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Restaurants and bars can stay open until 7 am on New Year’s Day, the Cabinet of Ministers has decreed. The following weekend, on Friday January 8, a 2-week strict lockdown is to be imposed nationwide, closing restaurants, non-grocery stores, fitness centers, shopping malls, hostels, and all schools, but not kindergartens.

China, already Ukraine’s largest trading partner, could increase its two-way trade with Ukraine by 50%, to $20 billion by 2025, Irina Nikorak, executive director of Silk Link, Ukraine’s Silk Road Association, told Xinhua news agency. She said a cooperation plan for joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative was signed Wednesday at the fourth meeting of the China-Ukraine Inter-government Cooperation Committee, co-chaired via video link by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishina. Nikorak

Ukraine is negotiating with a Chinese manufacturer for a supply of vaccines against Covid-19, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said Thursday on Ukraine 24 TV channel.

Of the 30 million ‘economically active’ Ukrainians, only 37%, or 10.9 million, pay taxes, Oleksiy Lyubchenko, Head of the State Tax Service, said recently on the Freedom of Speech show of Ukraina TV. Far from getting better, today’s number of taxpayers is about half of the number of 15 years ago, he said. According to 2019 statistics, 11.8 million Ukrainians who are able to work “did not make any money,” Lyubchenko said. To him, this means that most work unofficially.

The top tax dodging regions are largely in the West: Uzhgorod – 63%; Chernivtsi – 53%; Odesa — 48%; and Lviv — 46%. In central Ukraine, rates are better: Kyiv – 30%; Chernihiv and Poltava – 31%.

Off the books transactions account for “somewhere over 50%” of GDP, Danil Getmantsev, ruling party MP and chair of the Rada committee on finance, tax and customs policy, told Radio Liberty. He called it “too optimistic” and Ernst & Young estimated earlier this year 24% of GDP. Even this rate is “terrible” as the government seeks to move Ukraine toward a tax-paying, EU standard economy.

In one step, 100,000 small businesses have downloaded the ‘cash register in a smart phone’ app since its debut August 1, 2020 Getmantsev said. As a result, there have been 100 million sales receipts using this technology. The protests in the last two weeks by small businesses of the Save FOP movement, he charges, are led by people who want to abolish cash registers altogether.

Ukraine does not plan to restrict air travel during the holidays. “The government understands that people are in the mood for the holidays and does not plan to impose any restrictions on air traffic,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said yesterday in an online briefing.

UIA is ending this year with a passenger count of 1,787,000 – only 22% of the level of 2019. Transit passengers declined with UIA’s hub system, falling to 14% of last year. The number of flights was 17,000, 28% of last year’s levels. To survive, the airline laid off 1,000 employees last summer.

Seeking to put its airplanes to use, UIA is offering ‘flights to nowhere’ – one-hour sightseeing flights over Kyiv. Passengers are guaranteed to fly above the clouds and to see the sun, a winter rarity. If all 116 seats fill up on the Embraer 195 jet, the price per person will be $75. “A real New Year’s gift – a one-hour flight over Kyiv,” beckons the announcement on the UIA website. The airline also says: “A lottery with valuable aviation

Internet purchases by Ukrainians grew 41% in 2020, to top $7 billion, estimates a new study by EVO, an umbrella group of online companies. Last year’s growth was only 17%. “One year ago, we forecast e-commerce growth in Ukraine in 2020 at 15%, the pandemic has significantly adjusted it,” EVO reports. For next year, EVO is forecasting growth of 33%. Today, about 9% of all Ukrainian purchases are online.

Sixty-six Ukraine-connected IT firms have made the annual ranking of top 1,000 leading information technology companies worldwide, published by Clutch, a Washington-based matchmaker for IT companies and contractors. The Kyiv Post reviewed the list and determined that almost 7% have strong Ukraine ties. The list includes foreign companies with R&D centers in Ukraine – Ciklum, Sigma Software, Daxx, and AltexSoft – and largely Ukrainain firms — Intellias, Digis, OTAKOYI, and Frontmen.

Ukraine’s IT sector grew by 20% last year, fueled by 4,000 IT companies in the market, according to a new report: “Ukraine: The Country that Codes.” The 56-page industry overview prepared by software developer N-iX says the number of IT workers in Ukraine doubled in five years, hitting 200,000 today.

In a rebuff to China, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has decided to remove all Huawei equipment from its buildings. “Several other government agencies have followed this example,” the Foreign Ministry said. Prime Minister Shmygal tweeted that Ukraine is joining the US ‘Clean Network’ initiative, which aims to protect confidential information and intellectual property. He tweeted: “Ukraine supports the principles of The Clean Network and will remain a reliable partner for investments by technology companies from all over the world.” US

The US government may help Ukraine pay the price difference between Huawei equipment and comparable equipment provided by Western companies, Keith Krach, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, told Radio Svoboda on Tuesday. “You may ask yourself: why is China’s offer lower? Why do they provide such cheap services? Because they want your data,” he said. Referring to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, he added: “The US government, in particular the DFC, can

Ukraine netted $90 million in 419 privatization auctions this year, Economy Minister Ihor Petrashko said on Channel 24 TV, reported the Ministry. By using a transparent internet-based auction system, the State Property Fund managed to push average sales prices up three times over asking prices. Next month, the Rada is to vote on a government bill to sell large state companies. This process could net around $500 million this year, the government estimates.

The latest property of state alcohol producer Ukrspyrt was sold at auction yesterday for $2 million, almost double the asking price, reports the State Property Fund. With almost half of Ukrspyrt’s 41 properties now sold, the Fund calculates that the state will net $70 million from the privatization. Starting next July, the only way a private investor can start new alcohol production in Ukraine is to produce from a property privatized from Ukrspyrt.

In a nation building exercise, President Zelenskiy plans to inaugurate next year a Lviv-to-Luhansk highway, the longest in the nation. Labelled the M-10, this east-west road would run 1,392 km, almost twice the distance of Paris to Marseilles. Without waiting for full completion, Zelenskiy plans to inaugurate the M-10 on August 24, the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence. Polls indicate road building is the most popular achievement of the Zelenskiy government.

“We want to unite the West and the East with a big highway,” Zelenskiy said yesterday, speaking at the inauguration of the first section of Zaporizhia’s bridge over the Dnipro. Providing a new, international standard route to Stryi and the EU, the M-10 is expected to quickly double its traffic, to 40,000 vehicles a day.

With a two-year budget of $500 million, the M-30 saw 580 km restored this year. Another 750 km are to be repaired by the end of next year. For now, the high-speed road will terminate in Pokrovsk, Donetsk. Most of the final 200 km, through Luhansk to the Russian border, are in the Russia-controlled section of the Donbas.