"Ukraine Report 2003," Number 26
Ukraine Market Reform Group
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, April 9, 2003

INDEX OF ARTICLES:

1. FIVE MILLION UKRAINIANS WORKING ILLEGALLY ABROAD--OMBUDSMAN Holos Ukrayina in Ukrainian and the BBC, UK, April 4, 2003

2. LETTER FROM THE UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS COUNCIL TO HIS EXCELLENCY KOSTYANTYN GRYSHCHENKO, UKRAINE'S AMBASSADOR TO THE USA, Kempton Jenkins, President, Washington, D.C., April 8, 2003

3. UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO CANADA YURIY SHCHERBAK REACHES MAXIMUM AGE FOR A DIPLOMAT Interfax-Ukraine news agency in Kiev and BBC, UK, April 08, 2003

4. A FOREIGN TRADE POLICY STRATEGY FOR UKRAINE By Anders Еslund, Consultant, United Nations Development Program Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) Washington, D.C., March 31, 2003

5. "THE EFFECT OF PRIVATIZATION ON SOCIAL WELFARE IN UKRAINE: The Practical Experience of SigmaBleyzer," by The Bleyzer Foundation and SigmaBleyzer, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2003

6. UKRAINE OPENS CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST MEDIA "creating obstacles to the president's execution of his duties and at undermining the president's reputation." Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, April 4, 2003

7. POLISH PRESIDENTIAL OFFICIAL IN UKRAINE FOR 1943 MASSACRE COMMEMORATION TALKS TV Polonia, Warsaw, in Polish, and BBC, UK; Apr 08, 2003

8. BEVERLY BOIWKA'S DECORATED EGG MAKES IT TO THE ANNUAL WHITE HOUSE EASTER EGG DISPLAY Boiwka specializes in decorating eggs Ukrainian style By Ethel Moyers, The Morning Journal, Lorain, Ohio, April 6, 2003

9. NORTH CAROLINA FAMILY ADOPTS A CHILD IN UKRAINE Judi Brinegar, The Courier-Tribune, Asheboro, NC, Sun, April 6, 2003

10. NEW CHIEF OF THE UKRAINE STATE PROPERTY FUND IS A VICTORY FOR THE DONETSK GROUP WHO LOBBIED FOR HIM Zerkalo Nedeli, Kiev, in Russian and BBC, UK, Apr 08, 2003

11. "AGROEXPORT" COMPANY TO CONSTRUCT $ 50 MILLION NEW SUNSEED CRUSHING PLANT IN NIKOLAYEV APK-Inform,  www.agrimarket.info ,  Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, April 1, 2003

12. MCDONALD'S UKRAINE MAKES A MAJOR CUT BACK IN ITS EXPANSION PLANS TO HAVE 99 RESTAURANTS BY 2007 Ukrainian Journal, Kyiv, Ukraine, April 7, 2003

The question of Ukrainians working abroad was one of the issues considered during the 2 April Ukrainian parliamentary session. The following is a report by Olena Ivashko and Anatolyy Ben, who examined the question in the parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrayina.

Five million working abroad - and illegally. The morning and afternoon meeting on 2 April, in a Ukrainian parliamentary session.

(Supreme Council of Ukraine Commissioner for Human Rights) Nina Karpachova appeared before the people's deputies with a special report "on the state of upholding and protecting the rights of Ukrainian citizens abroad". In her words, the question of the migration of Ukrainians today has become a problem on a state level. The majority of Ukrainians are working as illegal migrants, which complicates the issue of their protection considerably.

In Nina Karpachova's words, more than a million Ukrainians are working in the Russian Federation alone, according to information from Ukraine's consulate.

There are 300,000 Ukrainian migrant workers in Poland, 200,000 both in Italy and the Czech Republic, 100,000 in Spain and 20,000 in the United States.

According to official statistics, there are more than 2 million Ukrainian citizens working illegally. However, Nina Karpachova thinks that 5 million is a more realistic figure.

Among the reasons for this process of migration, the main ones are socio-economical and the low incomes of Ukrainian citizens. According to UN rating tables, Ukraine is 102nd in the world in terms of GDP.

In total, an industrial worker earns Hr 3.26 per hour or 0.6 US dollars, which is two times less than in the Czech Republic and 53 times less than in Germany. In practice migrants receive even less.

High unemployment is also a reason for seeking a better fate abroad. Official unemployment for 2002 was 11 per cent. The loss of a highly qualified work force is one of the most acute problems, Nina Karpachova said. If it costs Ukraine 20,000 dollars to train a specialist with higher education, then if he migrates, another country will become 20,000 dollars better off, and Ukraine 20,000 dollars worse off.

From 1997 to 2001 alone, 90,000 citizens with higher education left Ukraine. Five hundred and seventy four doctors of science and 907 candidates of science went abroad, a third of whom were less than 40 years of age.

Nina Karpachova also drew attention to certain positive sides of the migration of Ukrainians abroad. Yes, Ukraine is receiving additional income. Ukrainians working abroad are worth 65 billion dollars. And if you count the revenue entering Ukraine through unofficial channels then this figure hits the 100 billion dollar mark.

This is why Nina Karpachova suggested that privileged terms be created for money transfer operations. [passage omitted: other issues discussed during session]

Kiev, 8 April: Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has issued a decree dismissing Yuriy Shcherbak from the post of Ukrainian ambassador to Canada and Ukraine's representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Shcherbak reached the maximum age for a diplomat, presidential press secretary Olena Hromnytska said.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Ukraine has proceeded far in its postcommunist economic transformation. In recent years, its exports have surged soundly, and they are now driving the country's economic growth. Access to foreign export markets has become a key question for Ukraine's economic future. Trade policy has gained such importance for Ukraine's aspiration's for accelerated growth and reaching its Millenium Development Goals that it should be Ukraine's predominant economic policy and international policy priority. This is an attempt at a formulation of a strategy for foreign trade policy for Ukraine.

The main tenet of Ukraine's trade policy must be to gain early accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). A realistic but ambitious target is 2004. That requires the Ukrainian government to concentrate single-mindedly on resolving all the outstanding issues. The primary focus should be to accelerate the composition and adoption of a final report on Ukraine's trade regime and adopt all the requisite legislation for entry into the WTO.

Second, remaining bilateral issues need to be resolved to complete the seven remaining bilateral negotiations, notably with the US and Moldova. Third, Ukraine should formulate a clear policy on agricultural subsidies and reach agreement with its WTO partners. For Ukraine, swift entry into the WTO is far more important than the exact conditions of accession, because its membership of the WTO is the only plausible basis of its trade policy. The WTO should be seen as a universal tool for all trade policy rather than an end in itself.

As soon as Ukraine has joined the WTO, it should try to improve its market access to key markets by concluding free trade agreements with the other eleven Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the European Union (EU), the US and other key countries.

Ukraine has concluded and ratified a free trade agreement with all the CIS countries. This could serve as a basis for its future trade relations with these states, but this free trade agreement should be based on WTO rules and standards. Ukraine has no reason to waste time on discussing a customs union with any CIS countries, because such an agreement cannot be implemented, and a customs regime designed for countries with very different economic structures will not be beneficial to Ukraine's economic interest. The idea of a currency union in the CIS appears absurd given the devastating failure of the recent currency union and the absence of any advantageous preconditions. Any coordination with CIS countries in Ukraine's accession to the WTO could only complicate and delay it for years. When both Russia and Ukraine have become members of the WTO, they should be able to resolve their many bilateral trade disputes more effectively. To Ukraine, Russia's current discrimination against it in gas pricing is unacceptable and reconcilable with a free trade regime. Russia's export tariffs on natural gas must be abolished or waived, and Russian Gazprom's price discrimination against Ukraine needs to be alleviated.

Ukraine is subject to extreme trade discrimination from the EU. It is not recognized as a market economy, it is not member of the WTO, and it has no free trade agreement with the EU, while its Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the EU has turned out to be almost empty. It suffers badly, having little trade with the EU and enjoying comparative advantages in products, whose importation the EU resists. Ukraine should focus on requesting a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU rather than a complex and nebulous agreement on a Common European Economic Area. First, however, it must become a member of the WTO.

Ukraine has approximately the same problems on the US market as on the EU market, though the US is less important for its trade since it is more distant. Also with the US, Ukraine should aim at a comprehensive free trade agreement, which requires that it first become a member of the WTO.

Ukraine needs to persuade the EU and the US to declare Ukraine a market economy, which it actually is, with free prices, small subsidies, few trade quotas and low import tariffs. The status of a market economy is important for antidumping investigations. Non-market economies have few chances of winning antidumping cases, and as a consequence prohibitively high tariffs are slammed on them. Antidumping cases tend to focus on steel and chemicals, which account or half of Ukraine's exports. This procedure is independent of the WTO accession and bilateral trade negotiations. Both the US and the EU have already acknowledged Kazakhstan and Russia as market economies. The US steel lobby, however, holds back this status for Ukraine, arguing that its steel industry benefits from tax exemptions, but that is no longer the case.

The EU complaint about an excessive role of the state in the Ukrainian economy, which is less tangible and thus harder to counter, but it does not appear a relevant objection.

NOTE: To Read The Entire Aslund Trade Policy Report Click On:

http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/ukr_rep23.htm

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

It is the opinion of SigmaBleyzer that privatization has had a positive overall effect on the quality of life and social welfare of the Ukrainian people. Salaries at privatized companies have increased significantly, sometimes by as much as three or four times. Wage arrears at privatized companies have been paid off faster, in greater amounts, and are currently lower (often by more than 50%) than at non-privatized companies. Tax revenues from privatized companies also exceed those from non-privatized companies. While privatization is still ongoing in Ukraine, these facts clearly indicate the positive dynamics in privatized sectors of the economy.

SigmaBleyzer manages three funds (Ukrainian Growth Funds or UGF) that collectively invested over $100 million in a portfolio of more than 85 privatized companies. Of these investments, approximately ten were controlling stakes. At these companies, SigmaBleyzer was able to help turnaround struggling businesses that had been privatized. These included the Sevastopol Shipyard (SSY), Poltava Confectionery, the Makiivka Pipe Rolling Plant, the Zaporizhya Meat Processing Plant, and others. We have seen the difference that a private investor can make at every one of these companies. And while the results to date differ for various companies in the UGF portfolio, many would have gone bankrupt without privatization.

The examples of Sevastopol Shipyard, Poltava Confectionery, Berdyansk Agricultural Machinery, and the Melitopol Tractor Hydro Units Plant, described in this paper, will show how a company turnaround can improve the lot of the average citizen. The improvement of these companies created jobs, improved local tax collection revenues, helped local small and medium businesses grow, and increased consumer spending. Yet these turnarounds positioned the companies for even greater future growth. These trends are expected to accelerate as the companies continue to grow. As a result, we expect to see an ever increasing gap between privatized and non-privatized companies.

But even at those companies that we do not control, there is significant evidence that suggests that privatization has played an important role in improving social welfare. Our portfolio companies' evidence shows how government debts and wage arrears declined significantly, money that went directly into people's pockets. Wages also appear to have increased, which is supported by national trends.

Privatization in Ukraine did not hit its peak until the 1996-1998 period, and therefore, only now is an effective analysis becoming possible at many companies. We believe that over time, the evidence will clearly show that privatization has directly improved social welfare, despite the knowledge that the privatization process could have been much more transparent. We also believe that had Ukraine elected a much faster privatization pace at an earlier stage of country independence (for example in the 1992-1994 time frame), the positive social impact would have been much more pronounced by now.

NOTE: To read the entire Ukraine privitization paper by SB click on:

http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/sb_privat.htm

Kyiv. (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has opened a criminal case against a number of media outlets regarding the publication of certain articles criticizing the president.

Presidential press secretary Olena Hromnitskaya said on Tuesday that "these insulting and defamatory materials are aimed at creating obstacles to the president's execution of his duties and at undermining the president's reputation."

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Mass Media Institute said earlier that the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against Tamara Prosyanik, editor-in-chief of the Infomatsionny Byulleten (Information Bulletin) opposition daily, concerning the December 5, 2002 publication of an article entitled "One Million Dollars for the Head of Giya Gongadze."

From 30,000 to 60,000 Poles who had refused to leave Volhynia perished in the course of massacres carried out by units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army [UPA] and by Ukranian peasants.

The details of the plan will be revealed only after it has been confirmed by the presidents of Poland and Ukraine. Veterans' organizations in Ukraine and right-wing parties are against the organization of commemorations together with Poland. Here is a report from Jaroslaw Romanowski.

Reconciliation has opponents on both sides of the border. The Polish and Ukrainian authorities intend to organize joint ceremonies on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the tragedy and to guarantee the families of the victims the possibility of visiting the cemeteries.

This one in (?Porytsk), where among others there are 50 Poles buried who were burnt to death in a church by the UPA in 1943, is in the care of the Ukrainian authorities.

Brownhelm Township, Ohio-------- Beverly Boiwka's suitcase is packed and she's going to Washington, D.C. Her egg, decorated with an Ohio Bicentennial design, will represent the state in the annual White House Easter Egg display.

Boiwka, who specializes in decorating eggs in Ukrainian style, had her design chosen for the honor last summer by the Ohio Poultry Association.

The contest is sponsored nationally by the American Egg Board.

When she received the phone call at her Brownhelm Township home, she said she froze.

''I was just flabbergasted and asked her to repeat what she said,'' Boiwka said.

Boiwka's chicken-size egg has a white background with a script ''Ohio'' on the front in blue. On the back of the egg is the Ohio flag, and a star design divides the front and back as a border.

Boiwka and her husband, Stephen, plan to be present for the display's opening on April 14, 2003. The collection will be on display for three weeks.

Boiwka, 57, first learned about Ukrainian egg decorating after marrying into a Ukrainian family. Her husband's parents had immigrated, first to Germany then to America, to escape communism in the former Soviet Union.

''When they got to America in 1949 all they had was one bowl, one spoon, the clothes on their backs and Stephen,'' she said.

''I was a young bride and I basically went to class to find out about his heritage and how the process was done,'' Boiwka said.

Boiwka explained the art is called Pysanky, meaning ''to write.''

''You're not painting eggs. You're writing on eggs and telling a story,'' she said.

As a child growing up in the Firelands School District, Boiwka's favorite subject was art and at home she was always painting or drawing.

As an adult, Boiwka took her crocheted and cross-stitched needlework to craft bazaars to sell, but left her eggs at home.

One day a friend encouraged her to take along her eggs to sell. She immediately found them to be a hit and believes the symbols on the eggs attract shoppers to her craft table.

She called attention to one egg with an eight-pointed figure.

''When Ukraine was a pagan country, this meant the sun would come back in the spring,'' she said. ''When it became a Christian country they changed it to mean the son of God coming back to life at Easter.''

Pysanky is a time-consuming process with many steps, according to Boiwka.

First, she draws a line design in bees wax on the white shell. Then, with special dyes, add yellow, green, orange, and red colors, in that order.

After each color dye, wax is applied to the part that is to remain that color. Lastly, black dye is added, but wax is not applied, she said.

''Then comes the fun stage. You hold the egg over a candle flame and melt the wax. Then all the colors pop out,'' she said.

Finally, her husband's job is to blow out the contents of the eggs with a special instrument, once the bottom of each egg is punctured.

Boiwka has demonstrated her skills to teach others in various places through the years.

A duplicate of her Bicentennial egg is on display at the Silverthorne Gallery, 19055 Lake Road, Rocky River, Ohio.

In December, Boiwka presented Gov. Bob Taft and his wife, Hope, with the Ohio Bicentennial egg.

''I didn't realize it, but the governor's wife is an egg collector,'' she said.

In Washington, Boiwka hopes to meet First Lady Laura Bush at the ceremony.

Boiwka said the eggs, representing each of the 50 states, will be displayed in clear Lucite tubes grouped in a spiral shape.

''You can see every egg from all angles,'' Boiwka said.

Boiwka not only decorates chicken eggs, which she sells for $15 to $50 each, but decorates quail eggs that sell for $15, goose eggs that sell for $40 to $80 and ostrich eggs that cost $300.

But for Boiwka, her White House egg is priceless as it will remain in the presidential collection and tell the story of Ohio and its 200-year celebration of statehood.

Randleman, North Carolina..Anne and Richard Weinblatt of Randleman left March 1, 2003 on a journey that would change their lives forever.

The change came in the form of a 17-month-old Ukrainian boy with blond hair and blue eyes.

The Weinblatts met in Charlotte in 1999 while attending a foster parenting class for singles.

One year later, they were married and thinking of starting a family of their own.

"We did foster parenting for a couple of years," said Anne. "When we decided to start a family, going with an international adoption was better for us because of our ages."

"We also realized that by being foster parents, we were getting other people's baggage," said Richard, with a laugh. "We decided to adopt to give a kid our own baggage!"

In all sincerity, the Weinblatts (45-year-old Anne works from home and Richard, who is 40, is chief of police in the city of Randleman) knew that an international adoption would be the route they would pursue.

Enter Michael Paul.

Born Oleksander "Sasha" Sergiyovych in Ukraine on October 2001, he was given up for adoption at birth. His parents were both 16 years old.

"The people over there are very poor," said Richard. "They come from the outlying region into Odessa, have their babies and give them up, simply because they can't afford to take care of them."

The Weinblatts went through a rigorous investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the state department and had an in-depth home study. They were also required to have physical exams and disclose their financial status.

"They wanted to make sure we could take care of a child after we got home," said Richard. "It was a lot to go through, but we didn't mind."

The entire process took a year and, according to the couple, was well worth the wait.

"We got a call in late January that they had a baby for us," said Anne. "I was so excited. I knew that Richard was going into a meeting in 5 minutes, but had to call him. I kept saying "March 2, March 2" and he was like "What?"

"He finally understood what I was trying to tell him - that we had to be over there on March 2 to get our baby."

Final preparations were made and the couple left from Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 1.

Anne and Richard arrived in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, 17 hours later. They immediately left for Odessa, where the orphanage was located.

The Weinblatts said that there were 175 children in the orphanage where Michael lived. Two caregivers were assigned to care for every 15 children and the orphanage was allotted just 40 cents a day to feed and clothe each child.

Michael's only nourishment was a bottle of formula two times a day - because it was the least expensive way to feed him.

"When we saw him for the first time, he was in this big red snowsuit and he was so pale and skinny," said Richard. "He was about the size of a 9-month-old, but he was actually a 17-month-old.

"We could tell that he had blue eyes and when we pulled off the two hats he was wearing, we saw his blond hair.

"Anne and I just looked at each other and knew that he was ours."

The couple spent three weeks in the Ukraine, taking care of paperwork and bonding with their new son.

"He has come a long way," said Richard. "At first, he would just lay there and couldn't communicate or even hold his own bottle. Remember, he was confined to two rooms for the first 16 months of his life and was hardly ever taken outside."

Since arriving home on March 21, new mom Anne said that Michael is still trying to get used to all of the sunshine, but now he is walking, trying to talk, and eating solid food.

"He had his first chicken nugget last night," she said.

"He is really coming out," said Richard. "It's almost like a time-lapse photograph to see him speeding through things - every day is something new."

The Weinblatts said that when Michael is older, they will tell him that he is adopted.

"He will know that he is adopted," said Richard. "We also had to re-adopt him when we got back to the United States, so for now, he will hold dual citizenship.

"When he is 18, it will be up to him to decide what he wants to do or who he wants to share that information with."

Knowing that Michael needs the "extra-special" love and care, Anne and Richard enjoy spending quality time with him - teaching him how to be a typical little boy.

"I can't imagine life without him now," said Anne. "The trip was harder than we expected, but it was worth it."

The couple encourages anyone who is considering international adoption to talk to others who have been through it.

"We would be glad to share our experiences with anyone who would like to know about it," added Richard. "It's a lot of work and there are a lot of things you have to know about and do to adopt one of these kids."

Watching her husband as he hurried to greet their son when he came into the room, Anne summed up what it feels like to have this special little boy in their lives.

"Can't you tell that Michael already has Richard wrapped around his little finger?"

The appointment of Mykhaylo Chechetov as the new chief of the State Property Fund is a victory for the Donetsk group, which lobbied his appointment, according to the influential weekly Zerkalo Nedeli. Chechetov, former deputy chairman of the privatization agency, knows the rules of the game and there is no reason to expect any improvement in Ukraine's dismal privatization record following his promotion, the journalist argues.

The following is the text of an article by journalist Natalya Yatsenko, published in Zerkalo Nedeli on 5 April; the subheadings have been inserted editorially:

An orange-and-black T-shirt [colours of the Shakhtar Donetsk football club] is sticking from under the suit of the State Property Fund's new chief, and Mr Chechetov is trying in vain to conceal this fact. All who need to know are aware that the "Donetsk group" orchestrated [Oleksandr] Bondar's dismissal in Chechetov's favour. However, the fact that the appointment went strictly according to plan is an exception rather than the norm.

To have one of your own people as the head of the fund actually means that the orange-and-black have now scored their first goal since their capture of the Cabinet of Ministers late last autumn [reference to the appointment of former Donetsk governor Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister]. The head of the State Committee for Communication is still standing, you see, and attempts [by the Donetsk group] to replace him with Mr Netudykhata have not been successful so far.

On 1 April, when the procedure of replacing the head of the privatization agency was discussed at the meeting of the Supreme Council special commission for privatization, it was exactly five years since Leonid Kuchma appointed Oleksandr Bondar the acting head of the State Property Fund by his decree. Five years on the field of de-nationalization means a whole eternity. Over the past 12 years of privatization, Ukraine has had four privatization chiefs - Volodymyr Pryadko, Yuriy Yekhanurov, Volodymyr Lanovyy and finally Oleksandr Bondar, the only one who spent five years as the Fund's chairman, not a day less.

He could not help seeing the crisis as it developed over the past few years and as that the gap between words and deeds in the field of privatization continued to expand. As clans were taking over the whole privatization campaign, privatization programmes were becoming ever more voluminous and promises to ensure transparency, accountability and guarantees ever more hollow. And as privatization revenue targets were becoming ever higher in each successive budget, the actual revenues were falling from paltry to outright ridiculous, and competitions were suspended without declaring a winner ever more often.

Clearly, it is becoming simply indecent to continue in this groove - after all Ukraine is not the only country in the world, and too many countries are no longer even surprised by our actions. Well, now they seem to have an ostensible reason to launch some kind of reform - the head of the SPF has handed in his resignation.

No reason for optimism

I like the "optimism" of [First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister] Mykola Azarov, who said in a radio interview on Thursday [3 April], right after the successful vote in the Supreme Council on Mykhaylo Chechetov's candidacy, that his appointment would add transparency to the privatization process. I keep wondering - what could it mean? Theoretically one could expect that the new chief will oppose, say, adding new requirements for entering privatization competitions or oppose the suspension of trade in the shares of companies to be privatized.

But Mr Chechetov is not a new man in the fund, he is fully aware of the balance of political forces, he knows the "rules of the game" and since 1999 he has been taking part in it as best as he could. I may be wrong, but he would hardly risk losing a chair it took so much trouble getting him into.

There will be changes in the fund, but hardly anything drastic. MPs will adopt a new privatization programme, which will be a mixture of ordinary procedural norms and dangerous corruption mechanisms, such as competitions with a limited number of participants. I think that even the State Property Fund employees themselves, deep down in their hearts, would like to do something different, to have some fresh ideas after all! They would like to be given an opportunity to take independent decisions on privatization without having to look back at the Cabinet of Ministers all the time. They would like to see real life at the end of the tunnel!

But ideas are scarce and the political will for clearing up the privatization process in Ukraine is obviously hard to come by. That is the reason why the list of candidates to chair the privatization agency was not so long. It is noteworthy that not one of the political heavyweights even began to discuss the possibility of his becoming the chairman of the State Property Fund.

Various political forces argued over the post of the first deputy, probably without realizing that over the past 12 years this post has turned into something of an honourable exile. I remember that one of the first deputies was an expert on sheep breeding, while another one liked to discuss the "Communist Manifesto" [by Karl Marx], but privatization in this country has survived even this...[ellipsis as published]

By and large, there was no alternative to Mr Chechetov as the new head of the State Property Fund in 2003. This was partly due to his privatization experience and strong political support of the government and the Regions of Ukraine Party, but mainly because he is a rather predictable man. It is very dangerous to bet on a sleeper in privatization, even if he is somebody's favourite - what if he gives a kick?

Chechetov's background: Mykhaylo Chechetov was born on 3 October 1953 in Kursk Region (Russia) into a miner's family.

He began working in 1971 as a fitter at a dressing factory of the Yunkom mine. After serving in the army he graduated from the Kharkiv economic and engineering institute and finished postgraduate studies. He has a degree in economics. In 1982-1994 he was a teacher, senior lecturer, professor and dean of the department of economics at the same institute.

In 1994-98 he was a people's deputy of the Ukrainian Supreme Council from Constituency 215 (Donetsk Region).

From July 1998 till September 1999 he was a deputy minister of economics. In September 1999 he was appointed first deputy chairman of the State Property Fund. He is a member of the presidium of the Regions of Ukraine Party. He is married and has a daughter.

Company Agroexport from Nikolayev region plans to have commissioned by the start of new oil crushing season in September a new oil extraction plant with initial processing capacity of 300,000 tonnes of sunflower seeds daily.

Processing capacity will be subsequently increased to 1 million tonnes of seeds a day.

The cost of the project is estimated to be equal to $50.5 million.

The company's spokesman said the plant would specialise in producing sunoil and sunmeal exclusively for export, being the only Ukraine's crushing facility, located next to a port. It will allow saving up to $50 of transportation costs per tonne of oil in the process of export shipments.

Agroexport is one in five largest grain trading companies in Ukraine. It has exported more than 1 million tonnes of the 2002 crop grain and sold large amount of sunflower seeds in recent years.

The company owns 11 grain elevators for 800,000 tonnes of total storage capacity, a fleet of trade vessels and a terminal to tranship grains and oilseeds from river onto marine transport.

Kyiv, Ukraine.....McDonald's Ukraine plans to close its real estate department suggesting the company will further cut its expansion plans in Ukraine, an industry source reported, according to the Ukrainian Journal.

The real estate department will be closed down beginning May 1, the source said. The department is in charge of finding and leasing or buying land plots for new restaurants.

The company said last month it has cut its original expansion plans and now only plans to open four restaurants in Ukraine in 2003. It has initiallly planned to invest another $50 million by 2007 in order to double the number of its Ukrainian restaurants to ninety-nine. This plan has now been delayed and would be reconsidered later probably in 2005.

The company said it has invested more than 500 million hryvnias ($93 million) in its business development in Ukraine since opening the first restaurant in Kyiv in mid-1977. The company currently operates 52 restaurants in Ukraine and employs 4,000 people.