У Верховній Раді представили проект закону про Державний бюджет України на 2018 рік.

У засіданні взяли участь члени Кабміну на чолі з прем’єр-міністром Володимиром Гройсманом.

«Цього року ми зробили ще один важливий крок на шляху до прозорого, передбачуваного та ефективного бюджетного процесу. Вперше за всю історію бюджетування ми розпочали реальне запровадження середньострокового бюджетного планування», – сказав міністр фінансів Олександр Данилюк.

Міністр заявив, що «цей бюджет є реалістичним, збалансованим, прозорим, розрахованим на перспективу і таким, який містить чіткі пріоритети та дозволяє ефективно використовувати бюджетні кошти».

Кабінет міністрів вніс до парламенту проект закону про держбюджет 15 вересня, в останній день, коли згідно з Бюджетним кодексом, мав це зробити. Документ, зокрема, передбачає доходи бюджету на наступний рік у сумі понад 877 мільярдів гривень, видатки – більш ніж 948 мільярдів гривень.

Показник дефіциту закладений у межах 77,9 мільярда гривень, а річне зростання реального ВВП очікується на рівні 3%.

Крім того, відповідно до проекту держбюджету, з 1 січня 2018 року планується збільшення мінімальної заробітної плати в Україні на 523 гривень – до 3 723 гривень. Курс гривні на кінець наступного року уряд прогнозує на рівні 30,1 гривні за долар США. 

Минулого року держбюджет-2017 депутати ухвалили вночі 21 грудня 2016 року.
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German carmaker Mercedes-Benz has announced plans to invest $1 billion to start making electric vehicles at its manufacturing plant in the southern U.S. state of Alabama.

The luxury automaker said it will manufacture electric SUVs under Mercedes’ EQ subbrand at the plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in just more than three years. The expansion is expected to create 600 jobs.

Daimler-Benz, which has more than 30 plants worldwide, said the Tuscaloosa plant will become the first in the U.S. to produce electric vehicles, and only the sixth in the world to do so.

Construction is to begin next year on the 92,900-square-meter facility. Daimler also said it will build a new global logistics center and aftersales North American hub in Bibb County, Alabama, about 8 kilometers from the Tuscaloosa plant.
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The United States will present new proposals and begin to weigh into thornier issues of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the third round of negotiations starting in Ottawa Saturday, U.S. chief negotiator John Melle said Thursday.

The stepped-up negotiations come with four more rounds of talks left after Ottawa and a self-imposed year-end deadline to finish the talks before Mexico launches campaigning for its July presidential election.

“With progress made in several issue areas in the first two NAFTA negotiation rounds, USTR (United States Trade Representative) looks to move forward with additional new text proposals in round three of the negotiations,” Melle said in comments emailed to Reuters.

“At this point in the negotiations, more challenging issues will start taking center stage,” he added, without elaborating.

Third round

The first two rounds of talks between the United States, Canada and Mexico focused on consolidating language on chapters covering small- and medium-sized enterprises, competitiveness, digital trade, services and the environment.

Now, negotiators will begin to weigh into more contentious issues such as rules of origin — how much of a product’s components must originate from within North America — labor standards aimed at increasing Mexican wages and mechanisms for resolving trade and investment disputes.

In its negotiating strategy for revising NAFTA ahead of the start of the talks in July, the United States said it would emphasize reducing the U.S. trade deficit as a priority.

It also said it wanted to eliminate an arbitration system for resolving trade disputes, known as Chapter 19, that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

Canada has suggested it will walk away from the talks if Chapter 19 is tossed aside.

Dispute resolution, sunset clause

Politico reported Thursday that the United States was considering dropping a binding mechanism in NAFTA for resolving government-to-government disputes in favor of an advisory system.

The proposal would be a major shift away from a decades-old push by the United States to build an international system of enforceable trade rules, Politico reported.

Canada and Mexico have dismissed a proposal by the Trump administration to add a five-year sunset provision to NAFTA.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said last week such a provision was needed because forecasts for U.S. export and job growth when NAFTA took effect in 1994 were “wildly optimistic” and failed to live up to expectations.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told Reuters Sept. 15 that the sunset clause was unnecessary because the pact’s members can trigger a renegotiation or leave it at any time.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked NAFTA and threatened to tear up the agreement, Mexico has pushed to secure more access to the European Union, Brazil, Israel, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Polls show support for NAFTA

A Reuters poll of economists Thursday found that Mexico and Canada will survive current talks with the United States on trade relatively unscathed.

Meanwhile, a separate poll by IPSOS published Thursday showed broad-based support among Americans, Canadians and Mexicans for NAFTA.
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When officials from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon toured six European countries in June, they were hoping to drum up investment in transport, energy and education.

Instead, they were bombarded with questions about the country’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have long complained of persecution by the Buddhist majority in the oil-rich, ethnically divided, western state of Rakhine.

“In each of every country, that issue was always brought up,” Hlaing Maw Oo, secretary of Yangon City Development Committee, told Reuters after the 16-day trip.

The situation in Rakhine has worsened dramatically since then, with more than 400,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh to escape a military counterinsurgency offensive the United Nations has described as “ethnic cleansing.”

Western trade and investment in Myanmar is small, but there were hopes that a series of reforms this year would pry open an economy stunted by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement under military rule.

With most sanctions now lifted, an expected flood of Western money was seen as a key dividend from the transition to civilian rule under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Regional diplomats saw it balancing China’s growing influence over its neighbor.

But Aung San Suu Kyi has been beset by international criticism for saying little about human rights abuses against the Rohingya, and lawyers, consultants and lobbyists say the European and U.S. companies that had been circling are now wary of the reputational risks of investing in the country.

Louis Yeung, managing principal of Yangon-based investment firm Faircap Partners, said one of his business partners — a listed, U.S.-based food and beverage company — decided to hold off its plan to enter the Myanmar market for three to five years, citing factors including slower-than-expected reforms and the Rohingya crisis.

“Their conclusion is that it wasn’t the right time for them,” he said. “They want to see more traction from the government and Rakhine is not helpful.”

On hold

The pressure has been growing in recent months, even on existing investors, with rights group AFD International calling on foreign firms to stop investing in Myanmar.

A small group of investors in U.S. oil major Chevron filed an unsuccessful motion at its annual general meeting urging it to pull out of its production-sharing contract with a state-run firm to explore for oil and gas, while Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor, which runs a mobile network in Myanmar, issued a statement calling for human rights protection.

Chevron declined to comment on its investment in Myanmar, while Telenor did not respond to several requests for comment.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, said last week his delegation postponed a visit to Myanmar indefinitely, saying the human rights situation “does not allow a fruitful discussion on a potential EU-Myanmar investment agreement.”

Khin Aung Tun, vice chairman of the Myanmar Tourism Federation, told Reuters that global firms planning to hold conferences in Myanmar were now considering other locations.

“People were just starting to see Myanmar as a ‘good news’ story,” said Dane Chamorro, head of South East Asia at Control Risks, a global risk consultancy.

“Now you can imagine a boardroom in which someone mentions Myanmar and someone else says ‘hold on, I’ve just seen something on Myanmar on TV: villages burned down, refugees, etc.'”

In an interview published in Nikkei Asia Review on Thursday, Aung San Suu Kyi acknowledged it was “natural” for foreign investors to be concerned, but repeated her view that economic development was the key to solving poor Rakhine’s long-standing problems.

“So, investments would actually help make the situation better,” she said.

In China’s orbit

Myanmar’s $70 billion economy should be a strong investment proposition for Western firms. It boasts large oil and gas reserves and natural resources such as rubies, jade and timber.

Wages are low and its youthful population of more than 50 million is eager for retail and manufacturing jobs.

In April, Myanmar passed a long-awaited investment law, simplifying procedures and granting foreign investors equal treatment to the locals. A game-changing law allowing foreigners to buy stakes in local firms is expected later this year.

“The investment conditions were improving,” said Dustin Daugherty, ASEAN lead for business intelligence at Dezan Shira & Associates, a consultancy for foreign investors in Asia.

Myanmar’s economy may not suffer much, however, if Western firms shun the country — or even if their governments were to reimpose some sanctions, although that appears unlikely for now.

Aung San Suu Kyi has sought to deepen relations with China at a time when Beijing is keen to push projects that fit with its Belt and Road initiative, which aims to stimulate trade by investment in infrastructure throughout Asia and beyond.

Myanmar trades with China as much as it does with its next four biggest partners: Singapore, Thailand, Japan and India.

None of that top five participated in previous sanctions.

Trade with the United States is only about $400 million and U.S. investment is just 0.5 percent of the total. Europe accounts for around a 10th of investment, while China and Hong Kong make up more than a third, and Singapore and Thailand another third.

Than Aung Kyaw, Deputy Director General of Myanmar’s Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, told Reuters that European investors might have “second thoughts,” but he expected Asian investors to stay put.

China is already in talks to sell electricity to energy-hungry Myanmar and pushing for preferential access to a strategic port on the Bay of Bengal. In April, the two countries reached an agreement on an oil pipeline that pumps oil across Myanmar to southwest China.

“It is going to feed Aung San Suu Kyi straight into the hands of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping,” said John Blaxland, director at the ANU Southeast Asia Institute and head of the Strategic and Defense Studies Center.
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У Фонді державного майна розраховують провести приватизацію Одеського припортового заводу навесні 2018 року. Про це заявив виконувач обов’язків голови ФДМ Віталій Трубаров.

«Ми провели конкурс з відбору оцінювачів, і вони вже працюють, щоб у встановлені терміни закінчити оцінку ОПЗ. Зважаючи на те, наскільки важливим є підприємство для регіону та країни, Фонд не може дозволити собі зволікати з проведенням його прозорої та ефективної приватизації, завдяки якій були б вирішені всі проблемні питання його роботи і він вийшов на нормальну ефективну діяльність», – зазначив Трубанов, якого цитує прес-служба ФДМ.

Публічне акціонерне товариство «Одеський припортовий завод» – це гігантський український виробничий комплекс, що працює з 1978 року. Він розташований за 30 кілометрів від Одеси і займає площу 250 гектарів. Основна продукція – карбамід та аміак – мінеральні добрива, які використовують аграрії. Понад 20 років держава намагається його продати, проте приватизація щоразу зривається.
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The Standard & Poor’s rating agency cut China’s credit rating Thursday due to its rising debts, highlighting challenges faced by Communist leaders as they cope with slowing economic growth.

The downgrade added to mounting warnings about the dangers of increasing Chinese debt, which has fueled fears of a banking crisis or a drag on economic growth. Moody’s Investors Service cut its own rating for China in May.

S&P lowered its rating on China’s sovereign debt by one notch from AA- to A+, still among its highest ratings. The agency had given a warning sign of a possible downgrade in March 2016 when it changed China’s outlook to negative.

“A prolonged period of strong credit growth has increased China’s economic and financial risks,” S&P said in a statement. “Although this credit growth had contributed to strong real GDP growth and higher asset prices, we believe it has also diminished financial stability to some extent.”

The ratings cut, announced after Chinese financial markets closed for the day, could raise Beijing’s borrowing costs slightly, but the more significant impact is on investor sentiment.

Phone calls to the Chinese Finance Ministry were not answered. After the Moody’s downgrade in May, the ministry said the agency had used improper methods and misunderstood China’s economic difficulties and financial strength.

Communist leaders have cited reducing financial risk as a priority this year. They have launched initiatives to reduce debts owed by state companies, including by allowing banks to accept stock as repayment on loans. But private sector analysts say they are moving too slowly.

Beijing relied on repeated infusions of credit to prop up growth after the 2008 global crisis.

That helped propel total nongovernment debt to the equivalent of 257 percent of annual economic output by the end of last year, according to the Bank for International Settlements. That is unusually high for a developing country and up from 143 percent in 2008.

Chinese economic growth fell from 14.2 percent in 2007 to 6.7 percent last year, though that still was among the world’s strongest.

The government is trying to make the economy more productive by giving market forces a bigger role. It is trying to shrink bloated industries such as steel and cement in which supply exceeds demand, which has depressed prices and led to financial losses.

Beijing is trying to steer the economy to slower, more sustainable growth based on domestic consumption instead of investment and exports. But growth has dipped faster than planners wanted, raising the risk of politically dangerous job losses. Beijing has responded by flooding the economy with credit.

Official efforts to rein in debt “could stabilize the trend of financial risk in the medium term,” S&P said. “However, we foresee that credit growth in the next two to three years will remain at levels that will increase financial risks gradually.”

S&P kept its outlook for China stable. It said that reflected expectations the country will “maintain robust economic performance over the next three to four years.”

“We may raise our ratings on China if credit growth slows significantly and is sustained well below the current rates while maintaining real GDP growth at healthy levels,” S&P said. “A downgrade could ensue if we see a higher likelihood that China will ease its efforts to stem growing financial risk and allow credit growth to accelerate to support economic growth.”

 
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Центральний банк Росії 21 вересня оголосив про санацію «Бінбанку», 12-ї за обсягом активів фінансової установи країни. У прес-релізі йдеться, що банк продовжить працювати в звичайному режимі.

Раніше цього тижня в Банку Росії заявили, що «Бінбанк» отримає кошти, «необхідні для підтримки ліквідності». Суму в керівництві регулятора не назвали, але уточнили, що про виділення цих коштів попросив сам банк.

«Бінбанк» входить в число 30 найбільших банків Росії, обіймаючи сьоме місце за розмірами вкладів фізичних осіб. Повідомлення про його фінансові проблеми почастішали в останні тижні.
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On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, business and political leaders around the world met to urge cooperation on such issues as trade, investment and international technology to help boost globalization. Without integration between nations, such issues as the environment, economic development and the well-being of societies suffer. VOA’s Daniel Schearf reports from New York.
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After a troubled youth himself, Phillip Cohen made it a practice to hire people at his woodworking business who have also struggled with addiction and mental health issues. But when an employee died from a drug overdose, he adopted a zero-tolerance policy.

“I think I have saved lives,” says the owner of Cohen Architectural Woodworking in St. James, Missouri — an area hit very hard by the nation’s growing opioid epidemic. Opioids range from prescription pain medicine like oxycodone to illegal drugs like heroin.

Cohen still hires former drug addicts, felons and people who have been traumatized in life. One person, now a top employee, was hired right after he finished drug rehabilitation. Another used to sell illegal drugs. Still, Cohen says, if a worker fails a periodic random drug or alcohol test, “we’ll fire them on the spot.”

The epidemic of drug use — a report from the surgeon general last year said that 20 million Americans have a substance use disorder — is forcing many small business owners to think about what they would do if they suspect an employee is abusing drugs or alcohol.

Between 1999 and 2015 the number of overdose deaths from opioids and heroin quadrupled, the National Institute on Drug Abuse says. The government also reported more than 15 million adults with what’s called alcohol use disorder in 2015.

Over 70 percent of employers with 50 or more workers have been affected by prescription drugs, according to a survey released this year by the National Safety Council. But more than 80 percent don’t have a comprehensive drug-free workplace policy.

Although Cohen understood the dangers of drugs and knew that some staffers had a history of substance abuse, he wasn’t prepared when a worker overdosed in 2010, three days after the staffer attended a leadership conference.

“I didn’t care what people did at first,” says Cohen, whose workers use saws and other potentially dangerous machinery to create reception desks, cabinets and furniture for businesses, schools and health care facilities. But the devastating death of an employee prompted him to hire an attorney to write a tough drug policy that workers must read and sign.

“You have to draw the line somewhere,” says Cohen, who also brings in counselors and people who run support groups to help staffers who are struggling with personal problems.

Many small business owners don’t think ahead and create a written policy on alcohol and substance abuse, says employment law attorney Shira Forman. That forces them to be reactive, trying to figure out what to do when presented with an employee who shows up drunk, high or hung over, whose work is suffering or who causes an accident.

“It’s often not something that an employer knows how to deal with until they’re confronted with a scenario,” says Forman, who works at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in New York.

Having a policy in place doesn’t make it easier for a boss to confront a staffer they believe to have a drug or alcohol problem. It’s hard on an emotional level, especially if the employee denies there’s an issue and gets angry. But there can also be legal questions that must be considered before an owner broaches the topic.

While a staffer’s behavior might seem to point to a substance abuse problem, it’s often not a clear-cut situation, says Michael Schmidt, an employment law attorney with Cozen O’Connor in New York. An employee may have a prescription for opioids, and therefore be protected by federal, state or local laws. A staffer might have shaking hands, a sign of possible alcohol withdrawal but also a symptom of anxiety or a condition like Parkinson’s disease.

Even when it’s clear that the problem is due to drugs or alcohol, many owners seek help from a lawyer or HR professional. David Grant was taken by surprise when an employee at his public relations company told him that a co-worker had gotten drunk at a lunch with a client.

Grant turned to his human resources provider and a consultant on dealing with alcoholics.

“It was a world I don’t know anything about,” says Grant, whose eponymous company is based in New York. “I was aware of how litigious everyone is, so I did it by the book.”

Grant’s HR provider had created a substance abuse policy that he followed. He told the staffer she had a choice: go into rehabilitation treatment for a month or be fired. She chose treatment, which Grant paid for. He also warned she’d be dismissed if it happened again. And it did; a few weeks after she returned to work she was again drunk at a client lunch.

“I fired her instantly,” Grant says. He had to follow some painful advice from his consultants: “You can’t back off. You can’t be a nice guy.”

At Abbey Research, a market research firm based in Philadelphia, the substance abuse policy calls for employees to be suspended if they fail a random drug test or tell management they have a drug problem.

Their jobs will be held until they pass a drug test, since the company wants to give people a second chance, says Kristen Donnelly, who is in charge of human resources. But if they fail a second time, they’ll be fired.

The company, which seeks to help people who are struggling economically and personally, is located in a neighborhood where drug use has taken a toll. Two staffers have been suspended and then fired for drug use in the 18 months since Donnelly has headed HR.

But even afterward, the company has helped them find resources aimed at getting them back on their feet. “First and foremost they’re human beings, and they’re human beings with a disease,” Donnelly says.
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China has announced a crackdown on violations of patents and trade secrets in an effort to mollify foreign companies ahead of a visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The crackdown might give Beijing diplomatic ammunition to respond to mounting U.S. and European trade complaints. But it fails to address what foreign companies say are bigger problems with intellectual property protection.

The four-month campaign will attack theft of foreign trade secrets and violations of patents, copyrights and trademarks, according to a Ministry of Commerce announcement this month. It says the goal is to “increase foreign investment.”

Investment into China fell in the first half of 2017 following two decades of regular double-digit annual increases. That reflects what business groups say is growing frustration with difficult operating conditions and regulatory and other hurdles.

Companies complained for years that China was the global center for unlicensed copying of goods ranging from Hollywood movies and designer clothes to drugs and computer software. More recently, companies complain that Chinese entities try to steal technology and other trade secrets, sometimes with government encouragement.

Beijing has increased some penalties, but business groups say the Communist government needs to go much further in developing its enforcement and court system to protect intellectual property rights on which its economy increasingly depends.

“As welcome as further public commitments to protecting IPR are, this cannot be achieved through a campaign-style approach,” said Lance Noble, policy director for the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

“It requires a sustained commitment to enforcing existing laws and applying protections equally to foreign and domestic companies,” Noble said in an email. “Doing so is in China’s own interest.”

In a survey this year, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said the share of its member companies that cited China as a global priority dropped to 56 percent from a peak of 78 percent in 2012.

The chamber said American companies were reconsidering investment plans in China due to “unfavorable regulations” and “uncertainty about intellectual property protection.” It said 72 percent considered positive U.S.-Chinese relations important to their business but 83 percent expected them to remain the same or deteriorate.

The two governments say Trump is likely to visit China this year, though no date has been announced.

The American president agreed in April to temporarily set aside trade disputes while Washington and Beijing cooperate over North Korea. But U.S. officials have criticized Chinese policy with increasing force in recent weeks.

On Monday, the U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, complained in a speech in Washington that Chinese efforts to create industrial champions and induce foreign companies to hand over technology threaten the world trading system.
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У Національній компаній «Нафтогаз» заявляють, що фінансування від Європейського банку реконструкції та розвитку (ЄБРР) і Світового банку може бути припинено у разі зриву корпоративних реформ компанії. 

«Одне із зобов’язань, прописане в договорі з ЄБРР, це виконати план корпоративних реформ, що був затверджений урядом. У разі порушення цього зобов’язання ЄБРР має право призупинити фінансування», – сказав заступник голови правління «Нафтогазу» Сергій Коновець. 

За його словами, якщо буде припинено фінансування від ЄБРР, то також фінансування призупинить і Світовий банк.

«Це зобов’язання уряду, не наше. Але це впливає на наш фінансовий стан», – додав Коновець.

Директор з розвитку бізнесу «Нафтогаз України» Юрій Вітренко уточнив, що в разі порушення домовленостей з ЄБРР щодо реформування компанії, ця установа, за угодою, має право оголосити дефолт «Нафтогазові», після чого йому автоматично оголосить дефолт Світовий банк. 

У свою чергу в ЄБРР висловив жаль у зв’язку з відставкою незалежних членів наглядової ради компанії. В установі також переконані, що Україна не може собі дозволити подальше зволікання в реалізації реформ.

«Другий етап трансформації «Нафтогазу» мав розпочатися вже давно. Ефективне управління надало можливість цій компанії повернутися до прибутковості і усунути значні можливості для корупції. Тепер настав час зібратися і рухатися далі шляхом реформ», – зазначають в банку.

Водночас в уряді сьогодні заявили, що реформи «Нафтогазу» продовжать і прискорять. 

У «Нафтогазі України» 19 вересня повідомили, що усі незалежні члени наглядової ради компанії мають намір подати у відставку через політичне втручання. У заяві компанії вказувалося, що своє рішення Пол Ворвік і Маркус Річардс пов’язують зі згортанням реформ з боку уряду.

«Нафтогаз України» здійснює повний цикл операцій розвідки та розробки родовищ, експлуатаційного та розвідувального буріння, транспортування та зберігання нафти і газу, постачання природного і скрапленого газу споживачам. Відокремлення функцій, зокрема, транспортування газу вимагає, серед іншого, так званий Третій енергопакет нормативних актів Європейського союзу, втілити які зобов’язалася й Україна. «Нафтогаз України» є одноособовим акціонером компанії «Укртрансгаз», яка займається транспортуванням газу.

100% акцій «Нафтогазу» належать Міністерству економічного розвитку і торгівлі.
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Egypt’s economy has started to improve but has yet to recover from the country’s 2011 uprising and the years of unrest that followed, an international credit rating agency said.

Moody’s hailed recent economic and fiscal reforms in its annual report released Tuesday, saying they point to “improved government effectiveness and policy predictability.” Weak finances, however, remain a “key challenge” for the government, it added.

Egypt embarked on an ambitious economic reform plan shortly after President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took office in 2014. The government has slashed subsidies, imposed a value-added tax and allowed currency devaluation in order to qualify for a $12 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The austerity measures have hit the public hard, however, with inflation hovering around 30 percent for months, many import products unavailable, and soaring electricity and fuel costs.

Moody’s said reforms and financial support provided by international lenders have helped in restoring Egypt’s foreign reserves, which are currently above $36 billion, their highest level since December 2010.

“We also expect that Egypt’s high fiscal deficits and government debt levels will gradually reduce,” said Steffen Dyck, a Moody’s vice president.

Egypt’s Finance Minister Amr el-Garhy announced earlier this week that the country will face a $10-$12 billion budget deficit for the current fiscal year 2017-18, which started in July. He also said the government plans to plug the gap by increasing foreign debt issuance, and will announce future bond offerings in the coming weeks.

Egypt’s sovereign rating by Moody’s remains unchanged at B3, far below investment grade and subject to high credit risk, but the outlook remains stable.
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