Opportunities: What immediate support is needed by investors during the war
But even in the conditions of full -scale aggression of the Russian Federation, there is a chance to change for the better. Although the "window" of new investment opportunities during the war is not so wide, it looks more like an ambassador, so as not to lose these opportunities, to make the new 2023 growth in the new year, we have to take such steps immediately.
Protection of competition from its defender "Big Companies Will Be Hunting for Business in Ukraine Soon", - recently the client was in talks about the new investment project. The Great Hunting Day has not yet come, but everyone wants to invest in Ukraine with maximum support and respect from the state. In reality, they receive the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC).
Since 2014, we have been consistently talking about the need for maximum liberalization of financial indicators for concentration, as Poland did during "shock therapy" in the early 90's. The 2016 Ukrainian AMC reform was late and half. She retained a lot of work for the committee and lawyers, the oligarchs left monopolies, and ordinary business - obstacles. After the start of the full -scale war, the AMC officially announced the suspension of work.
In simple language, this meant: "We have no resource to make a decision, make your concentrations without us, breaking the law, and we will ever consider them and still fine. " A symptomatic desire to perform the function of coercion at least what happens. A little later, the Armed Forces allowed the AMC to restore their work.
But why? How many applications have accumulated, how many people have returned to workplaces and how long will the concentration of our bold investor that was not frightened by war will take? Why at all AMCs allow concentration in martial law and post -war recovery, raise money from investors, spend their resources on mountains of paper (which is easy to burn from shelling) and make it uncertain for many months? The first thing to disturb the competition defender is the Russian trail and oligarchs.
Allow the normal investors to rest, liberalize the thresholds as much as possible. And yet-in general, cancel the permits at the concentration in the military-industrial complex (MIC). We need a dynamic and high -tech MIC with foreign capital. The state requires a triumph "Building a new on the site of the old" sounds better for us than "rebuild the destroyed". Maybe a slight semantic difference, but it is fundamental.
We have a historical chance for total modernization, because old, Soviet and ugly cannot be rebuilt, only forget. This applies to most state -owned enterprises (SE). If in private production during the shelling it will beat the windows, it will install new or move to a safer region, and any of these decisions will embody quickly. The SE is not able to survive, and even more so during the war, due to budget deficits, corruption, bureaucracy and lack of commercial motivation.
Replacing windows will take months, years. There is a wide discussion between "to sell" and "only the public sector will save. " We are for privatization, although it is obvious that some strategic DP and national security should be under state control.
But if it is really business, not just a resource, the approach should be business: clear criteria for conservation of the State Status, ownership policy, separation of functions of the owner and regulator, cancellation of outdated organizational and legal forms, business plans, professional management of state assets, performance indicators. Even after the state is choosing the best, more than 3000 state and 14,000 utility companies will remain. We will add assets withdrawn from the enemy.
Inaccurate ballast for the country's worse, at the same time - a tremendous hidden resource for its post -war recovery. All this good must go through a "tripod" or sorting, which will result in a mandatory choice: privatization of the enterprise immediately or after corporatization, sale of individual property, public-private partnership, rent, liquidation, bankruptcy.
Only a couple of concessions throughout the country, and even after long peaceful years of preparation, does not add faith in the PPP. A radical reduction in the time of preparation of the projects, their differentiation into "significant" and "small", the introduction of model concessions on the basis of a typical feasibility study are required. Historical, supported by significant investments, private rental states should receive a chance for a simple transformation in concession.
If there are rent, the criteria for confirmation of inalienable improvements, automatic extension of contracts, and a simple replacement of the tenant in the event of its reorganization will be required. Long -term (more than five years) investment lease is also promising.
Investors are interested in, and also ask how to determine the investment of investments to the lease payback period, what parameters should compete with applicants, how ownership rights will be distributed, what guarantees and compensation will be distributed in the event of termination of the contract. Some of these tasks will be solved on international technical assistance projects, which we have the honor to be involved.
Electronic and indistinguishable non -paper format today is safety, uninterrupted work and flexibility of remote management. Due to the rocket and fire, the entire corporate documentation archive is destroyed - the terrible realities of today. It is significant that the state goes to the "figure" much faster than the private sector.
The latter is hindered by: uncertainty of tax audits of electronic document circulation (EDO), archaic archival legislation, differences with EU standards in the field of trust services. Business is afraid of tax audits after moving to EDO: Do taxpayers recognize the reality of e-documents, how to share them, how to respond to the request for printing all primary documents? The state should guarantee EDO's perception in B2B operations, EDO tax audits must be formalized.
To do this, we, together with a number of leading companies, launched the Inspector in the smartphone, which aims to develop rules and development of digital competencies of the tax authorities. The State Archive requires the creation of paper copies of long -term storage documents, duplicating the electronic process. There are also strict requirements for the name and cataloging of documents. Cancel and simplify. Ukraine and the EU have never signed a mutual recognition agreement.
But the approximation to the "digital visa waiver" from the EU has moved from the place. The draft law No. 6173 on recognition of Europe in Ukraine and remote receipt of Keps has recently been adopted. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 1311 on experimental recognition of trust services between Ukraine and the EU. We expect these acts to launch cross -border Edo and open up new opportunities for non -residents in Ukraine even without a special EU agreement.
Digital skeptics indicate a new obstacle - the energy crisis. However, we do not see a decrease in interest. Companies successfully solve power and communication problems. Even during temporary shutdowns, the e-document is processed and advanced faster than its paper postal counterpart, especially in international circulation. The best talents - foreign entrepreneurs have resumed visits to Ukraine, although for some it is military tourism.
The first hunters for opportunities are preparing to start a new business here. This will then become a trend of the free world. The scale of recovery is such that we will not cope. It is necessary to fight for highly qualified foreigners, to give them the regime of the greatest perception in the Ukrainian labor market.
At the same time, labor liberalization is already taking place: recently the Law on Employment has somewhat simplified the employment of foreigners (electronic submission of documents, cancellation of individual permits for each position in case of combination, etc. ). However, this does not change the situation dramatically. When creating a company in Ukraine, it is still impossible to appoint a foreign director immediately.
Temporary Ukrainian is needed only to apply for a foreigner's employment permit. The procedure for foreigners in the representative offices survived the Soviet times - archaic service cards from the Ministry of Economy. Overseas talents, especially toplessers, have more rights. Employment permission should, first, become electronic, and secondly, accessible to new companies with foreign directors. It should also replace service cards for representative offices.
For residence in Ukraine, a foreigner and his family still need visas of type D abroad (except citizens of certain CIS countries), in Ukraine - certificates and a registered place of residence.
Everything should be simplified: to abolish the D-Visa for friendly countries; to provide for the simultaneous declaration/registration of the place of residence of the foreigner when receiving the certificate, only to restrict such registration with the term of validity of the certificate; Allow an online certificate. The Ministor is already testing e-certificates in action.
Logistics, industry and civil servants of restoration and expansion of supply chains are issues of national security and victory. The war has changed and increased demand for new imported goods: the needs of the army, energy, construction, humanitarian sphere. It is important not only to deliver, but also to create products with added value, to localize dependent on imports of production, especially in the MIC, to integrate them into new routes.
Add the problem of agricultural exports and food safety in the world. We need multimodal clusters that will combine production and logistics and reloading capacities. We note the already submitted legislative signals of support: this is a new Art. 43 of the Law on Transport, which stimulates the placement of multimodal terminals during the martial law, as well as tax and customs privileges for industrial park participants (Laws of June 22, 2021 No. 5688 and No.
5689 on amendments to the Tax and Customs Codes investments in industrial production). Useful norms, but rather for our businesses that require relaxation and increase capacities in the western regions. And it is necessary to compete for a new business with neighboring Western countries.
They give industrial parks not only tax benefits, but also arrange construction areas, transfer them to free rent, connect to engineering networks for free, simplify customs procedures, help to train staff and reimburse part of the investment. The only option for us is not to win, but at least to participate in regional investment, in particular with "friendly" Hungary - to give better conditions and incentives.
If the promising law on investment does not justify itself, its rules should be simplified, and the benefits-to grow until the nannies work. But even cool laws do not solve the situation themselves. Another big problem is the institutional capacity of regulators to exercise their direct powers to attract investment. Who has made plans to comply with all these incentive standards, who fulfills, reports and controls them? Civil service reform is needed as ever.