http://www.ebrd.com/new/ Stories about EBRD projects, initiatives, activities, events and opinions en-gb Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:47:35 +0100 The Ukrainian car market is accelerating faster than Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton coming out of the pit lane. Almost 40 per cent more cars were sold in 2006 than in 2005, and there is no end in sight to the boom. With annual sales of 371,000 cars in 2006, Ukraine was the 9th largest car market in Europe by sales volume. In the West, it is not commonly known that Ukraine has a huge car industry. Daewoo of Korea (owned by GM) and AvtoVaz of Russia operate huge plants which produce hundreds of thousands of cars every year, mostly for the domestic market, while GM’s Opel brand and Skoda (owned by Volkswagen of Germany) also operate assembly lines. On the streets of Kiev today one can see all kinds of cars. Old Soviet vehicles, new and used Western cars, and more and more locally produced cars. High import taxes have helped Daewoo to become the market leader, with AvtoVaz competing strongly for the top spot. If it is true that car ownership reflects social segmentation, the country’s middle class must be growing strongly. But even the most reliable, brand new car – whether it comes from assembly lines in Zaporizhzhia , Nagoya or Wolfsburg – regularly needs servicing and sometimes even repairs. With the help of the EBRD, Bosch (the leading German spare parts manufacturer) has established a network of licensed service centres in Ukraine, where private and commercial customers get first-class treatment for their little sweethearts. Under a framework agreement initially signed in 2001 and extended in 2006, the Bank is providing up to € 14 million for on-lending to private entrepreneurs to become Bosch partners. The network is expanding rapidly with nearly 60 licensed service centres located across the country. “The cooperation with the EBRD has brought us much-needed stability, meaning we can operate successfully,” says Viktoria Yermak from Bosch Ukraine. Viktor Mednikov is the owner of a Bosch Service Station on the outskirts of Kiev. His facilities resemble a doctor’s office more than a car workshop. Everything is neat, clean and very orderly. Huge pipes hang from the wall and remind visitors of giant vacuum cleaners. The seductive smell of oil, rubber and exhaust fumes, so characteristic of a garage, is all but gone. Were it not for the giant truck parked in workshop number two with its driver’s cabin upside down, making it reminiscent of a beached whale, nobody would think that anyone here has to dirty his hands. The station services and repairs diesel engines. “If you have a problem, Bosch will find a solution,” says Mr Mednikov. His station uses licensed, state-ofthe-art Bosch spare parts and software. He employs some 20 mechanics who serve 20 to 30 customers a day. They receive extensive training and Bosch is also providing management training to its partners. The German parent company also dispatches inspection teams to guarantee quality standards. This is very important: “Today, quality is all that counts,” says Mr Mednikov. That is to say that quality is the most important pitch for the franchises. “Repairs can be very expensive,” admits Mr Mednikov. Only guaranteed quality can persuade car owners not to have this work done on the cheap in the shadow economy. Competition is stiff, but it seems that Mr Mednikov is doing quite well. Currently he is pondering plans to expand his service station. Although every car owner in the world dreams of a repair-free vehicle, it is safe to predict that there will not be a shortage of work for Mr Mednikov. Bosch and the EBRD will make sure that it is done to the highest standard. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080811.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080811.htm 11/08/2008 Ukraine Transport In more poetic times it was known as Azerbaijan’s section of the Silk Road. The 501 kilometres of road stretching from the capital Baku to the border with Georgia are part of the wider link that connects Asia with Europe. Explorers, traders, adventurers and, every so often, armies travelled the road whose beginnings can be traced back to China in the second century BC. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080716.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080716.htm 16/07/2008 Regional Transport Colonel Hayk Sargsyan, Head of Planning, Evaluation and Analysis in the Armenian Traffic Police Department is one of the officials attending the international conference on Road Infrastructure Safety. Ahead of the conference, he speaks about the road safety issues in Armenia and what he hopes to achieve through his participation at the conference. Is it safe to drive in Armenia? The numbers speak for themselves. In 2007 alone, 371 people died and 2,720 people were injured in 1943 road accidents. Over 200 accidents were caused because of bad road conditions. Road accidents have increased year by year in Armenia. There was little interest in promoting road safety in the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union. No state budget was allocated to train people on road safety. The number of car owners increased fast but not in proportion with education and training on traffic regulation. Today the Armenian government is very strict about driving regulations. However the police needs to be better equipped to enforce the law and implement any sanctions against drivers. We are currently reforming the police in Armenia and replacing old equipment. But we are also putting a lot of effort on educating drivers on road safety. The Armenian National Road Safety Council, which was established three years ago with help from FIA Foundation, has become instrumental in delivering messages on road safety to drivers. It has also reached schools to train children from a very young age and turn them into responsible future drivers. What do you expect to achieve from attending the International Conference on Road Infrastructure Safety? Developing countries face the same road safety challenges and I believe that this conference is a forum to share experiences and lessons learnt. My participation at this conference expresses the Armenian government’s political will to support road safety initiatives and improve the road safety record in the country. I thank the conference organisers for bringing together government officials and investors from developing and developed countries to encourage a consensus on road infrastructure safety. General Victor Kiryanov, Chief of Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate in the Russian Interior Ministry, will speak at the International Conference on Road Infrastructure Safety about the impact of road accidents and strategies for prevention in Russia. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080704.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080704.htm 04/07/2008 Regional Analysis For one of his most beautiful novels, the acclaimed Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov has chosen a line from a poem by Boris Pasternak as the title: And Longer than a Century Lasts the Day. A better description of the task to overcome the legacy of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in 1986 can hardly be found. The disaster happened within seconds, but resolution may well take a century. The day that dawned in Chernobyl on 26 April 1986 at 01:23:40 when reactor 4 exploded has not yet ended. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080605a.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080605a.htm 05/06/2008 Ukraine Technical Cooperation 5 June marks World Environment Day. The world’s most precious commodities - water and energy – are getting scarcer every day. EBRD leading experts explain the Bank’s response to the climate change implications for energy and water use. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080605.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080605.htm 05/06/2008 Regional Technical Cooperation As food prices continue to rise and food stocks continue to fall in the region and across the globe, the EBRD continues to work with other international financial institutions (IFIs), governments and businesses to respond to the challenge of feeding the world. The EBRD’s Agribusiness Director, Gilles Mettetal, explains what progress is being made. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080530.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080530.htm 30/05/2008 Regional Agribusiness While the credit crunch has squeezed western economies, it has had a limited impact on most of the EBRD’s countries of operations, which are more concerned with rising inflation. So speakers at the Capital Markets Panel in Kiev concentrated largely on how they were tackling inflationary pressures rather than on the likely effects of restricted liquidity. http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519d.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519d.htm 19/05/2008 Regional Annual meeting No disrespect to the Ukraine’s corps diplomatique, but the country’s arguably best ambassador is a foreigner: The former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, ended the EBRD Annual Meeting 2008 in Kiev with a passionate plea for the full integration of Ukraine into European structures. Delivering the traditional Jacques de Larosière-Lecture he said: “Our President Piłsudski once said: No free Poland without a free Ukraine. 90 years on the same is true for all Europe.” http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519f.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519f.htm 19/05/2008 Regional Annual meeting For women concerned about how to combine a successful career with family life, Romanian businesswoman Anca Vlad has this advice: get to the top. “I have not missed a single one of my children’s school meetings, I make sure that any business meeting comes before or after. That’s the advantage of being a boss.” http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519.htm 19/05/2008 Regional Annual meeting Whether you are a football fan or not, you cannot escape the excitement surrounding the first European Cup Championships in eastern Europe to be hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine in 2012. Multiple sporting facilities are yet to be built, roads, motorways, airports need modernizing or constructing, health care and security need addressing. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been heralded as the solution – can they deliver? http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519a.htm http://www.ebrd.com/new/stories/2008/080519a.htm 19/05/2008 Regional Annual meeting