenges, and are in line with the government’s reform programme. The strategic priorities
include the improvement of energy efficiency across all sectors; integration into the European
energy market and strengthening energy security; promotion of competition and economic
diversification as Ukraine moves towards deeper integration into global production and supply
chains; support for unlocking Ukraine’s enormous potential in food and agribusiness and thus
helping food security in Ukraine as well as the region and globally; modernisation of Ukraine’s
outdated infrastructure, especially upgrading transport corridors and commercialisation of
municipal utilities; and stabilising the financial sector and facilitating local currency and local
capital markets development. The Bank will focus on addressing the key transition in close
coordination with other IFIs and bilateral donors.
The Bank’s key cross-sector priorities and principles in the strategy period will be:
The size, pace and conditionality of the Bank investment will be appropriately
prioritised to the level of macroeconomic and financial risks in Ukraine.
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Champion transparency, private ownership, best business practices and good corporate
governance, including through increased equity participations.
Although a primary focus will be on development of the private sector, the Bank would
support key projects in energy and infrastructure under sovereign guarantees,
conditional upon reforms. This could lead to public sector financing having a more
prominent role than in the past when the authorities’ ability to deliver reforms in a
coordinated manner was constrained. Such financing will respect conservative fiscal
policy that the government is committed to and has agreed with the IMF.
Special focus on investments in energy efficiency, carbon emission reduction and
environmental improvements. Promotion of carbon finance instruments.
Facilitate broader demonstration effect of increased investment and improved corporate
governance through a carefully selected large domestic business groups which meet the
Bank’s integrity guidelines.
Continue to build country based resources located in Kyiv and include legal and
economic advisors to enhance policy dialogue and assist in linking broader reform
goals with Bank investment under the integrated approach that combines the
development of a mid-term project pipeline with a targeted and longer-term strategy for
policy dialogue and technical support to the reform agenda.
Through a more active and focused policy dialogue, the Bank will seek to develop
closer links with key government officials such that the Bank can become more
effective in delivering support.
While the Bank’s overarching strategic focus will remain on private sector development, where
a key focus will be to assist Ukraine in the development of its knowledge intensive industries
and its better use of its human and scientific potential. The Bank will also seek to increase its
operational activities with the public sector to support much needed infrastructure development
and to enhance its policy leverage with the new government, which has demonstrated
willingness and capacity to undertake meaningful structural reforms.
The Bank will underpin its operational objectives by ongoing policy dialogue on a wide range
of issues, with the view to supporting the authorities’ economic reform programme, and in
consultation with other IFIs and bilateral donors. Priority policy dialogue areas include:
Continue to promote rule of law and fair treatment of all investors, a tax regime
conducive to business with efficient and timely VAT refunds, and a legal and
regulatory system that respects property rights and security agreements.
Promote energy efficiency policies, including in the context of the Eastern Europe
Energy Efficiency and Environmental Partnership (E5P) initiative of the EU, and
revalidate with the new government the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) signed
with Ukraine in 2009. Support the development of legal and regulatory frameworks
supporting clean energy and energy efficiency investments.
Develop a positive cooperation with the NBU, defining roles for each NBU and EBRD
in developing local capital markets, including in addressing and resolving outstanding
issues which preclude IFIs from financing in local currency and managing local
currency accounts.
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The success of the Bank's ambitious operational strategy in Ukraine is subject to a number of
risk factors. First, external economic risks remain high given the fragile recovery in Europe
and still volatile financial markets and commodity price movements. Second, rising NPLs
could undermine the domestic recovery, particularly if combined with a failure to improve the
weak business environment and perceptions of endemic corruption. Third, the political
commitment to reform could be undermined in response to "reform fatigue" and political
pressures, e.g., in connection with the parliamentary elections scheduled for autumn 2012.
These risks could reduce domestic investor and consumer confidence, particularly if they were
to negatively affect IMF programme implementation, and thereby reduce the prospects for
normalizing access to international capital markets and attracting the much-needed FDI. Slow
reforms, combined with high economic instability and low investor confidence, would
inevitably lead to reduced investment by the Bank, particularly in the public sector.
The sector challenges and objectives outlined below are presented in a priority order for each
sector.
3.2.1 Energy
Energy security is a major policy issue in Ukraine, and its dependency on external supplies is
exacerbated by the low efficiency of energy use. Improving energy efficiency is therefore a key
priority for the country. The Bank will support diversification of the sources of energy,
improving energy security and energy efficiency. This will include safety upgrades in the
nuclear sector, electricity transmission networks, and operations that would integrate Ukraine
into the European energy market. The Bank would also support the modernisation of Ukraine’s
gas transportation and distribution system, provided the authorities pursue a comprehensive
and credible reform agenda, including restructuring of NAK Naftogaz. Safety for the NPPs,
which produce almost 50 per cent of electricity in Ukraine, is also of high priority.
Policy dialogue will focus on promoting privatisations of non-strategic state enterprises as well
as corporatisation and further commercialisation of the key remaining state enterprises (NAK
Naftogaz, Ukrenergo, etc). In the electricity sector, the Bank would promote reform of the
wholesale electricity market leading to the replacement of the single buyer market with a
bilateral contracting market, tariff reform moving towards full cost recovery, strengthening the
independence of the sector regulator NERC, and the corporatisation of Ukrenergo. In the gas
sector, working with the other IFI’s and the EU to enact critical structural reforms and
improved transparency, governance and restructuring of the state-owned energy company
Naftogaz.
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longer term strategy for policy dialogue and technical support for the market reform
agenda in the transmission and generation sectors.
Modernisation of the transmission network, including its integration with the
neighboring markets and providing electricity to energy-deficient regions of Ukraine.
Development of renewable energy generation capacities, including under the Ukraine
Sustainable Energy Lending Facility (USELF) and for rehabilitation of existing hydro
power plants.
Support to gradual de-carbonisation of energy generation through the rehabilitation of
existing power generating assets, including improvement in efficiency and
environmental performance of thermal generation.
Where appropriate, participating in privatisations leading to introduction of reputable
strategic investors and increased competition.
Support of modernisation of the gas transit system along with other IFIs in connection
with the sector reform and corporatisation and un-bundling of the state owned NAK
Naftogaz, and the possible provision of energy efficiency finance.
Support to greater local sourcing of oil and gas, reducing dependency on imports –
where possible with the implementation of enhanced oil/gas recovery combined with
CO2 sequestration.
Further support of the private sector – both upstream and downstream activities –
including by improving refining quality and reducing the environmental impact.
Support of mining projects leading to greater transparency, improvement of health and
safety standards or energy efficiency. The Bank will consider developing an integrated
approach in the area of mine safety, including policy dialogue in this area, once the
authorities focus on this subject following effective creation of the new Ministry of
Energy and Coal.
In nuclear safety
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be finalised and receive regulatory approvals in 2011. When completed in 2014 and slid
into place it will enclose the radioactive inventory of the site and allow for safe
deconstruction and waste management activities over a period of 100 years.
Helping address the challenge of filling a large funding gap which needs to be bridged
in order to complete the projects. G8/EU and Ukraine, with the support of the EBRD,
are working together to raise the required EUR740 million with a view of holding a
pledging event in April 2011 to coincide with a high level international conference to
commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Successful
implementation of these uniquely complex projects will require professional excellence
by the contractors and the Chernobyl NPP with its Project Management Units. It will
also require dedication and close co-operation of the Ukrainian administrative and
regulatory authorities. The Bank, together with its Ukrainian counterparts, will continue
to play a major role in ensuring an environment conducive to making good progress
and completing the projects as scheduled in 2014.
Assuring ongoing high-level policy dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities for their
commitment to implementation of projects operating under the EBRD’s CSF and
Nuclear Safety Account, smooth regulatory review processes, effective action to
support nuclear liability frameworks, and provision of dependable state budget support.
Recognise that both funds need further significant contributions from donors.
A key objective for the Bank will be to promote recovery and modernisation of the corporate
sector and enhancing its export capacity. The Bank will support FDI and cross-border
transactions, in particular linked to the introduction of new technologies or increased
competition. Investments will be focused on helping to diversify the economy and restructure
old energy-intensive industries with a focus on improving their governance, transparency and
energy efficiency. The Bank will support the government’s privatisation programme of
remaining state enterprises. In recognition of Ukraine’s great potential as an agricultural
producer and exporter that can contribute to addressing global food security issue, Bank will
support investments along the whole food value chain and especially those instruments that
support primary producers, including seasonal working capital. Where appropriate, the Bank
will support corporate restructurings and utilise its unique position to achieve consensus based
solutions amongst lenders to troubled companies. The Bank will also promote investment by
private sector, including non-financial assistance provided through the TurnAround
Management (TAM) and Business Advisory Services (BAS) programmes and technical
cooperation (TC) assignments such as the Ukraine Micro Lending Programme. Policy dialogue
will focus on creating an improved investment climate and promoting legal reform covering
areas such as insolvency, the promotion of greater security of land ownership and usage rights.
In agribusiness
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Increasing efforts in financing investments linked to energy efficiency, emission
reduction, environmental improvements, in particular through utilisation of new
initiatives such as the proposed Agribusiness Sustainable Investment Facility.
Supporting industries with strong upstream and downstream linkages to other sub-
sectors as well as higher value added sectors, such as logistics, food processing and
retail.
Supporting local and international commodity market players by providing working
capital financing (including for pre-harvest financing), indirectly injecting much needed
capital into the farming sector through backward linkages.
Increasing access to financing, including by small farmers, by further developing the
warehouse receipt programme, introducing and developing the new crop receipt
instrument for pre-harvest financing of farmers and other market-based structures for
commodity operations, and promote their utilisation. Work with partners banks to
extend longer-term financing to small and medium agricultural producers.
Facilitating investment into meat production and dairy businesses.
Developing a suitable financial infrastructure to increase investment into agriculture
(including commodity collateralisation instrument, insurance and commodity exchange
improvements), promote greater transparency and predictability of policy interventions
and better global policy coordination, promote best practices in sustainability
management and maximising environmental and social benefits.
Pursuing policy dialogue with a focus on supporting land reform in coordination with
other IFIs as well as providing financing to projects after its successful implementation,
addressing global food security concerns.
Introducing best practices in areas including, but not limited to, technology
improvements, resource-use efficiency, finance/accounting, corporate management and
gender.
Supporting industries that target local consumers, such as pharmaceuticals, household
goods, packaging, construction materials, and retail.
Supporting the entry of new strategic investors.
Adopting a more flexible approach to supporting companies impacted by the financial
crisis and, where appropriate, considering refinancing/restructuring of existing debt to
achieve an appropriate debt structure, including the provision of working capital.
Supporting viable companies in the old energy intensive industries such as steel and
metals for energy efficiency and environmental improvements.
Focusing on projects that support the development and renewal of real estate
infrastructure for the retail sector and logistics, and for the general corporate sector
(offices and industrial parks), as well as hotel developments where sponsors are
cooperating with experienced operators. Priority will be given to the regions outside the
capital, where supply and demand imbalances persist in all the sub-sectors of the
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commercial real estate. Selectively consider projects with high demonstration effects in
the capital city.
Supporting other projects if they contain specific energy efficiency initiatives in line
with the new guidelines on integrating low-carbon transition.
In equity funds
Strengthening of the industry capacity through the support of both first time and
successor funds, which can demonstrate a strong management team with a hands-on
management style and capable of adding value to portfolio companies. Support the
development of local fund managers with experience and knowledge of the market; but
also regional fund managers capable of creating strong local teams.
Using equity funds as an efficient intermediation vehicle to enhance the provision of
equity financing to corporate sector, focusing primarily on small and medium sized
enterprises and “Mittelstand” segment.
Facilitating the development of innovative financing tools through the participation in
funds, which have sector-specific strategy (such as, for example, agribusiness) or offer
specialised products (such as, for example, mezzanine capital).
In a challenging fundraising environment in the region, selectively providing increased
percentage participation for new funds in the first closings.
Continueing the efforts in attracting international and local investors of institutional
quality to the private equity market in the country.
The EBRD will continue promoting economic transition through the BAS and TAM
programmes via advice and mentoring at the enterprise level and the development of a
sustainable infrastructure of business advisory services, as well as seeking to improve
policy and regulatory environment for business through policy dialogue. Financial
support will be available through the Strategy period from the EU Eastern Partnership
facilities.
BAS that was launched in Ukraine in 2010, will focus initially on building awareness of
benefits of consulting for SMEs and training of local consultants. With time BAS will
further support MSMEs efforts in improvement of production quality and market
26
performance, including broadening export opportunities, improvement in business
processes and standards as well as business sophistication and FDI attraction.
TAM will re-start regular operations in Ukraine in an improved format (shorter projects
and more flexible in consultant selection criteria) with a focus on improving
competitiveness, transparency and business standards in mid-sized companies. TAM
will be part of an important randomized impact study to compare results of companies
benefiting from TAM interventions vs. private consultancy and enterprises with no
external advisors serving as the control group.
The Bank will focus on improving the quality of public infrastructure while reducing its impact
on public finances. Although municipal services are decentralised, they continue to suffer from
politicisation of tariff setting and utilities governance at the local government level and central
government restrictions on municipal guarantees. The utility tariff setting is expected to be
depoliticised as a new independent regulator of municipal tariffs (district heating and water)
comes into effect later in 2010. Energy efficiency in the district heating sector is a key
challenge. The newly established E5P has been created to provide grant and TC funding to
address this.
In the road sector, the Bank will support the completion of the modernisation of the main
transport corridor connecting the country to the EU. The Bank will continue to promote
commercialisation of municipal utilities through projects with large demonstration effects or
energy efficiency gains. The railway sector, which continues to be dominated by an integrated
state-owned national railway company and which has suffered from the emergence of major
bottlenecks before the crisis-related recession, can be supported only after the authorities make
credible steps to corporatise the national rail operator and permit entry of private operators.
After permitting the entry of low cost carriers in 2008, progress in liberalisation of the aviation
market is important. It will be necessary to increase dialogue and cooperation with other IFIs
on the reform agenda, and in co-financing larger projects.
27
Supporting fiscal decentralisation and municipal reforms. Amendments to the recently
enacted Budget Code would be needed to facilitate fiscal decentralisation and
municipal reforms, including through sub-sovereign borrowing.
Developing an integrated approach in the area of district heating with policy dialogue
around the regulatory regime.
In the road sector, completing the modernisation of the European corridor, continuing
key sovereign projects, which exhibit strong demonstration effect and conditionality on
sector-wide reforms and, where appropriate, expanding best practices to the regional
road networks, which continue to suffer from neglect.
Exploring viable opportunities for engaging private sector in the rehabilitation and
maintenance of infrastructure through competitive PPPs and output based contracting.
Supporting private sector initiatives in seaports and privately owned terminals.
In the railroad sector, supporting emerging private sector operators in freight and
wagons. In the state sector, any new financing to be conditional on progress in the
corporatisation of the state-owned national railway company.
In aviation, supporting upgrades of air navigation systems, and promoting liberalisation
of the aviation market along the “open skies” policy.
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3.2.4 Financial Sector and Capital Markets
The main priority for the Bank in the short term is to help stabilise the financial sector and
continue to address the need to develop the local capital markets and includes providing the
banking sector with targeted long-term equity and debt funding together with technical
assistance to help support activities that will help to limit the sector’s future instability,
including strengthening governance, diversifying long-term funding sources and supporting the
development of local capital markets. The lending instruments would focus on MSMEs,
financing energy efficiency improvements and trade facilitation, with the use of appropriate
technical assistance. The Bank will work with other IFIs and the NBU to address gradually the
challenge of building up local capital markets under the EBRD’s Local Currency and Capital
Market Initiative and also remove remaining obstacles in the way of IFIs lending in local
currency.
Strengthening the capital base of banks by investing equity and subordinated debt to
help stabilise the banking sector.
Once private banks have stabilised their balance sheets, supporting post-crisis recovery
of financial intermediation through the provision of dedicated long-term credit lines for
energy efficiency and SME/MSME.
Continuing the engagement with commercially-run state banks to ensure some lending
and related institutional strengthening.
Providing trade finance facilities to support recovery of international trade.
Supporting financial institutions in tapping international debt and capital markets
through participation in syndicated loans, securitisations, and other appropriate
instruments, in order to improve the diversity and terms of external long-term funding
sources.
Supporting the emergence of leasing, insurance and pension products.
Once appropriate local currency instruments become available, offer sustainable
mortgage and consumer finance with appropriate risk mitigation and disclosure.
Expand access to sustainable energy finance through the banking and leasing sector.
Considering the issuance of long-term hryvnia bonds once regulatory constraints are
addressed.
Key policy dialogue activities in the financial sector will focus on:
Working with the NBU and the government on policies needed to develop local
currency finance, a key to less volatile growth, helping to mobilise domestic savings,
making Ukraine less dependent on capital imports and reducing currency risks.
Promoting best regulatory and lending practices, reversal by the NBU of some of the
unorthodox, crisis management policies; involving more efficient loan structuring
security sharing and inter-creditor agreements to support more effective long-term
syndicated lending by banks; development of an efficient credit bureau system.
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Supporting policies that will encourage consolidation and improved transparency in the
banking sector, un-winding state participation in the nationalised banks and more
efficient resolution of failed banks.
All the Bank’s projects are subject to the EBRD’s new Environmental and Social (E&S) Policy
that entered into force in 2008. It establishes a set of ten Performance Requirements for clients
to integrate environmental and social considerations in their business operations, and
introduces best practice for management of environmental, occupational health and safety,
labour and other social issues. The Policy and Performance Requirements has been translated
into Ukrainian. All EBRD operations in Ukraine undergo the Bank’s environmental and social
appraisal. Issues raised during due diligence are then addressed in line with the Bank's mandate
to actively support environmentally sound and sustainable development through its
investments.
In the past three years the Bank had a number of projects in the power and energy sector,
mainly construction of transmission lines, hydropower upgrades and development of high
efficiency combined cycle turbines for industrial operators. Due to the nature of land allocation
a number of environmental and social impacts have been associated with electricity
transmission projects, including resettlement and livelihood restoration, deterioration of
ecosystems, and health and safety concerns for workers and people living in vicinity to high
voltage lines. The EBRD will continue to work with its clients, including Ukrenergo, to ensure
application of international best practices in the area of environmental and social impacts
assessment, their mitigation and adequate public engagement and dialogue.
The Bank will support projects helping to shift from fossil fuels power generation to use of
renewable sources to assist Ukraine’s efforts in mitigating climate change and improving
overall security of supply. At the same time the Bank will continue to support existing fossil
fuel operators in improving efficiency and reducing their environmental impact. As part of this
effort the Bank sat up a EUR 50 million USELF in 2010 to provide debt financing for
renewable energy and industrial energy efficiency projects. As part of this Facility, a Strategic
Environmental Review is currently being carried out to identify best possible locations for
renewable projects in Ukraine. Additionally, the E5P was initiated under the Swedish
Presidency of the EU in 2009 with its main focus being on energy efficiency projects in
Ukraine.
In the sector of natural resources, the EBRD takes a consistent approach in applying its E&S
Policy, although impacts differ significantly depending on the project. The Bank encourages
each of its clients to follow international best practice, such as the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative. The Bank will also help its clients to identify environmental offsets
and opportunities for environmental and social investments at the local level. With respect to
mining projects the Bank’s focus is on minimising the land take or footprint, sound practices
for the use, handling and storage of hazardous materials, safe storage of tailings, preventing
adverse impacts to water resources and the early development and funding for reclamation.
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Ukraine has a major ferrous metal industry, producing cast iron, steel, and steel pipes, and
chemical industry produces coke, mineral fertilizers, and sulphuric acid. In recent years the
Bank’s manufacturing industries projects focused on ferrous and non-ferrous metals,
chemicals, plastics, mineral products and pharmaceuticals production. Key issues in this sector
are associated with air emissions, waste and waste water management, nuisances to the public
and environmental liabilities of the final products. EBRD will continue to promote Best
Available Techniques implementation to ensure environmental performance improvements by
its projects, as well as consider potential social impacts of operations and necessary mitigation
measures.
Ukraine is also a major producer of grain, sunflower seeds, and beet sugar, and the Bank’s
agribusiness portfolio and associated trade finance programmes include operations in
processing of these crops, grain warehousing and transportation along with investments in
breweries, dairy and meat processing and food retail. Although EBRD did not engage in direct
financing of primary agriculture in Ukraine, Bank-financed food processing projects have a
positive upstream effect, and there is potential in future for sustainability initiatives related to
supply chain. The Bank will give high importance to prevention of soil degradation, water and
food pollution by fertilisers and pesticides, use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and
to the implementation of climate change adaptation measure in its future investments.
In the property and tourism sector, the Bank was involved in hotel development, retail and
logistics centres which had associated issues of planning permitting and public consultation
processes, and construction nuisances to public that have been addressed through the
environmental and social due diligence and mitigation measures.
In the financial sector, the Bank will continue to provide environmental and social risk
management training and guidance for its new and existing financial clients in the
implementation of the EBRD’s environmental and social requirements. An e-manual has been
developed to assist financial institutions in developing procedures for environmental and social
due diligence in accordance with the EBRD’s new 2008 E&S Policy. Ukreximbank can serve
as a best practice example winning EBRD’s Environmental Awards 2009 by demonstrating
continual improvements in its E&S risk management. The EBRD coordinates its efforts with
other IFIs, UNEP FI and other initiatives to promote sustainable and responsible financing in
the country, and will continue to support Ukrainian intermediaries by providing further
capacity building on E&S issues.
The Bank’s involvement in the transport sector of Ukraine focused in recent years on ports
operations and railways rolling stock renewal, supporting an upgrade of infrastructure and
introduction of new technologies to improve safety and environmental performance of
operations. The Bank’s finance to port infrastructure and shipping companies in Odessa is
helping in the implementation of UN International Maritime Organisation’s environmental and
safety standards on pollution prevention and worker health and safety. Significant number of
urban transport projects was associated with rehabilitation and modernisation of public
transport in such cities as Kyiv, Odessa, and Lviv. The latter will remain one of EBRD’s
priorities due to its sustainability potential and reduction of GHG emissions from congested
traffic of private vehicles in major cities.
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EBRD will continue to support improvements in municipal environmental infrastructure
and services through projects involving district heating, rehabilitation of water, wastewater
and waste management facilities that have associated social and economic benefits through
cost saving energy efficiency measures and better public health. For instance, high energy
efficiency benefits were demonstrated by Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk municipal projects.
One of the most serious Ukrainian environmental challenges is the problem of household waste
disposal and fly-tipping and associated lack of waste segregation and utilisation and land filling
capacity. As per Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, only 6 per cent of rubbish is
recycled in Ukraine compared to 30-40 per cent in Western Europe. There is a high potential
for Bank’s future involvement in this area.
As part of the implementation of the EBRD’s Gender Action Plan, the Bank will continue to
support women’s entrepreneurship through Financial Institutions projects by increasing the
access to finance for women-owned MSMEs and women entrepreneurs and address barriers
that impede access to credit, particularly in rural areas. Also, in the municipal and environmental
infrastructure sector, the Bank will seek, where relevant, to promote equitable distribution of
project benefits amongst men and women and to enhance the role of women as agents of
behavioural change. Gender advisory services to municipal companies will be considered as
appropriate, with a view to mainstreaming gender into human resources and/ or service
provision. In other priority sectors, the Bank will focus on identifying and encouraging clients
to adopt gender balanced approaches in their human resources policies and practices (e.g.
work-life balance, flexible working hours, family friendly initiatives, etc).
The Bank will continue to closely cooperate with other IFIs, the EU and bilateral donors,
building on a much enhanced cooperation since the outbreak of the economic crisis.
Policy dialogue alignment: The EBRD plays a leading role in the policy dialogue with the
government and IFIs in general investment climate issues as well as specific sector
coordination such as banking sector stabilisation during the crisis, gas transit system
modernisation, energy efficiency, and nuclear safety. Together with other IFIs, the Bank
will focus on a coordinated dialogue with Ukrainian authorities on key issues related to
investment climate, transparency and corporate governance; but also specific initiatives
related to food security, energy efficiency and environmental issues as well as the
promotion of local capital markets. Ukraine is identified as one of the focus countries for a
joint IFI effort to develop local capital markets. Specific effort will therefore be made to
32
enhance local currency funding opportunities. The donor coordination with bilateral donors
is well structured and includes monthly meetings. Often, the Bank is also the first point of
call for high level representatives of shareholder countries visiting Ukraine.
Project co-financing: Most large infrastructure and energy projects undertaken by the
Bank during the past strategy period involved co-financing with at least one other IFI (EIB,
World Bank, IFC). This cooperation is expected to continue during the new strategy period.
All new public infrastructure and energy projects are prepared together with the EIB on a
50-50 basis and are expected to benefit from grant co-financing and technical assistance
from the EU Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF). Clean Technology Fund (CTF)
concessional finance is available for renewable energy projects, residential energy
efficiency, and gas transmission network efficiency. There is often a significant synergy
between IFIs in coordination for conditionality of reform components for project
preparation and implementation. Note that IFI loans are not subject to the IMF
concessionality requirement under the IMF programme.
Technical assistance: The Bank is actively using technical assistance from the EU,
bilateral donors and special funds, mainly for project preparation and implementation
(mostly in infrastructure, energy, and energy efficiency). The Bank itself made a significant
EUR 135 million grant contribution for the projects funded from the CSF and Nuclear
Safety Account in 2009. NIF is funding consultants to determine the strategic future of the
Ukrainian gas transit system and a bankable investment plan to achieve necessary
modernisation. The Bank will also continue pursuing donor financed legal and regulatory
TC in key strategic areas, including in gas sector, energy efficiency and others. The EU is
the largest provider of donor assistance to Ukraine. Over the years 2005-2008 it contributed
to 22 per cent of total donor commitments. Some EU Member States, notably Germany,
Sweden, France, the United Kingdom and Austria are also significant contributors, thus
bringing total EU commitments to 40 per cent of total donor commitments. International
donors are working together to create an integrated platform to discuss policy priorities and
better coordinate donor support with government authorities. Work is also under way to
create a Strategic Council for Technical and Financial Cooperation, which would bring
together the governmental and presidential authorities and the development partners at
senior level under the auspices of the Economic Reform Council.
In addition to the specific areas detailed above, the Bank is expecting to work more closely
with the EIB over the next strategy period. The EIB will be located in the Bank’s building in
Kyiv and, as such, a close working relationship is envisaged, particularly on the larger energy,
infrastructure and transport deals.
In May 2009, the EU launched its Eastern Partnership (EaP), offering the opportunity for
deeper relations between the EU and six neighbouring Eastern countries, including Ukraine, as
well as between them. Ukraine has indicated its interest in the comprehensive institution-
building programme and the new flagship initiatives foreseen by EaP. As regards technical and
33
financial cooperation, nearly 400 programmes and projects, currently being implemented under
the TACIS allocations and the ENP Initiative, continue to contribute to progress in the main
strategic areas of the EU-Ukraine Action Plan. The Bank will work with the EU to ensure that
its activities are, as far as possible, complimentary to pilot projects under the EaP Pilot
Regional Development Programme.
In July 2010, the European Parliament and Council adopted a decision on providing macro-
financial assistance (MFA) of up to EUR 500 million to Ukraine. In combination with an
earlier Council decision dating from 2002, a total amount of up to EUR 610 million in MFA is
now available to Ukraine. This long-term lending facility aims to help Ukraine re-establish
macroeconomic stability following the shock of the crisis, foster reforms to raise sustainable
growth and promote economic integration and regulatory convergence with the EU. A
requirement of this EU MFA operation (as for all MFA operations) is that Ukraine's IMF
programme must remain on track.
The EU is currently developing a new National Indicative Programme for Ukraine for 2011-13
to consist of the following priority areas:
Good Governance and the Rule of Law (including reforms in areas of justice, freedom
security; border management; public administration and financial management).
Facilitation of the entry into force of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement
(including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area)
Sustainable Development (Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Transport,
Regional and Rural development).
The Bank is actively using EU funding for various TC programmes. It is also a key supporter
of the E5P initiative where the EU and Sweden are the main donors and the Bank is the leading
coordinator and administrator of the E5P donor fund for grant co-financing and TC support.
34
Annex 1 POLITICAL ASSESSMENT
Ukraine is committed to and applying the principles of multiparty democracy, pluralism and
market economics in accordance with the conditions specified in Article 1 of the Agreement
Establishing the Bank, although application of these principles in the previous Strategy period
was somewhat uneven. Particular areas of concern include poor governance, high-level
corruption, the weak rule of law and lack of judicial independence. A Constitutional Court
decision in September 2010, which ruled that amendments to the Constitution adopted in
December 2004 were unconstitutional, threatens to weaken the strong institutional checks and
balances that have been in place since 2006.
Political Accountability
The Ukrainian Constitution provides for the separation of powers, checks and balances and an
independent judiciary. Constitutional amendments which were adopted in December 2004 and
came into effect in January 2006 significantly strengthened the powers of the legislative branch
and assigned some executive functions to the government. However, those constitutional
amendments also resulted in overlapping, and at times conflicting, constitutional prerogatives
of the presidency and government, which fuelled political infighting and policy paralysis.
Following a request from the new Government of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court in
September 2010 reviewed the 2004 reforms and ruled that they were unconstitutional. This
ruling appears to require a reversion to the 1996 Constitution, which concentrated political
power in the presidency. While the clarification of constitutional prerogatives is a positive step,
and the enabling legislation for the return to the 1996 Constitution is still under consideration
by the authorities – particularly a new Law on the Cabinet of Ministers – further development
of a democratic system of governance would require that the authorities ensure accountability
of the executive branch to the electorate by maintaining an effective system of checks and
balances within the constitutional system.
Ukrainian citizens have the right to change their elected leaders through periodic elections held
at national and municipal levels on the basis of universal suffrage. Ukraine held one
parliamentary election (September 2007), one presidential election (January 2010) and one
local election (October 2010) during the previous Strategy period. Both the 2007 parliamentary
election and the January 2010 presidential elections were judged generally free and fair by
international observers from the OSCE and Council of Europe, as well as by the large and
relatively sophisticated network of domestic election monitors. The campaigns for these
elections were hard-fought; the media broadcast a broad spectrum of political views and
35
opinions; and reported cases of the abuse of administrative resources and ballot-box stuffing
were minimal.
Both the September 2007 parliamentary election and the January-February 2010 presidential
election resulted in an alternation of political power. The 2007 parliamentary election resulted
in a significant increase in parliamentary seats for the then-opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc,
which then went on to form a coalition government with the pro-presidential Our Ukraine-
People’s Self-Defence bloc and the Lytvyn bloc with Tymoshenko in the premiership.
However, the unclear constitutional prerogatives that resulted from the 2004 constitutional
amendments combined with severe political infighting within the ‘Orange’ camp resulted in a
period of prolonged political uncertainty and little progress on implementing an effective
economic or political reform programme. The January-February 2010 presidential election
likewise saw the Ukrainian electorate once again swing to support the opposition, with former
PM and head of the Party of Regions, Viktor Yanukovych, winning a narrow victory over PM
Tymoshenko in the second round run-off.
While national elections in 2007 and 2010 have been judged to meet standards of free and fair
democratic elections, the local elections of October 2010 were marred by a less pluralistic
media environment, reported cases of the abuse of administrative resources during the
campaign period, as well as allegations of ballot-box stuffing in some highly contested
districts. Moreover, a new Local Election Law adopted by the parliament in July 2010
prohibited both party blocs and political parties that had existed for less than one year from
participating.
In this context, the key challenge for the new President and Government is to maintain the
democratic gains of the past five years while strengthening political stability and the
accountability of public policymaking.
The basic legal framework to ensure effective governance and the impartial rule of law in
Ukraine is adequate: the Constitution provides for an independent judiciary and the enabling
legislation for the protection of judicial independence is largely in place. Moreover, President
Yanukovych and the Azarov Government have repeatedly emphasised their commitment to
improving transparency and accountability and ensuring judicial independence.
However, the rule of law in Ukraine is weak, and both high-level and administrative corruption
remain significant challenges. Implementation of the laws and regulations ‘on the books’
remains a key challenge, and both politically and commercially motivated interference with
judicial decision-making remains widespread. Particular concerns relate to the perceived
politicisation of the Constitutional Court, which has recently been asked to provide key rulings
on the 2004 constitutional reforms, the 2010 local elections and the 2012 parliamentary
elections. In September 2010, four of the Constitutional Court’s who were widely seen as
politically independent were replaced by the High Council of Justice with individuals widely
perceived to be loyal to the Party of Regions.
36
President Yanukovych and his Government have repeatedly asserted that addressing the
problem of corruption at all levels of the state is a reform priority. However, there has been
little concrete progress in combating corruption since President Yanukovych and the Party of
Regions-led Government came to power. While a number of high profile anti-corruption
investigations have been launched since early-2010, these have largely targeted members of the
former governing parties, giving rise to allegations by members of the opposition that these
campaigns are politically motivated. Media exposés of high-level misappropriation and
embezzlement, often associated with uncompetitive public tendering procedures, are routinely
ignored or dismissed by the authorities. It is yet to be seen whether administrative reforms
launched in December 2010, which entail a reduction in the number of both line ministries and
cabinet posts, will have a substantive impact on reducing high-level corruption.
Both foreign and domestic investors in Ukraine routinely point to corruption as the most
serious challenge encountered in the business environment, as demonstrated by the 2009
EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS).
Reflecting this perception, Ukraine scores among the most corrupt countries in the transition
region on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, on which it was ranked
134th out of 178 countries globally in 2010, on a par with Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and
Zimbabwe.
The Government of Ukraine generally adheres to its Council of Europe and OSCE
commitments to guarantee the protection of human and civil rights. The Constitution provides
for freedom of speech and press, freedom of assembly, association, and religion, and these
freedoms are generally respected in practice. However, some developments since the
presidential election of 2010 give rise to concern with regard to the protection of civil and
human rights in Ukraine.
The independent media in Ukraine flourished in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution,
becoming diverse, competitive, and highly pluralistic. Television – which remains the key
source of information and news for most Ukrainians – became particularly vibrant, with daily
discussion shows on political and social issues attracting millions of viewers, while both the
ownership patterns and political affiliation of the print media generally represented the broad
spectrum of Ukrainian society.
Since the presidential election of 2010, however, the increasing concentration of media
ownership in the hands of Party of Regions’ backers has combined with rising self-censorship
to dampen the vibrancy and pluralism of the broadcast media, in particular. While diverse
views continue to be represented, opposition politicians in particular complain that their access
to the media has been limited by journalists and editors anxious to conform to the authorities’
political objectives. Television coverage of the Party of Regions’ programmes, in particular,
has become significantly less critical than was the case under the previous government. The as-
yet unsolved disappearance of Vasyl Klymentyev, editor-in-chief of the Kharkiv-based
newspaper Novy Stil, who was actively investigating allegations of corruption in the regional
administration, is a cause for concern amongst media watchdogs.
37
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector in Ukraine likewise flourished in the post-
Orange Revolution period, as the number and professionalism of both political and non-
political NGOs increasing substantially. While these NGOs continue to function largely
unhindered, there has nevertheless been an increase in cases of alleged intimidation of NGOs
aligned with the opposition parties by representatives of the secret services and tax
administration.
Civil society more generally in Ukraine remains active and politically engaged, as
demonstrated in November 2010 when tens of thousands of small businessmen and
entrepreneurs took to the streets of Kyiv and many regional capitals to protest the
government’s proposed revisions to the tax code. The authorities remain tolerant of such civil
society protests, which have been allowed to take place openly and without any significant
interference from the police. Indeed, the Government appears to be responsive to the concerns
raised by these important civil society actors, as reflected in recent statements regarding
possible amendments to the proposed tax code reforms.
38
Annex 2. ASSESSMENT OF TRANSITION CHALLENGES
The table and the supporting text below provide an overall assessment of Transition
Challenges by sector, based on Transition Report 2010. There are two separate scores for each
sector, rating market structures and market-supporting institutions. Scores range from
negligible, small, medium and large. “Negligible” means that the remaining challenges are
minor and that the sector is well advanced in moving towards the standards of a well-
functioning market economy. “Large” means that the remaining challenges are major and that
this dimension of the sector is at an early stage of reform.
Corporate sectors
Agribusiness
Ukraine has seen a significant improvement in its rating since 2005. WTO accession in May
2008 was preceded by several positive policy changes regarding both tariffs as well as price
liberalisation. The overall level of producer support is modest, but taxation of export-oriented
sectors and considerable protection of several import competing sectors distort a number of
agricultural prices along the value-chain. Ad hoc reactions to the food price crises most notably
between 2007 and 2008 such as export restrictions resulted in substantial foregone revenue in
39
the grain and oilseed sectors. WTO accession also means more import competition and
pressure to improve the sector’s efficiency. Yields – in particular in the grain sector – are still
below international standards and a lack of storage and adequate transport infrastructure further
dampens competitiveness. A moratorium on the sale of agricultural land remains in force
pending the adoption of broader land laws. The warehouse receipt programme process started
already in 2001, however out of court settlement procedure, and the indemnity fund need the
adoption of several important land laws and will only be operational once these laws have been
passed. The government operates a concessional credit programme with government interest
rates subsidies for some agricultural loan products offered by commercial banks which does
not overcome a key constraint of access to finance in the sector. Commercial lenders remain
somewhat hesitant to extend finance to the agro-food sector. Following the latest food price
hikes in the autumn of 2010 the Ukrainian government reverted to introducing export quotas
for grain, maize and barley exacerbating global price pressures.
General industry
Competition in the domestic market and export opportunities increased as a result of the
country’s 2008 entry in the World Trade Organisation. However, due to the financial distress
caused by the onset of global economic downturn and the decline in commodity prices
enterprises have not been able to respond to the new opportunities and challenges by
embarking on new capital expenditures to upgrade their products and processes to date. Further
productivity improvements with a focus on improving value added will be a key challenge. The
business environment is gradually improving with regulatory improvements to set up a new
business and lessening of burden for enterprises on licensing. However, VAT refunds for
exporters remain problematic. Close links between business and politics, weak corporate
governance and transparency, insufficient protection of minority shareholders remain key
reform priorities.
Real estate
The real estate sector developed rapidly between 2005-8 and institutional investors entered the
country, but investments were mostly concentrated in the capital and other large cities, leaving
regional cities largely underdeveloped. However, the global financial crisis has led to a
standstill in investments in the real estate market, with industrial regions of Ukraine being
affected the most. In contrast to the retail and office markets, however, there were only an
insignificant number of pure speculative developments in the warehouse and logistics market,
which enabled it to remain somewhat less affected by the downturn. Although the decision to
co-host Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine has increased the interest in building new
hotel capacity, the hotel segment continues to be underdeveloped with only a few major hotel
players present in the country. The Ukrainian property and tourism sector is characterised by a
40
difficult and non-transparent investment climate and needs further legal and regulatory reform,
better governance on local level and increased exposure to international good practice. A
number of initiatives to develop a mortgage market have resulted in a strong increase in the
number of mortgages and have laid the legislative and administrative groundwork for a
functioning market. Transparency and land privatisation are improving but remain a serious
issue. Property-related Doing Business indicators are weak, especially with regard to dealing
with construction permits and registering property. Tradability of land is limited de facto.
Energy
Natural resources
Ukraine is one of the most energy-intensive and energy inefficient countries in the EBRD
region. It is a net importer of oil and gas, supplying less than 20 per cent of current energy
consumption from domestic sources. It is an important oil and gas transit country to Europe
from Russia and the Caspian region. There are six refineries on its territory but capacity
utilisation is very low. The country is well endowed with coal deposits, although the sector
remains substantially unreconstructed.
Some progress has been made in tackling key reform issues in the energy market, including
long awaited gas tariff increases, the adoption of a new gas law and accession to the EU
Energy Community. Nonetheless, many key structural reform challenges remain, such as the
unbundling and corporatisation of the oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz Ukraine (NAK), which
remains unreformed, state–owned, vertically integrated and lacks transparency.
Commercialisation and privatisation is a significant challenge in the absence of reliable
information on the Company’s asset structure and revenue streams. NAK and its subsidiaries
dominate the upstream oil and gas sector. Small independent companies such as JKX Oil and
Gas and Cadogan have upstream oil and gas E&P interests. Oil refining and distribution are the
only elements of the Ukrainian energy sector that are competitive. Ukraine’s gas pipeline
system is operated by UkrTransgaz, another Naftogaz’ subsidiary.
Market supporting institutions and policies are very weak. The energy sector regulator lacks
independence. In spite of recent increases, household tariffs remain below cost recovery levels
and are subsidised through the budget. Coal prices in Ukraine are theoretically freely set by the
market. In reality, there are many price distortions. There is very limited transparency of
revenue flows, especially within the Naftogaz’ subsidiaries. The weak and uncertain regulatory
and licensing regimes and weak judicial system remain key impediments to increased private
participation in the sector. There has been speculation recently regarding the validity of
exploration licences awarded in 2004, with some political pressure to cancel them.
41
Power
The power sector is legally unbundled and partly liberalised and privatised but reforms are far
from being complete as evidenced by the lack of a functioning wholesale energy market and
the fact that the state-owned transmission company is not corporatised. Out of 27 regional
distribution companies, fourteen are majority state owned. Privatisation has been criticised for
its lack of transparency and competition in retail and generation is significantly constrained by
the dominance of state-owned incumbents. Implementation of market reform is clouded by
political interference in the sector. Now that Ukraine signed the protocol of the accession to the
Energy Community, the process should involve harmonisation of legislation with the energy
sector EU acquis. Although there are plans to reform the system, the wholesale power market
remains constrained by the single buyer (Energorynok) model. International power trade is de-
jure de-monopolised, but de facto is still controlled by state monopolist Ukrinterenergo. The
sector regulator, NERC, is formally independent, but its decisions are often undermined by ad-
hoc political interventions. End-user tariffs are significantly distorted by heavy cross-subsidies
from industrial to residential customers and from low cost to high cost industrial customers
(flat rate across the country). Residential tariffs have been frozen for several years falling to as
low as 30 per cent of the costs, according to NERC. Collection rates remain close to 100 per
cent. Thermal power prices are deregulated and established through bidding to the
Energomarket, although the government distorts competition. Transmission and distribution
tariffs only cover short-run operating cost and some new investments but do not provide for
sufficient maintenance or capital rehabilitation and modernisation projects. Furthermore, their
structure does not encourage efficiency improvements. Very low energy efficiency in power
generation, transmission and distribution remains a challenge.
Sustainable energy
The basic laws for energy efficiency have been in place for more than a decade but refinements
and improvements of primary legislation are still necessary, because only limited results have
been achieved so far. An energy efficiency (EE) agency exists but lacks adequate capacity to
support a comprehensive and market driven approach to EE. Low energy tariffs, cross-
subsidies and the lack of inclusion of environmental costs provided limited price signals to
promote energy efficiently and to invest in renewable energy sources (RES) projects, although
energy tariffs for industry have risen in the past few years. Furthermore, residential energy
efficiency is held back by structural and institutional issues. The energy service company
(ESCO) concept has already been piloted, but the sector remains embryonic. Energy intensity
remains high in the absence of a comprehensive approach to energy conservation. New RE
legislation was recently adopted, including adequate feed-in tariffs and other procedures for RE
development in Ukraine, and some pilot project activities have taken place. The energy
regulator NERC is currently developing secondary legislation on RE. A small share of power
42
consumption comes from renewable energy, mostly from large hydro plants. Ukraine has
signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol as an Annex 1 Party and is one of the leaders in project-
based Joint Implementation (JI) mechanism. Ukraine is also the leader in the trading of
Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), which are units of country emissions quota, and in March
2009 signed the largest AAU deal to date (30 Mt with Japan). The remaining challenges are
substantial nevertheless, and include the need to further develop EE institutional capacity and
change the approach of the existing agency to become more market-friendly, to further
increase tariffs to encourage energy savings, to test and consolidate the new legal framework
for the development of renewable projects and to ensure that AAU sales proceeds are properly
greened.
Infrastructure
Telecommunication
Municipal utility services are decentralised both in terms of ownership and decision making.
Utilities are organised as municipal enterprises (semi-corporatised) with de jure management
independence, but are de facto heavily dependant on the local administration. Improving
financial and operational performance is a key priority, as the vast majority of local utilities
continue to be loss making and utility systems remain supply driven and cost inefficient
(excessive employment, large network losses, high energy costs). Access to commercial
financing has improved in recent years, but only a limited number of projects were financed
commercially.
43
Tariffs remain substantially below cost recovery and are based on outdated norms rather than
actual use. Metering is rare and billing based on actual use is almost non-existent, providing
little incentives for efficient use. Cross-subsidies are widespread. The governance of
municipality-utility relationships needs to be improved further (e.g. service contracts are not
yet common). Utility tariffs are set by municipalities and political interference is common,
including from the central authorities, which needs to be addressed. Additionally the weak
institutional organisation for the housing stock has a negative impact on tariff collections. Low
collections combined with low tariffs requires a significantly high level of subsidies to
maintain service.
Urban Transport
In urban transport, there is a mix of regulated municipally-owned operators (e.g. metro and
trolley buses) and a large number of privately owned operators (e.g. mini-buses). Tariffs for the
municipal operators are set by the municipalities with the government approval and are
considered low by the regional standards. Cross subsidisation is a problem as there many
groups of privileged users. Private operators set their own tariffs and do not receive subsidies.
Municipal operators receive operating subsidies in an ad-hoc manner and, more recently,
substantial capital subsidies as well. Financial performance of municipal operators is weak,
partly driven by low fares and poor enforcement of fare payment and partly by high operating
costs due to low productivity and efficiency. Traffic congestion is becoming an area of
concern, as living standards rise and more citizens use private cars as the main mode of
transport.
The key transition challenges remain in the areas of: (i) development of an adequate tariff
structure providing for cost recovery for operators and no cross-subsidies within the
affordability constrains; (ii) improvement in the collection rate and financials of municipal
transport operators; (iii) route setting and development of public service contracts with
transparency and accountability; (iv) improvement of the legal framework for municipal
finance including laws regulating borrowing, security, execution and also legal and financial
relationship between central government and municipalities; and (v) greater private sector
participation.
Roads
The road sector gathered reform momentum in recent years. The road sector restructuring
programme was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in February 2009, which aims to
reorganise the way the road network is managed through the separation of ownership,
administration and funding for state and local roads. While all materials companies were
44
divested from Ukravtodor and are currently under private control, road construction activities
have been separated from Ukravtodor and established as a joint stock company wholly owned
by the state. Road sector financing has improved significantly with revenues coming from a
fuel levy, vehicle license fees and transit fees. Competitive tendering procedures have been
introduced for construction and large periodic maintenance works.
Transition challenges for the medium term relate to (i) further improvements in road sector
financing; (ii) further restructuring of the incumbent road agency and road maintenance
company; (ii) introduction of effective competition and performance based contracts in road
maintenance; and (iii) development of road public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Railways
The railway sector reforms remain at an early stage. Operating and policy setting functions are
not fully separated and core railway businesses (infrastructure, passenger, freight, etc.) are
operated by the same state-owned entity. The long-awaited corporatisation of the national
railways has not yet materialised. While an ambitious railway restructuring plan was approved
by the government in 2007, it has yet to receive Parliamentary approval to start
implementation. Labour restructuring is among the slowest in the EBRD countries of
operation. The transition challenges remain in all key areas. At the first stage, the government
needs to renew reform commitment and get parliamentary approval of legislative changes. This
should be followed by creating transparent and professionally run entities focusing on the main
business that would be operationally and financially sustainable.
Financial sectors
Banking
The banking system has expanded very rapidly in the recent years, in particular, after the entry
of a number of international banking groups into the market since 2004. As a result, most large
banks are majority foreign-owned. These banks now need to return to normal operation after
the economic and financial crisis, and then increase penetration of banking services, improve
business standards, and expand lending. Two state-owned banks account for a small, but
increasing, share of the market. The system remains fragmented, and consolidation is likely, as
Ukraine’s deep economic and financial crisis depletes system capital. The authorities were not
able to establish effective channels of communication and coordination with home country
supervisors before the crisis. The dependence on wholesale funding in foreign exchange
combined with the de facto peg of the local currency to the US dollar, contributed to the
dollarization of banks’ assets, a significant vulnerability that materialized after the end-2008
devaluation. To respond to the crisis, the authorities have pursued a strategy of pre-emptive
45
recapitalization of commercial banks. An important challenge is to improve governance of the
nationalised institutions and avoid entrenching the state in the sector for too long.
Although insurance legislation and regulation have improved in recent years, the quality of
supervision and legislation remains inadequate. The size of insurance market, at 2.5 percent of
GDP, is relatively large when compared to the other countries in the region, but still
significantly lags developed countries. Skills and the availability of insurance products remain
inadequate. The pension system is yet to undergo a major structural reform as it is largely
reliant on the public pay-as-you-go pillar, and the funded element remains significantly
underdeveloped. Legislation in the leasing services segment is not fully developed. The leasing
services market remains small at 1.1 per cent of GDP. Non-bank consumer finance has been
largely developed, although certain business practices need to be improved, in particular the
standards of disclosure of effective interest rates and foreign exchange risks (where leases or
loans are granted in foreign currency).
Lending is primarily provided by banks, and one specialist institution. Prior to the financial
crisis, several local banks actively expanded lending to MSMEs through branches/outlets in
over 250 cities of 25 regions of Ukraine. Additional mobile lending units were serving rural
MSEs and some partner banks provided specialised agricultural lending. However, like
elsewhere around the world, lending to MSEs suffered during the crisis as risk aversion
increased. Competition among the MSE lenders needs to be enhanced in order to allow the
development of efficient and easily accessible financial products, especially in rural areas and
in the agriculture sector, following the crisis. Training and management capacity for MSME
lending operations needs further improvement, in particular in the area of internal audit.
Private equity
A viable private equity industry is gradually being established, in part through the entry of
foreign private equity funds that have established offices in the country and have started
sourcing professionally-structured transactions. However, both the number of market
participants and the number of transactions remains low: there are only three funds dedicated
to Ukraine and 14 regional fund managers also have Ukraine in their portfolios. Committed
and active capital amount to 0.6 per cent of GDP and 0.4 per cent of GDP, respectively. A
46
challenge remains in attracting new entrants into the sector, and in encouraging further funds to
be supplied. Six of seven private equity investment strategies are available in the Ukrainian
private equity sector. The bulk of the committed capital is focused on growth investments with
buyout and infrastructure reasonably presented. Mezzanine, distressed and small capital are
very minor and venture capital almost non-existent. Market institutions remain at an early
stage, with corporate governance framework showing relatively low conformity with the
OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. Local institutional investor participation is
generally non-existent or very limited across categories from private individuals to government
and sovereign funds.
Capital markets
Substantial progress has been made in securities legislation, which now shows high
compliance with the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
principles, though effectiveness is undermined by the currently very difficult court procedures,
and lack of public enforcement. The public equity market is relatively large with market
capitalisation at 98 per cent of GDP, although it is highly illiquid. There is a moderate stock of
tradable government securities in local currency with secondary trading. The bond markets
remain underdeveloped, domestic institutional investors largely lacking, and the money
markets are shallow and volatile.
47
Annex 3 UKRAINIAN COMPANY LAW AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The principal legislation dealing with corporate governance in Ukraine is the Law on Joint
Stock Companies (“JSCs Law”), approved by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) on
17 September 2008. Apart from the JSCs Law other corporate governance regulation can be
found in the Civil Code, the Commercial Code and the Law on Business Associations. Further,
in June 2003 a Corporate Governance Code entitled “Ukrainian Corporate Governance
Principles” was enacted. These principles are intended for open joint stock companies traded
on the stock market and are voluntary.
The JSCs Law came into force on 29 April 2009 and introduced substantial improvements to
the corporate governance system and the legal status of minority shareholders. A two-year
transitional period commenced on 29 April 2009, during which all existing joint stock
companies are to be brought into compliance with the JSCs Law.
The JSCs Law requires all shares of joint stock companies to be issued in electronic form from
29 October 2010. Joint stock companies with shares issued in paper form will have to convert
them into electronic shares by April 29 2011 at the latest.
Concessions
A new law on Public-Private Partnership (“PPP Law”) was enacted on 31 October 2010. The
PPP Law is a framework act and governs such forms of PPPs as concessions, joint ventures,
production sharing and other types of activities.
The enactment of the PPP Law amends and clarifies the 1999 Law on Concessions, which was
previously regarded as satisfactory in general terms but in need of further improvement in
order to promote a favourable PPP regime in the country. It remains to be seen how the PPP
Law will be implemented in practice, and whether any difficulties will arise in the interaction
between the PPP Law and the Law on Concessions. Each of these acts is considered below.
The Law on Concessions clearly defines its scope of application. The provisions regulating the
project agreement provide relatively clear guidance on the main issues to be covered, and yet
the existence of an optional non-binding model agreement makes it sufficiently flexible for the
parties to freely negotiate its terms. This law was rated as being in “medium compliance” with
international standards according to the EBRD 2008 assessment of concessions laws, which
examined concessions legislation in EBRD countries of operations. Amongst the areas that are
still in need of improvement are: tender rules relating to the pre-selection procedure; the
institutional framework and wider-government support; and the availability of instruments and
mechanisms to secure lenders’ interests. Nevertheless, in aggregate the Concessions Law as it
stands constitutes a relatively solid legal basis for concessions.
The new PPP Law sets out and is based on a number of important principles common to the
EU and other European jurisdictions, notably equal treatment, non-discrimination and fair risk
allocation. Its scope of application is broad and clearly defined, in line with international
standards. The legislation contains an open-ended list of applicable sectors/activities. PPP
48
projects may have a term of between 5 and 50 years. PPP agreements are to be awarded on the
basis of a tender except for certain cases defined by the law. However, the tender rules are still
to be defined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
The PPP Law provides for other important rules and principles such as the grand-fathering
clause guaranteeing the application of the regime applicable at the moment of entering into an
agreement for the duration of that agreement. It introduces an investment return element, and
market sensitive compensation rules in the event tariffs are set at a rate below what is
economically viable for the private sector. Further, the new law specifically prohibits public
sector interference in the operational activities of a private party, and provides certain
guarantees and state support measures.
The PPP Law establishes and defines the powers of a new specialist PPP agency which will
commence work by the end of January 2011, thus paving the way for an enhanced PPP
institutional infrastructure.
Insolvency
At present, bankruptcy and insolvency in Ukraine are primarily governed by the “Law on
Restoring Debtor’s Solvency and Declaring a Debtor Bankrupt” of 14 May 1992 (“Insolvency
Law”). As reflected in the graph below, the EBRD’s 2009 Insolvency Sector Assessment
found that the Insolvency Law is in “low compliance” with the EBRD’s Core Principles for an
Insolvency Law Regime, based on five core areas most relevant to the sector. These results are
in line with assessments conducted by other international organisations, which have measured
Ukraine’s insolvency legislation against international insolvency standards, such as those set
by the IMF, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations
Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
As the EBRD assessment has revealed, the Insolvency Law is still deficient in virtually all key
areas of insolvency. The restructuring process is of particular concern. While the law is notable
for allowing the conversion of a bankruptcy to a restructuring and vice versa, the restructuring
process is inadequately spelled out. The few provisions that are included provide no
requirement for independent assessment of the plan of reorganisation, very little involvement
of the general body of creditors and no supervision of the plan’s implementation. In addition,
the law fails to provide for the timely delivery of property of the debtor to the bankruptcy
manager or for the effective avoidance of suspicious pre-bankruptcy transactions.
The above deficiencies are ‘critical’ or ‘threshold’ deficiencies in that they are imperative to
the basic functioning of a proper insolvency law. The Insolvency Law has several other
important shortcomings. There are inadequate requirements for the qualification, appointment,
review and replacement of an insolvency office holder; there are no provisions for set-off; and,
there are insufficient sanctions for failure to comply with the law. The Insolvency Law remains
weak as regards commencement of proceedings (for instance, there is no provision for a
balance sheet insolvency test or anticipatory insolvency). Furthermore, the law does not
provide for a mechanism to assist creditors to establish insolvency.
49
To date there are few professional work standards or ethical rules for insolvency office holders.
Supervisory, regulatory and disciplinary provisions applicable to insolvency office holders are
substandard.
The Insolvency Law contains some positive elements. There is a formal requirement for a
speedy hearing and determination of proceedings. There is provision for pre-packaged
restructuring, both by means of bankruptcy to extinguish debts and through reorganisation to
restructure the company. However, the results of the EBRD 2004 Legal Indicator Survey,
which measured the “effectiveness” of insolvency regimes (i.e. how laws work in practice),
suggests that the practical application of the Insolvency Law is expensive, slow and unduly
complex. In addition, the results of the survey show that the predictability and competence of
judges hearing bankruptcy cases is unreliable.
Judicial Sector
Ukraine’s judicial system consists of the Constitutional Court, courts of general jurisdiction,
and specialised administrative and commercial courts.
Important judgements are generally published and accessible to practitioners and the public,
affording the legal system a certain level of transparency. There is a right of appeal from first-
instance court decisions, and a right of judicial review of administrative action. There are
constitutional and other formal guarantees of judicial independence. However, although
Ukrainian laws provide a legislative framework for an independent judicial system, concerns
persists about lack of impartiality and independence of the courts. Corruption is perceived to be
one of the main obstacles to a fully effective judiciary in the country. Ukraine ranked 146th
among the 180 surveyed countries in the Transparency International 2009 Corruption
Perceptions Index. Further, in the EBRD – World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise
Performance Survey 2008-2009 (BEEPS), only 19 per cent of the participants believed that the
courts were fair and uncorrupted. Further, only 17 per cent of business respondents considered
the court system to be fast.
In what may prove to be a positive development, the Judiciary Act was amended in 2010 to
provide that certain decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on courts below and constitute
a formal source of generally applicable law. This reform was part of a suite of amendments
which in fact limited the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in many respects, devolving greater
powers to the higher specialised courts (e.g. the Higher Commercial Court). However, one
important function still performed by the Supreme Court is to hear cases which concern
divergent interpretations of law by courts below. In such matters, a decision of the Supreme
Court is formally binding on all courts and administrative authorities in Ukraine. The end result
of this reform may be greater uniformity in judicial decision-making.
Public Procurement
Public procurement in Ukraine is regulated by the Public Procurement Law (“PPL”) which
entered into force on 1 July 2010. The PPL covers procurement by national and local
government and state-owned companies, but does not include specific rules for the utilities
sector. PPPs and Concessions are regulated by separate legislation.
50
The EBRD 2010 Public Procurement Legal Frameworks Assessment results show that the
Ukrainian public procurement framework is in low overall compliance with international
standards and best practice, both in relation to integrity and efficiency dimensions. The low
marks for integrity and transparency indicators suggest that the procurement process may be
affected by corruption. The PPL is relatively uniform and adheres to the principle of fair
competition, however it is not so strong in relation to integrity, transparency, and
accountability features (see chart below). In addition, the evident lack of legal stability may
lead to frustration among the stakeholders. In general, the PPL leaves room for inefficiencies
and irregularities to occur in the public procurement processes.
Secured Transactions
In the last couple of years, Ukraine has undertaken considerable reforms in the field of
commercial law, in particular in relation to secured transactions. The adoption of new Civil and
Commercial Codes and specific laws related to security over movable property and immovable
property, together with extensive work on the supporting institutions such as registers, have
fundamentally changed the conditions in which commercial transactions take place. Despite
some confusion and uncertainty (not unusual in transition economies), these changes have
largely been positive. The financial crisis, however, has hit Ukraine’s real estate and mortgage
finance particularly hard and this is unfortunately demonstrating the weaknesses that exist in
the institutions surrounding debt enforcement.
Security rights over movable assets in Ukraine are governed by the Law on Securing Creditor’s
Claims and Registration of Encumbrances of 23 December 2003 (Securing Creditor’s Claims
Law), which entered into force on 1 January 2004. The Law on Pledge of 2 October 1992
remains in force but is now of more limited relevance since it will only apply for matters not
covered by the 2003 Law on Securing Creditor’s Claims (although precisely which matters is
unclear). The Civil Code of 18 January 2003 also includes relevant provisions in the chapter on
51
security for the fulfilment of obligations. The Securing Creditor’s Claims Law adopts an
approach according to which all encumbrances (e.g. pledges, leases) are treated similarly. To
be effective against third parties, they require registration in the State Register of
Encumbrances over Movable Property. This register, which replaces the State Register of
Pledges of Movable Property, commenced operation in August 2004. All encumbrances
entered into prior to 1 January 2004 have been automatically transferred to the new Register.
The main weaknesses of the regime lie with the lack of flexibility in the description of the
collateral and of the secured debt. Taking security over generally described assets, or
fluctuating pools of assets, remain uncertain, despite fairly liberal provisions in the law, and
legal advisers are usually ambivalent in this respect. Also, there remains significant uncertainty
on successfully taking and enforcing security over bank accounts. The Securing Creditor’s
Claims Law also provides for extra-judicial enforcement in the form of transfer of ownership
of collateral to the creditor, the sale of the collateral directly by the creditor, the assignment of
pledged rights to the creditor or the transfer of funds. However, the practical experience to date
in using these mechanisms has not been positive.
Security rights over immovable property (mortgages) are governed by the Law on Mortgage of
5 June 2003 (“Mortgage Law”) and the relevant provisions of the Civil Code. Mortgages can
secure any type of debt as far as it is determinable in monetary terms and the maximum amount
has been expressed in the mortgage agreement. Any type of immovable property may be used
for security except for agricultural land for which a moratorium still applies; it can only be
mortgaged to banks as mortgage creditors. Mortgage rights enjoy priority in the mortgaged
property from the moment of their entry in the Register. Priority is upheld in practice and in the
event of bankruptcy. However, there is some uncertainty as to the precedence of tax liens
which are registered in the Register of Encumbrances but enjoy by law automatic statutory
priority.
During the booming real estate market up until 2008, enforcement was reported to take usually
up to 6 months, and the sale proceeds corresponded to the asset’s market price. Since then,
however, lenders have been very unhappy with the way they are able to enforce their rights
(also due to the fact that the real estate market has crashed, making the value of collateral
significantly lower).
Securities Markets
The basic legislation regulating the securities markets is the Law on Securities and the Stock
Market enacted on 23 February 2006. The Law regulates the placement and circulation of
securities and the conduct of professional activities in the stock market and aims to ensure
effective and transparent stock market activities.
52
Quality of securities market legislation – Ukraine (2007)
53
Annex 4 ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
There have been a number of legislative changes in the environmental sphere since the
previous country strategy (2007) for Ukraine. For example, the National Agency for
Environmental Investments, new governmental body responsible for UNFCCC and Kyoto
Protocol implementation, was established in 2008. Its key current responsibility is in setting up
a regulative framework for Joint Implementation mechanism under Kyoto Protocol and green
investments scheme. The latter was introduced by the Law on Green Investments in 2009
oriented to support energy efficiency and renewable sources investments that reduce GHG
emissions and thus can generate carbon credits. The objective of the scheme is in developing
the national carbon market in Ukraine.
Among other legal developments it is worth mentioning a new set of laws and regulations in
the area of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) production, supply chain, transportation
and use adopted in 2009 to ensure biological and genetic security and distribution of
responsibilities for their control. Several changes in the Law on Protected Areas were made in
2010 to introduce stricter bans on any activities in the boundaries of protected areas. A number
of waste related laws were amended in 2010 aiming at the implementation of waste
segregation, recycling, prevention of unauthorized litter disposal and increases in penalties for
non-compliance with waste regulations.
However, it is critical for Ukraine to ensure that sufficient political will, financial resources
and adequate mechanisms is generated to ensure the effective implementation of these
commitments. It is necessary to further strengthen the legal and regulatory framework for the
environment with an emphasis on preventive measures as well as building effective
compliance and enforcement programmes. At the business level the government should
incentivise investments in environmental management systems, implementation of technology-
based standards for pollution control, as e.g. Best Available Techniques under EU IPPC
legislation, adaptation of better environmental indicators and strengthening of their monitoring.
54
International cooperation in environmental sphere
International environmental protocols and conventions recently adopted by Ukraine include the
European Landscape Convention (Florence Convention) in 2006, the Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2007, and the Black Sea Biodiversity and Landscape
Conservation Protocol to the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution
in 2008.
Ukraine is a priority partner country within the ENP Initiative of the EU. At the Paris Summit
in September 2008 an agreement was reached to start negotiations on an EU-Ukraine
Association Agreement, and an EU-Ukraine Summit is to take place at the end of November
2010. As part of environmental objectives of ENP’s Action Plan, Ukraine takes part in the
Danube-Black Sea Task Force to implement a transboundary approach to water management,
the Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asia component of the EU Water Initiative and
the Joint Ukraine-EU Working Group on Climate Change. The new Eastern Partnership
initiative aims at additionally enhancing closer cooperation with Ukraine in such areas as good
governance and energy. However, the 2009 assessment of the Action Plan implementation
concludes that strengthening of administrative capacity building in the environment field and
provision of financial mechanisms remains a challenge.
Ukraine ratified both the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in
Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters and the Espoo Convention
on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in a Transboundary Context back in 1999.
However, the challenges in implementing their provisions at national level remain. The Aarhus
Center for environmental information was established in 1999, but the country struggles to set
up adequate practical mechanisms for effective access to information and public participation
in environmental matters. As of September 2010, out of 25 regional branches of the Ministry of
environmental protection only 13 agreed to establish online public access to EIA that was
recommended by the Aarhus Centre.
The European Commission (EC) financed project “Support to Ukraine to implement the Espoo
and Aarhus Conventions” was first presented to the public at the meeting of the Public Council
by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine in December 2009. Its objective was to
provide support to Ukraine in its efforts to comply with its obligations under both Conventions
55
by making recommendations to the Government of Ukraine. During its course, the project
provided a detailed assessment of the legal, administrative and procedural aspects of the
implementation of the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions in Ukraine. Four training seminars were
also organised for local and central environmental authorities and regional Aarhus Centers.
The Final report on the project’s results and outputs was presented in July 2010 in Kyiv at the
meeting with DG Environment, DG RELEX of the EC and the EU Delegation in Ukraine. The
project experts prepared the Draft Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Taking into
Account of Public Opinion in Environmental Decision-Making process and forwarded it to the
Ministry of Environment for further consideration by the Ministry and public consultations.
Over 500 civil environmental organisations are active in Ukraine, as per UNECE’s 2nd
Environmental Performance Review for Ukraine (2007). Most of them aim at environmental
protection on regional and local levels, but there are a number of large ones operating at
national and international levels. They have significant importance in promoting environmental
education and working with society to raise awareness over existing issues, as well as
conducting necessary research and participating in policy making through public consultations
process. There is still a need for improvements to be undertaken by Ukraine in future to ensure
effective access to information and public participation in environmental matters. EBRD’s
relationship with Ukrainian NGOs remains strong and effective as they represent an important
monitoring mechanism of the Bank’s policies implementation.
Ukraine ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in
April 2004, and associated with the Copenhagen Accord on Climate Change in April 2010. In
recent years Ukrainian climate change mitigation approach focused primarily on two issues:
use of Joint Implementation (JI) and trading of emissions surplus AAUs. In the case of joint
implementation, the regulatory rules were changing several times by the Government, resulting
in barriers in the use of this financial mechanism under Kyoto Protocol. National Agency for
Environmental Investments has been recently made responsible to clarify the JI regulative
framework. The Government made significant preparations to start carbon emissions trading,
but the uncertainty still remains with regard to the use of funds raised from emission trading.
Current UN IPCC climate models predict that Ukraine will experience increases in mean
annual temperatures of 1-2˚ C by the middle of the 21st century, together with decreases in
precipitation of up to 10 per cent in the south and slight increases in the north by the end of the
56
century. These changes are expected to have significant impacts on agriculture, forestry,
coastal zones and water resources. In addition, sea level rise is a real threat to coastal zones and
coastal infrastructure. The Black Sea level understood to be rising at a rate of 1.5 mm per year.
Under these scenarios, it is possible that agricultural production could be negatively affected,
with a greater need for irrigation in southern Ukraine. This will intensify the need for
agricultural reforms and for investment in improved production techniques in order to maintain
and improve productivity. These factors should be considered in investments that depend upon
the long-term availability of agricultural commodities. Similarly, forests may be affected
(species composition, productivity and stability of forests) and this may require greater
attention to measures such as protection against pests and diseases, and the use of wood species
best suited to changing climate conditions.
Coastal zones and coastal infrastructure are vulnerable to sea level rise and changing erosion
patterns and these issues should be considered in investments in port and other coastal
infrastructure, which are critical for Ukraine’s transport networks and trading links with the
global economy. Water resources may be affected by shifts in precipitation and peak
temperatures, which should be considered in the planning of water supply systems and in
investments in water-intensive industries (agriprocessing, paper & pulp, chemical
manufacturing etc). In addition hydropower generation may be affected by changes in river
hydrology.
Therefore, strategic objectives in the area of climate change mitigation will need to focus on
improving the quality of national GHG inventory reporting, setting transparent and clear rules
for JI projects, ensuring transparent emission trading mechanisms with clear conditions on the
use of funds gained, developing regional strategies on mitigation of climate change impacts in
consultation with local authorities, developing plans for adaptation to climate change, and
implementing sectoral programmes on energy efficiency.
EBRD will consider climate change mitigation and adaptation issues in projects appraised and,
where appropriate, will work with clients to address issues and opportunities, particularly in
sectors such as forestry, agriculture, infrastructure, natural resources, power and energy sectors
that are potentially to be affected in Ukraine. In addition, EBRD will continue to participate in
carbon finance projects under Kyoto trading mechanisms or voluntary schemes.
Nuclear safety
Nuclear safety remains to be a priority area of Bank’s work in the country, with the EBRD-
managed CSF helping the country to enhance safety of the Chernobyl shelter through the
stabilisation programme and the construction of a NSC. The contract for construction of a new
shelter to be built around the sarcophagus was awarded in September 2007, and construction
has begun, with the ultimate goal of its commissioning in 2014. Additionally, the Bank is
currently undertaking a strategic review of the safety upgrade programme for existing
Ukraine’s NPPs that includes modernisation of 15 nuclear reactors to internationally
recognised nuclear safety level. The EBRD, alongside other international organisations such as
57
European Commission, recognise the substantial efforts undertaken by Ukraine and welcome
the consistent and successful implementation of the internationally agreed measures.
Ukraine is a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and has ratified 55 ILO
Conventions, including the 8 core Conventions. However, their practical implementation is not
always compliant with ILO’s standards. Thus, Ukrainian legislation allows under-18s to
perform hazardous work under certain circumstances. The ILO’s Committee of Experts (2008)
has raised concerns that the legislative controls on this work do not comply with C138
(Minimum Age Convention, 1973). According to the Committee of Experts, children as young
as 14 years may perform hazardous work in connection with vocational training. According to
the International Trade Union Confederation (2008), there is a general lack of good faith
bargaining, and employers often refuse to enter into collective bargaining.
Labour law reforms have been pending in Ukraine since 2003, after ILO’s recommendations to
update current Labour Code, which dates back to 1971. The ILO received a new draft of the
proposed Code at the end of 2008. The draft since then was with the Parliament of Ukraine for
final reading, but in November 2010 the Parliament speaker announced postponing decision on
the Labour Code until 2011. There is a lot of criticism of the draft, including for such changes
as increase of a working week from 40 to 48 hours, legalizing video monitoring at workplaces,
shortening notification period to 2 weeks for redundancies in small companies (fewer than 20
employees) among other changes.
The EU Progress Report (2008) on ENP’s implementation in Ukraine notes that the country
has benefited from ILO technical assistance to build the capacity of its labour inspectorate, but
further work is necessary to reinforce the administrative capacity of the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policy. There are known enforcement issues in relation to health and safety, minimum
wage obligations, and child labour.
With regard to occupational health and safety (OHS) a high rate of workplace injuries and
fatalities, especially in mining and heavy industries, prevails as key concern in all sectors of
Ukraine. As per survey, undertaken by ILO in March 2010 for Ukraine, the most serious
injuries in manufacturing sector were related to burns, exposure to noise, irritants, dust and
chemicals. Looking at hazards representing serious safety problems in different sectors the
survey showed that being struck by objects, lifting and transport of materials were the three
most common problems in primary production workplaces. Problems of concern in
manufacturing included electrical hazards, fire risk, lifting and transport of materials.
According to the survey, the construction and energy-related industries experienced more
serious problems than any other.
Organisational issues can also have an effect on safety, health and well-being of employees.
Over all sectors the most common organisational problems cited in the survey were job
security, work overload, workplace design, eating facilities and sanitary facilities. Job security
was among the most important concerns across all industries. Considering that 73.2 per cent of
58
the workplaces surveyed had reduced their number of workers over the last three years, it is
most understandable that workers are seriously concerned about job security.
The Bank adopts a rigorous approach to labour and working conditions issues. The application
of a specific Performance Requirement 2 under 2008 E&S Policy covers assessment of such
areas as labour conditions, fair wages, non-discrimination, gender equality, retrenchment
policies, trade unions and collective bargaining practices.
Gender Issues
Ukraine ranks 86th out of 109 countries with respect to its gender empowerment measure
according to the UNDP’s Human Development Report, as compared to its human development
index rating where it ranks 85th out of 182 countries with data. Women have faced barriers to
increased participation in the labour market through discrimination in recruitment and the loss
of state support for child care.
Although transition has democratised gender relations in many ways, women and men have
both faced pressures during the transition period. In particular, women have faced greater
difficulties as a result of their reproductive and family roles and experience increased barriers
to participation in the labour market. High levels of unemployment that followed transition
undermined men’s earning potential, leading to lower levels of self-esteem that are thought to
have exacerbated levels of alcoholism and suicide for men. Other problems have included
poor maternal health, limited political representation, gender-based violence and a dramatic
increase in trafficking. The rural-urban divide has an important bearing on gender equality.
Rural women experience more barriers to accessing health services, employment and
entrepreneurial opportunity, and there are key regional disparities in levels of unemployment
and women’s employment rates. Women belonging to particular ethnic groups may face
“double-discrimination,” including Roma, Crimean Tatars and persons of non-Slavic
appearance.
There have been some positive developments during the transition period with respect to
gender equality, as the growth rate of businesses managed by women is now higher than most
other countries in the region (after Poland and Latvia). In addition, the strengthening of civil
society since transition has raised awareness of previously ignored social issues and problems,
including women’s rights and violence against women.
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Annex 5 KEY LESSONS LEARNED FROM PREVIOUS STRATEGY PERIOD
Power and Energy – The Ukrainian Energy Services Company - UkrEsco 2 received an EBRD
loan in 1998 which was coupled with a substantial EU-TACIS grant. This combination proved
to be Highly Successful in triggering the development of effective mechanisms for
implementing energy saving projects in Ukraine to the benefit of both small and medium sized
enterprises and public sector institutions. A lesson learnt from the project with UkrEsco is that
start-up funding for ESCOs may be required initially, but should be reconsidered over the
project implementation (PEX08-331).
Transport - The Railway Development project made good to excellent achievements for
instance in its track maintenance component. The corporate reform process at Ukrainian
railways however unfolded considerably slower than expected. A lesson learnt from the
railway project is that environmental objectives are at times set at too high a level. In this case
the EAP was to be designed within the overall aim of meeting EU standards, even though it
was not clear that this was either affordable or achievable for the client (PEX07-307).
Enterprises
Agribusiness - This sub-sector traditionally accounts for a large share of EBRD activities in
the Corporate Sector, some 16 per cent of the Bank’s portfolio have been invested here since
2005. The Bank’s operation with the tomato-processing company Chumak was evaluated in
2008. The project had a good demonstration effect on the industry for a successful
restructuring of a formerly state owned production unit. In addition, strong impacts on the
regional economy were achieved through the actively cultivated backward linkages to local
suppliers.
Manufacturing – Recent Bank investments include loans to Bosch Service, Uksnab and
ArcelorMittal and have all seen partial success as per recently conducted evaluations by
Evaluation Department. The investment with ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih (AMKR) for
instance has achieved the objectives related to increased capacity utilisation, corporate
restructuring and market expansion. Conversely, it fell short of its energy efficiency objectives;
and saw an Unsatisfactory environmental performance. A lesson learnt from the AMKR
project is the limited scope for energy efficiency gains at Soviet-style steel mills, as those were
built to use cheap energy from external supplies and are not designed to capture and recycle
waste gases (PE09-448).
Financial Institutions
Banking – Among the priorities of the last Country Strategy the Bank aimed at encouraging
foreign investment and developing local currency financing instruments. Before the crisis, the
1
See Annex 5 for EvD’s key lessons learned from previous strategy period.
60
transition impact potential of the FI projects deteriorated along with their additionality. Thus,
during the period between September 2007 and end-2008, 20 per cent of FI projects were rated
‘Satisfactory.’ However, this was reversed as the EBRD engaged in crisis mitigation activities
in the sector starting in early. Only one recent FI project was given ‘Satisfactory’ transition
impact rating since the onset of the crisis. A large TC programme funded by the EBRD
Shareholder Special Fund (ESSF) was approved in 2009. 3
MSME and Non-Bank Financial Institutions – The Bank’s operation with OTP Bank 4 had
two components: the Mortgage Facility provided long term funding to support mortgage
lending in general and the transition from a predominantly corporate bank into a universal
bank. The Subordinated Loan component was to support market expansion and competition in
SME lending by raising tier II capital. A recent evaluation saw the achievement of original
objectives largely prevented by the ‘new market reality’, concluding that: EBRD capital
support is now about helping OTPU sustain losses from deteriorating assets, rather than the
objective at entry. A lesson learnt from the project with OTP is to establish sub-loan reporting
from the outset as this will facilitate comparison between performance of loans under the
EBRD’s criteria compared to those of the client bank (PE09-467).
3
No evaluation report is available for banking sector projects in Ukraine since 2007, the time of the last Country
Strategy. Therefore, no new lessons are described here.
4
The successor entity to Raiffeisenbank Ukraine, a long standing customer of EBRD.
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Annex 6 EBRD SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INITIATIVE
Energy efficiency will be a cross-sector priority of the Bank for the next strategy period.
Ukraine is one of the most energy intensive countries in the world. It is only one-third as
energy efficient as an average EU country. Because of this, Ukraine has an enormous potential
for energy efficiency improvements, in every sector of the economy – industrial production,
power generation, households, transport and agriculture.
Ukraine is facing an important challenge in ensuring that its resurgent economic growth will be
compatible with the challenges posed by the move towards lower-carbon economic activity in
order to mitigate climate change. Ukraine’s energy intensity is 2.5 times that of Germany,
while its CO2 emissions intensity is almost three times that of Germany. Considering the
future growth in energy demand by a population and enterprises, it is clear that a significant
effort is called for to achieve long-term sustainable growth in energy supply and demand.
The Bank has a long history of sustainable energy finance provision in Ukraine, which is in
line with its mandate and the government’s priorities and long-term strategy. The overall
potential of the Bank’s interventions is in some cases dependent on changes to regulatory and
legislative frameworks being implemented. The Bank is already supporting these changes
through the provision of technical assistance where the government has indicated an interest in
pursuing them.
On 10 June 2009, the Bank and the Government of Ukraine signed a Sustainable Energy
Action Plan (SEAP) in Kyiv, which provides the scope to further expand the EBRD activity
and impact in the area of sustainable energy. The Bank’s transition goal will be to continue its
energy efficiency initiatives in all sectors of the economy: both through direct lending in the
corporate sector and through an expansion of intermediated lending within the framework of
energy efficiency credit lines. This will entail not only providing the financial resources but
also the technical expertise to identify and implement a wide range of energy efficiency
investments. This should help strengthen the country’s energy security, improve industrial
competitiveness and reduce energy bills for Ukrainian people.
Industry – the Bank will scale up sustainable energy activities in the corporate sector
primarily through the expansion and re-positioning of the current Industrial Energy
Efficiency Programme. The Bank will use a sectoral approach with the objective to
enhance competitiveness of corporate enterprises through the optimal use of resources,
technology innovation, and the introduction of best practice and improvements to the
energy management practices of the clients. The Bank will also pursue land-mark
transactions in e.g. the steel sector, to achieve wide demonstration effects. It will, where
appropriate, utilise climate finance to overcome clearly identified barriers to investment
in energy efficiency. The Bank will also consider the provision of assistance to the
business and to the Government of Ukraine in developing an efficient system for
transfer of modern energy efficient and climate-friendly technologies.
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Sustainable Energy Financing Facilities – the Bank will enhance current and launch
new activities with a number of financial intermediaries in order to be able to
effectively reach SMEs, small-scale renewable developers, and residential clients. The
Bank will support the Ministry of Housing and Communal services on establishing
enabling legislation and raising awareness to facilitate energy efficiency investments in
the residential sector, and will consider supporting other relevant parts of the
government, where appropriate, to further broaden the reach of these facilities.
Cleaner Energy Supply - the Bank will increase the drive for high-efficiency
rehabilitation and modernisation in the Ukraine’s energy sector, which has enormous
potential for energy efficiency improvements during production, transmission and
distribution. Through available TA programmes, the Bank will support its clients to
identify the most appropriate rehabilitation investment programmes that will extend the
lifetime of main equipment, improve energy efficiency and overall performance as well
as reduce environmental impacts. The Bank will also offer support to the government to
develop and implement the long-term approach to power supply rehabilitation and
investment that is necessary to ensure that the energy supply system of Ukraine will be
meeting the challenge of an increasingly carbon-constrained world.
Renewable Energy - there is significant potential for Bank investment in the
renewables sector, especially in small hydro and wind energy installations. The Bank
acknowledges its interest in exploring financing opportunities for renewable energy
projects and will continue to provide comprehensive support for the development of the
regulatory environment, and for investments in the sector. To assist Ukraine to realise
its large renewable energy potential, the Bank, with support from the Global
Environment Facility and the CTF, has launched the USELF, which aims to provide
development support and debt finance to renewable energy projects. The Facility
comprises an amount of up to EUR 50 million for financing projects together with EUR
20 million concessional co-financing from the CTF and a technical assistance
component of EUR 6 million funded from a grant of the Global Environment Facility.
Beyond this facility, the Bank will continue to consider individual landmark
transactions into e.g. large wind farms, which will demonstrate to international and
local investors the viability of renewable energy supply in Ukraine. A particular focus
will be put on developing the biomass sector. In the medium term, the Bank is
considering the preparation of a TC programme on biomass market development,
which could examine the market in Ukraine and analyse in detail the areas of resource
potential, project demand and commercial barriers, and explore financing possibilities.
On the financial side, the biomass sector (with a large potential but many small and
fragmented projects) could be supported through a dedicated Biomass Energy
Financing Facility aimed at providing both financing and specialised technical support
for project developers (one stop shop). This will depend on the Government of Ukraine
providing an adequate regulatory framework which will allow these projects to
demonstrate their economic viability.
Municipal Infrastructure and Buildings – The Bank will continue development of
municipal infrastructure projects with significant energy efficiency scope in respect of
district heating, water supply and waste water, solid waste, public transport, and energy
efficiency improvement of residential and administrative buildings. The Bank will
continue supporting the Ukrainian Government in the development of commercial,
63
organisational and financial structures for financing energy efficiency in public and
residential buildings through its dedicated TA programmes. It will make the best
possible use of the resources of the E5P programme which are expected to become
available to support municipal investments in Ukraine in the near future.
Carbon Finance – the Bank will continue to provide a comprehensive support to the
National Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine to further increase the potential
for carbon financing in Ukraine, including international emission trading supported by
Green Investment Schemes as well as development of new financing instruments to
support Joint Implementation projects.
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Annex 7 TAM/BAS ACTIVITY IN UKRAINE
1. TAM/BAS in Ukraine
In 2009 the share of small-sized enterprises totalled to 93.7 per cent out of total enterprises
with medium-sized enterprises being only 5.8 per cent. With regard to employment, the
numbers are more balanced: Small enterprises provide 26 per cent of total employment in the
economy, medium-sized enterprises 34.5 per cent and large enterprises 39.5 per cent.
The business environment in Ukraine remains unfavourable, according to the World Bank’s
Doing Business Report 2010 Ukraine ranks 142nd out of 183 countries surveyed in its Ease of
Doing Business Index. The global financial crisis adversely affected the Ukrainian banking
sector. The lack of access to finance continues to constrain the development of the MSME
sector in Ukraine.
A variety of business associations advocate the needs of the MSME sector in Ukraine. Overall,
the business support infrastructure requires further upgrading in order to help Ukrainian
MSMEs to meet new economic challenges.
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Government support to the MSME sector
The Ukrainian authorities have yet to provide a coherent programme to assist MSMEs with
core business skills/values of the market economy. The government has been focusing on
providing access to finance and some basic training. Government has attempted to simplify the
process of obtaining permits and licenses, but still many activities need licenses, and time/cost
for obtaining them remains high. At present, the state policy focuses on the increase in the
quality of public regulation of MSME which leads to the improvement of the regulatory and
legislative framework for MSMEs and the financial environment.
MSME demand for advisory services is present in the capital, but is still focused on the basic
advisory services. There is a need to promote more complex consultancy services having
lasting effect on the companies’ performance.
Continuation of TAM
In light of weak management practices in mid-sized firms in Ukraine, business advice from
international experts is highly relevant. Given the EBRD’s desire to increase its level of
engagement with mid-sized firms in Ukraine, it is important to develop the TAM Programme
and investigate new approaches to improving management in mid-sized firms. In cooperation
with the Chief Economist Office, TAM plans to carry out a randomized impact assessment
study assessing the impact of TAM’s advisory services on firm productivity and profitability,
employment growth, and efficient use of energy. The design of the study will make an explicit
comparison with a more standard management intervention provided by a commercial
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consulting firm. In addition, enterprises with no external advisors will serve as the control
group.
TAM will continue to work with companies on balance sheet restructuring, improving energy
efficiency, building an export orientation, and improving operating efficiency. In terms of
sectors, food processing and retail trade would benefit from international industrial expertise,
especially when it comes to technological know-how. Furthermore, TAM will continue its
regional scope beyond the main cities where management advisory services are not available.
Continuation of BAS
A Grant Guideline Matrix is proposed in Ukraine in order to prioritise intervention and avoid
duplication of efforts from international donors. Depending on funding availability, higher
grants will be allocated according to:
BAS assistance at the enterprise level will be complemented with the following market
development activities in order to maximise the programme’s transition impact in Ukraine:
Visibility and dissemination: Steps will be undertaken to promote the use of business
advisory services, especially in areas outside main towns as well as stimulate demand for
more sophisticated consultancy services.
MSME and consultancy training: Capacity building for local consultants will be organised
to help broaden the country’s supply and improve quality of local advisory services.
Support to and development of existing local institutions: BAS will continue supporting
local institutions that contribute to the development of MSMEs and the business advisory
services market.
Cross-cutting objectives
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Annex 8 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Donor Total
Austria 2,441,789
Belgium 107,090
Canada 4,222,835
Czech Republic 288,218
Denmark 267,389
EBRD Shareholder Special Fund 6,255,820
European Commission 36,799,834
Finland 992,817
France 3,378,959
Germany 3,820,898
Greece 85,860
Iceland 63,469
Ireland 79,433
Israel 41,683
Italy 1,440,483
Japan 3,555,611
Luxembourg 77,839
Netherlands 15,934,495
Norway 73,933
Spain 2,890,527
Sweden 7,393,183
Switzerland 285,577
Taipei China 926,717
TC Special Fund 285,809
United Kingdom 3,175,204
United States 6,115,203
World Bank 294,540
Grand Total 101,295,216
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TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE BY SECTOR
Sector Total
Agribusiness 3,613,793
Chief Economist 1,318,800
Energy Efficiency and Climate Change 9,100,172
Environment 432,853
Financial Institutions 25,897,158
Legal Transition 274,659
Manufacturing and Industry 2,716,711
Municipal & Environmental
Infrastructure 18,976,552
Other 1,322,125
Power and Energy 7,283,553
Property and Tourism 310,929
Small Business Finance 19,439,602
TAM/BAS Programme 3,115,613
Telecommunications 235,675
Transport 7,257,022
Grand Total 101,295,216
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Annex 9 SELECTED ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Ukraine
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Estimate Projection
1 3
According to ILO methodology. Weighted average over all maturities.
2 4
IMF definition. General government includes the state, municipalities and Refers to payments on official debt only.
extra-budgetary funds, in 2009-10 Naftogaz, bank recapitalisation costs,
and issuance of VAT bonds.
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