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COMPLETED PROJECTS 2002 - 2007 Supported with funds from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO) The project promoted the development of the private sector in Ukraine by helping joint stock companies develop sound corporate governance and financial management practices. The project also worked closely with government agencies to strengthen national corporate governance regulations and guidelines, and partners with educational institutions to develop corporate governance, financial management and investment-related curricula. In addition, the project worked to increase public awareness of corporate development issues.  More...Ukraine Agribusiness Development Project 2002 - 2005 Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Building on six years of IFC’s work in Ukraine on farm privatization and reorganization, the Partnership has launched several major agribusiness initiatives. The goal of these initiatives was to support the viability and growth of local farms and mobilize investment in the agricultural sector. Specifically, the program worked with local farms to improve the quality and reliability of the local supply of raw agricultural and dairy produce to processors to make investment in food processing more feasible. The program advised family farms (ranging in size from 2 to 500 hectares of land) on farm reorganization and property rights, trained them in agribusiness and financial management, and introduced modern agronomic methods and technology. It has also facilitated links between local supplier farms and foreign processors investing in Ukraine. This investment-linked work was supported by both active participation in legislative and policy issues affecting the agricultural sector and a nationwide public information campaign to promote reform. For example, the program team participated in drafting the new Land Code, which secures the private ownership of land in Ukraine and which was signed into law by President Kuchma on November 13, 2001. Additionally, the program worked to reform other legislation affecting the development of the competitive agribusiness sector in such areas as real estate, collateral, arbitration courts, land leasing, land titles, and family farming. Ukraine Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Policy Project 2003 - 2005 Funded by the Government of Norway through IFC’s Technical Assistance Trust Funds IFC has been conducting annual surveys of SMEs in Ukraine since 1996. The Ukraine SME surveys, which focus on administrative and regulatory barriers to business operations, are used by the government and other interested stakeholders to monitor trends in SME sector development, and assist in prioritizing the issues currently facing small business in Ukraine. IFC widely publicizes the findings of the surveys and relies on them in its work with government officials and legislators, to help remove legal and administrative constraints to SME development. Recommendations and advisory activities resulting from the surveys have directly contributed to amending 26 laws affecting Ukrainian SMEs. Thanks to the legislative changes, the number of government inspections of SMEs has decreased from an average of 76 per year to 14, the number of business activities requiring licensing has been reduced from 100 to 62, while business registration procedures have been drastically simplified. The Ukraine SME Policy project was focused on policy advisory activities on improving the system of obtaining permits for business start-up. The project worked directly with regulatory officials, to conduct an in-depth study of the issuance process of a number of key permits, and simultaneously worked with NGOs and the private sector to raise public awareness of the issue. Ukraine Corporate Governance Project 1997 - 2002 Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and, through IFC's Technical Assistance Trust Funds Program, by the British Know-How Fund (BKHF), the Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (Senter), and by the Government of Japan. To improve the investment climate in Ukraine, the project worked directly with newly-privatized medium and large enterprises training about 13 percent of Ukraine's active corporations, providing over 5,000 consultations, and advising 67 pilot enterprises on sound corporate governance practices. Almost 50 percent of the pilot enterprises found greater success in initiating negotiations with investors, attracting investment, finding partners, and obtaining financing. To improve corporate governance regulations, the project contributed to six pieces of legislation regulating a number of corporate matters from issuing securities to holding a general shareholders' meeting. To ensure that future managers in Ukraine are aware of the importance of good governance and have the skills to practice it, the project trained more that 300 professors and introduced corporate governance topic into curricular of 23 universities, which that now teach 3,500 students a year about corporate governance. IFC continues its Ukraine Corporate Governance Program with a new Corporate Development Project, launched in the spring 2002. Ukraine Business Development Project 1998 - 2001 Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) The Business Development Project created 11 self-sustaining consulting centers throughout Ukraine. These centers, united into the Ukraine Consulting Network (UCN), advise local SMEs on a fee-for-service basis on a wide range of modern business consulting services and advocate policy reform on the issues affecting SMEs. By the end of 2000 the centers helped their clients mobilize USD 13.8 million. UCN, with IFC's support and coordination with IBRD and the IMF, has helped to introduce 25 laws that have lowered the number of government inspections of SMEs from an average of 76 to 10 per year, reduced the number of business activities requiring licensing from 56 to 41, and drastically simplified business registration procedures. The Partnership completed the Project in May 2001 but will continue to cooperate with UCN. Specifically, as part of the Partnership's future extension of advisory services to Uzbekistan, 14 Uzbek consultants will visit UCN for hand-on training in September 2001. Additionally, within the framework of the Business Development Project, the Partnership analyzed Ukraine's legal base for leasing and took the lead in drafting a new Law on Leasing. The draft law recently passed in the second reading (out of three) in the Parliament. Unfinished Construction Site Divestiture Project 1996 - 2001 Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) In 1996, IFC's Ukraine Small-Scale Privatization Project, funded by USAID, designed an auction model for privatizing abandoned unfinished construction sites and turning them into new businesses, mostly SMEs. Since then more than 12,000 unfinished construction sites have been privatized in Ukraine, of which 25% were privatized with IFC's support. According to a recent survey, of the 7,012 unfinished construction sites privatized between 1997 and 1999, 1,332 are now complete. These newly created businesses employ 62,600 people, including 21,312 women; pay a total of about 33 million USD in wages annually; and contributed about 25 million USD to local budgets in 2000. To solidify the legal framework and institutionalize the process of privatizing unfinished construction sites, the Partnership worked with government officials and legislators to pass the Law on Specific Features of Unfinished Construction Site Privatization in September 2000. The Partnership completed the Project in May 2001 after the successful transfer of privatization know-how to local state property funds. The Partnership also adopted this auction-based privatization model to spin-off idle or underutilized assets of large enterprises. This model will be incorporated into the Partnership's future initiatives on corporate development advice to local companies. | SITE TOOLS  
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