OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2008. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will further work on lowering of fallout of the global financial crunch on Ukraine’s economy. Volodymyr Novytsky, Minister of Industrial Policy announced during a press conference in the House of Government.

The most important antirecessionary measures of the Cabinet of Ministers, as the Minister put it, appear approved during the last Govt’s sittings ordinances, directed to the support of chemical and mining and smelting branches.

Among the approved ones he singled out ordinance №525 which will enable enterprises of mining and smelting complex to prolong paying unraised tariffs for electric energy and trasport by the end of 2009. This document exempts enterprises of mining and smelting and chemical complex from a special due for natural gas in the amount of 12.6% which was obligatory for different categories of consumers.

Another serious step of the Government, according to the Minister of Industrial Policy, is a resolution on supply of agrarians with fertilizers of national production which enables them to more actively use funds of the Agrarian fund as well as a resolution which envisages that from now on enterprises of mining and smelting complex will pay not full prepayment but only an advance to the tune of 50% for the consumed natural gas. They will not pay an addition for realization of gas either.

“The world financial crisis first of all refers to export-oriented branches, such as mining and smelting and chemical industries. And these are the branches which make up more than one third of GDP in Ukraine,” the Minister stressed.

Volodymyr Novytsky reminded to the participants that Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko conducts a series of meetings joined to the state of matters in the branches and elaborating of plans directed to minimizing the consequences of the global financial crunch. The meetings with agrarians, builders, metallurgists, chemists have taken place already. A meeting with machine-builders is on the agenda. These plans lay the basis for corresponding normative-legal documents which are further approved during the Gov’t meetings or prepared as the drafts of respective laws.

To summarise the meetings the Government signs Memorandums with participants of the markets in which it assumes obligations to ready and support the measures targeting improvement of situation in Ukrainian economy. The enterprises are obliged to preserve current number of workplaces and social standards.