Udma digest 8th issue

CROSS-BORDER DISTANCE SELLING IN UKRAINE: INFO DIGEST

WELCOME DEAR COLLEAGUES!We are presenting the following issue of the Digest, as usual bringing up a short set of news about Ukraine.

Despite the instability of domestic politics, business, in particular, distance selling and postal logistics continues to steadily gain momentum. The standard of living rises in Ukraine and this positively affects the levels of consumption of goods and services (look up details on the pages of the following digest).

It is my pleasure to point out that Ukraine is increasingly becoming the centre of the grand world events. We are happy to welcome you on the Football Championship EURO-2012, and the First Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art ARSENALE 2012, which will help us to open up a completely new Ukraine for you.

Every day we are getting closer to Europe, which makes our business relationships more durable.

We wish success in our projects!

8th ISSUE

May

2012

MARKET NEWS

New regulations for mail orders and other goods to cross the Ukrainian border

A new Customs Code has entered into force since June 1.

To learn more read the article on the next page.

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Best wishes,UADM President Valentyn Kalashnyk

RETAIL TURNOVER OF UKRAINE CONTINUES TO GROWThe National Statistics Service of Ukraine has announced that in January-April, the turnover of the retail trade and restaurant sector in Ukraine has grown by 14.8% compared with the same period the year before.

In nominal terms, the figure exceeded 28 billion US dollars.

The National Statistics Service of Ukraine also reminds, that in January-April 2011, retail trade turnover grew by 15.4% com-pared with the same period of 2010.

According to experts, retail sales continued to show strong growth due to the relatively stable increase in revenue and reduced devaluation expectations. In general, experts pre-dict the growth in retail sales in 2012 by 10%. In 2011, retail turnover in Ukraine grew by 14% to 43.2 billion US dollars.

Based on KORRESPONDENT.NET report

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May 2012CROSS-BORDER DISTANCE SELLING IN UKRAINE: INFO DIGEST

FRESH DISTANCE SELLING NEWS FOLLOW OUR PAGE ON

UKRAINE AND EU APPROVE CUSTOMS COOPERATION STRATEGYKyiv, May 25, 2012. Ukraine and the EU reached a political agree-ment on joint cooperation strategy regarding customs. Among other issues, the cooperation will promote information exchange and introduce efficient countering of customs violations.

The decision ensued from the meeting of the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi and Algirdas Se-meta, EU Commissioner for Taxation, Customs, Audit and Anti-fraud. The new plan of action – Strategic Framework for Cus-toms Cooperation – will contribute to the quality of bilateral trade relations and help protect the citizens of both parties against customs fraud. The draft of the document was first submitted to the EU in July of 2011.

The strategy includes four components: reform of customs control, preparation of the expansion of the transit system, in-stitutional development, and customs information exchange.

The three priorities for customs cooperation of the EU and Ukraine for 2011-2013 are the creation of safe and smooth con-ditions for trade (namely, speeding up all of the customs pro-ceedings, integrated border control, improvement of border infrastructure), introduction of the effective analysis of customs violations through information exchange, and modernization of Ukraine’s customs service (fight against corruption, simplifica-tion of procedures, introduction of up-to-date standards).

The State Customs Service is responsible for the implementation of the customs-related part of the Agenda. One of the practical achievements in the field has been the delegation of the right to issue EUR.1 movement certificate to the State Customs Service. The certificate is a customs clearance, which contains data on the origin of goods (the manufacturer provides this information).

As part of Ukraine’s efforts to implement international stand-ards, including European, into its customs legislation, in March of 2012 the Ukrainian parliament adopted a new Customs Code of Ukraine. The EU customs and logistics experts partici-pated in the preparation of the code.

Among the most valuable innovations, introduced by the code, is the right of entities of foreign economic activity to be sub-jected to customs processing at any customs body. Additionally, the customs authorities now face several limitations that include

the enforcement of the time limit to perform customs control procedure, prohibition to confiscate goods and vehicles, as well as absence of the right to execute court rulings independently.

The code provides the exhaustive list of documents. One is ex-pected to submit for control at the customs. The document also provides a catalogue of items, which are considered personal belongings and cannot be taxed when taken across the border.

Among all new Customs Code innovations the most important is the Article 234 for distance selling according to which all goods transferred (sent) are not due to taxing if their invoice value is not more than equivalent of 300 Euro which is 100 Euro more than it was previously allowed. Mostly this new Code is alike its European analogs, because during its creation the perspective for attracting foreign capital and liberalization of customs control was being tak-en into consideration. The consignation service has been available in the Ukrainian market for more than 7 years. With new Customs Code the terms of the goods to cross the border will considerably decrease, and it means that delivery terms of goods to end con-sumers will decrease too. In its turn a new customs rate of 300 Euro will allow importing a more diversified range of goods.

The State Customs Service advocates that the code will help stimulate foreign economic activity and increase trade volume along with state budget income.

Source: ECONOMICS.LB.UA

A NEW BRAND WILL APPEAR ON THE UKRAINIAN MARKET

A chain store of Italian fashion clothing OVS has agreed to enter the Ukrainian market of clothes and will work in partner-ship with Martex. OVS unites shops and part of the Gruppo Coin with a yearly turnover of 1.63 billion euros. At the same time Maratex bade farewell with his other partner. Shops of popular British clothing brand Peacocks will no longer work in Ukraine. This chain store used to bring together 9 Peacocks stores in Ukraine and 42 in Russia. The cause of the closure of stores in Ukraine and Russia, was the change of owners of Pea-cocks. The new investor, Scottish Edinburgh Woollen Mil, fo-cused on the development of “the network” in his home mar-ket “- said co-owner of Maratex Dmitry Ermolenko, who expects more benefits from cooperation with the OVS. In Ukraine, four former Peacocks stores together with 20 ones in Russia will work under the signboard of OVS.

Based on COMMERSANT.UA report

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UKRAINE IS CAPABLE OF INVESTING ABROADDue to its financial capability Ukraine is not only able to at-tract foreign investment but also is ready to contribute into the foreign projects. The vivid example of it has become the fact of Victoria Tigipko’s Fund which has invested in startup Urbanara, engaged in textile sales.

A group of international investors, including Blumberg Capital and Brain-to-Ventures, have invested in a startup Urbanara 3,5 million euros as a result of the investment round A. It is men-tioned in the official report of fund.

Project Urbanara is an online service for the sale of home tex-tiles and home accessories. As It has been explained by the executive Director of Victoria Tigipko’s fund, the ability to attract investors to the project to the business scaling within limited time (on the markets of Germany, Austria and the UK). According to her, Ukrainian suppliers will also be able to work with the project.

As the Executive Director of the Project Benjamin Esser point-ed out, customers from Ukraine will be able to order products in the next 2-3 months, and at the beginning of the next year Russian version of the site will be launched.

The project started in February 2011 in Germany and Austria. At present, the project has more than 800 lots of goods re-ceived from 20 countries worldwide. During the first year of service handled more than 10 thousand orders. Services are available in Germany, Austria and Great Britain, they are also

expected to expand to other European countries.

Such Ukrainian investment is likely to provide Ukrainian manu-facturers with the support in their “conquest” of foreign mar-kets.

Source: AIN.UA

THE TURNOVER OF THE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN UKRAINE COULD REACH $3-4 BILLIONS IN 2012

The turnover of the Ukrainian internet shops in the past year totalled over $2 billion, and it can be close to $3-4 billions in 2012. This forecast was announced to the AIN correspondent by Dmitry Lappo, the managing partner of the business litera-ture of online-store kniga.biz.ua.

According to him, the most rapidly growing segments in Uanet online commerce is clothing, footwear and toys (generally, all

kinds of children’s goods). The online books selling cannot be included into the rapidly growing segment. “Ukrainian Ozon does not exist yet, although a lot of companies once claimed to be in his place, like Petrivka and Yakaboo” – said an expert.

In total, according to the expert’s rough estimates, Uanet has about 250-300 Internet projects on online selling, operating and profitable. “The others are somehow trying to survive. The amount of such projects is about 2-2.5 thousand” – said Dmitry Lappo.

Knigs.biz.ua is a leader in business literature of online selling. According to the editorial office the nearest competitors are Olmaxbooks.com and Bookzone.com.ua

Should be reminded, that the assessment of the market is simi-lar to the estimates of other experts. Thus, according to the head of Internet Investor Alexander Olshansky, the volume of cashless payments in Uanet is $200 million a year and in 2011 it increased almost a half. And this is just a small part of all the sales that Ukrainian online stores have: they are paid mostly in cash on delivery.

Source: AIN.UA

UKRAINE: THE COUNTRY FALLING INTO THE RANKING OF COUNTRIES WITH NO UNEMPLOYMENTThe market for international services, distance selling and mail order should pay attention to Ukraine.

As a result of studies the international agency Gallup re-

vealed nine world countries, where employment is no less than 95%, i.e. complete. Ukraine is among those countries, FINANCES bigmir.net reported. The majority of countries with full employment are in Asia, the rest are in Central and

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Eastern Europe.

The rating was made with taking into consideration the amount of their GDPs, income per capita and a percentage of full-time workers. As it appeared, only several countries out of those nine countries may boast of really sound economic situa-tion. The rest either raise the employment level at the expense of temporary public works or has a large amount of low-profit economies.

Therefore, a low unemployment level does not obligatorily ac-company the strong economy. Thus, Ukraine cannot boast of high GDP indexes and a considerable per capita income. In 2009, the country’s GDP reduced by 14.8% and it has slightly grown only during recent years.

The CIA agency reports that a great number of unregistered workers and part-time workers are revealed in Ukraine. Nev-ertheless, according to Gallup studies, over 50% of Ukrainians are full-time workers.

FINANCES bigmir.net report

UKRAINE’S HIGHER EDUCATION TOPS RANKING IN EASTERN EUROPE

Ukraine ranked higher than any other Eastern European coun-try in the Nation Higher Education Systems rating developed by Universitas 21, the international research network of 24 uni-versities and colleges.

Ukraine occupied the 25th position out of 48 evaluated coun-tries. Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Russia and Slovakia placed at positions 26, 27, 28, 32, and 35, respectively.

The researchers ascertained the United States of America, Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark to be the top five countries in the overall education rating.

The researchers analyzed the most recent data from 48 coun-tries and it was examined according to 20 different criteria to find countries best at providing higher education.

Based on LIGA.NET report

“UKRPOSHTA” PROMISES TO KEEP RATES UNCHANGED FOR 2 YEARS State mail service enterprise “Ukrposhta” doesn’t plan to change its rates for basic postal services in 2012-2013. As it was reported to the journalists by the General Director Oksana Plotnikova, states “Interfax-Ukraine”.

According to its authorities, the company can increase revenue by providing better services to the public, as well as develop-ing a range of services already existing at present.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine

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UADM SPECIALABILITY TO REMOTELY MANAGE MAIL ORDER BUSINESS IS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR THE COMPANIES’ SUCCESS IN UKRAINENo matter how paradoxical it may sound, but in the period of crisis (2009 - 2011) the market of mail orders in Ukraine doubled.

It was developing not only due to the growth of increased volumes of already working players on the market but also due to arrival of new operators from Europe.

Recently, Western companies more and more frequently con-sider starting their business on the Ukrainian market. The rea-sons for this are clear: long-distance and unsaturation retail, full infrastructure (logistics, contact centers, lettershops and fulfilment, payment system) prepossessing features of the mentality of consumption, effective channels of recruitment, and consumer generated media market, the legislative regula-tion of transparent playing field for market.

The main advantage that makes Ukraine to a certain extent unique is a possibility to organize the shipment of goods from the central office in Europe under the scheme of consignment (shipment worth up to EUR 300 are exempt from taxes and customs duties, and most of the goods do not require certifi-cation) and remotely manage all business processes (without opening a representative office), thanks to reliable partners.

Companies such as Bon prix, Yves Rocher, WITT, Cellbes, etc. have already started operating under the following scheme. In the earlier editions of the digest, we have described the detailed features of the logistic component of the work on consignment, but the purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive picture of the remote control to the business of distance selling in Ukraine.

Partner in Ukraine on behalf of a client may organize and carry out a full cycle of the processes necessary for successful busi-ness in Ukraine.

Consulting Management Marketing Financial operations

Contact Center

Lettershop and fulfillment

Business plans

development

Operational management of the project

Adaptation of promotional

materials

Refund to the

consumer

Customer service

organization

Customization and

personalization items

Market observations

Interaction with third parties

Monitoring of competitors

Payment to third parties

Receiving and processing

ordersSelf-mailer

Legal advice

Communication with state

organs

Analytical data

collection

Taxation and business

model

Claims processing

Mailing lists

organization

Certificates and

approval

Import and customs

registration of materials

Media, planning

and buying

Client's and CRM-systems

work

Completion and shipment

of parcels

SMM

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1. Consulting

The successful start of company depends on the properly elaborat-ed strategy of its appearance and brand positioning on the market. As Ukraine is rather a peculiar country, so it is pretty hazardous to blindly copy other markets conceptions of work without preliminary adaptation. Mentality of Ukrainians, which great-ly influences the consumer consump-tion, is something mingled between the image of the Eastern European consumer (for example, Polish) and the Russian one. For this reason it is important for a partner to be able to prepare the high-quality review of market, define the image of a con-sumer, study what and why he (con-sumer) wants to buy. And last but not the least, it is essential that the company process all the documents in obedience to the requirements of the Ukrainian legislation.

2. Management

A high-quality management is a head stone in distance-selling business. Clear planning of tasks, their proper implementation, minimi-zation of risks, wrong steps in marketing and service of con-sumers, due to the experience of the Ukrainian partners, will enable to considerably minimize the expenses on realization of the whole project. It is of special significance to point out such features like, for example, the ability to co-operate with state organs by enterprises, what foreign companies find dif-ficult to deal with, even at the working associated company in Ukraine. What could really help to avoid such difficulties is the working out mechanisms of partners already functioning in this sphere for a long time.

3. Marketing

One more important factor of success on the market (apart from the presence of the entire necessary infrastructure men-tioned above) is the choice of vector of marketing policy on the market. In Ukraine all standard methods of recruitment function well but the years of crisis had a good impetus for companies, attracting their attention to various kinds of part-nership programs that can be arranged at minimal cost. Having a partner who could make a base platform for the implemen-tation of cross-project, is highly important from the standpoint of the safe use of personal data.

4. Financial transactions

It is difficult for a non-resident from a legal point of view to carry out finan-cial transactions (such as a refund to the consumer). It is rather expensive to implement B2C payments directly from Europe. Partner in the country will be able to systematically serve customers (processing all complaints from consumers as well as from in-spection bodies) and to adjust the cash flows in Ukraine within the re-quired timeframe.

5. Customer Service Center

What makes the Ukrainian market so peculiar is the fact that about 60% of orders made through the website, are accompanied by calls. Ukrainian people still do not have a sufficient level of trust in online services and are looking for human contact. That is why the contact center remains to be still an indispensable tool for communicating with customers. Due to a clear prediction of load lines, the standardization of all processes and system work with operators taking

calls, it is possible to minimize the cost of contact center. Taking calls, operators in terminal access put in the informa-tion into the CRM-system and then they are able to inform the consumer on-line about the product availability and ap-proximate time of delivery. It is vitally important to remem-ber that the service center is the face of the company in Ukraine, and the quality of its operators impacts the client’s experience of working with the company.

6. Lettershop&fulfillment

With its own manufacturing facility Lettershop & fulfillment, a partner company in Ukraine is able to offer good quality services: customization and personalization of items, organ-izing mailings, self-mailer and equipment of parcels. When choosing a partner it is necessary to pay attention rather to experience of the successful organization of large-circulation of stamps and mail shipments within the given timeframe than price.

If all of these above mentioned services can be realized by one partner company by means of the combination of its re-sources, doing business remotely becomes less costly in terms of time and money.

Source: Pavlenko Yuliya, Ukrainian Direct Marketing Association.

We would like to attract your attention to several details worth mentioning:

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ONLINE TRADE IN UKRAINE BECOMES EASIER WITH “MEEST EXPRESS”According to Ukrainian Direct Marketing Association research, the national postal and logistics group “Meest Express” was a leader in express mail delivery in “from door to door” format of year 2010. The rapid development of distance selling mar-ket in 2011 helped to strengthen the competitive position of the company and reach new market segments. Assessing the high standards of service “Mist Express”, this year onto the Ukrainian market came a number of large European distance trade companies.

The uniqueness of the company’s services lies in simplicity of ordering services. And at the same time, “Meest Express” pro-vides customers with “to be a member of” the whole process of delivering items: to track the movement of origin, receive text-messages about the status of the parcel, prepare the nec-essary documents to the client’s workplace, have the ability to integrate software and client software service delivery.

Major players in the market of logistic transportation are in the zone of constant competition, trying to keep the price level acceptable to the customer’s competitive level. Fierce compe-tition keeps and improves the quality of basic operators.

The development of new market segments do not need deliv-ery services any longer (and so it is an objective reality ). What it really lacks is new kinds of services that are becoming more popular thanks to online trading and are not specific to other industries. Another thing is the ability of companies to provide the appropriate package and level of services. That willingness to do so forms a demand for a particular service - delivery.

Online stores, in cooperation with “Meest Express” are easy to produce documents accompanying secure and reliable deliv-ery, as well as the ability to integrate their own software and software delivery service. Customers of Internet products, who are interested in the speed of delivery and adaptation to their individual needs, ease of production and constant information on the status (location) of the order, get the whole package of services that meet their expectations. This delivery during off-hours and pre-dial to customers with the specification of the time and place of delivery, and a number of free delivery attempts, and the message of an unsuccessful delivery attempt

(if the recipient was not home), as well as online order tracking site, convenience and affordability of communication with the courier in order to understand all the nuances.

In 2012, “Meest Express” plans to introduce to the market a range of innovative services for information and customer service program and method of delivery of items, namely the deployment of a network of automatic e-mail terminals (Pachkomativ). The main feature of market leadership is the ability to quickly adapt to its needs and ability to grow in new segments. So far, the development of remote com-merce (including e-commerce) is one of the priorities of the company.

Viktor Kuchma Chairman of the “Trading House” Meest Express” Directors Board

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LEGISLATION NEWSSTARTUPS IN UKRAINE CAN BE GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT: PRESIDENT YANUKOVYCH WANTS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF ALLOWING CHARACTER DOCUMENTS

Startups in Ukraine will soon be easier to communicate with the authorities and licensing authorities. At the very least, the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych instructed Prime Min-ister Mykola Azarov to provide a reduction in the number of allowing character documents up to no less than 70%.

Appropriate instruction head of the state placed on his official website.

With the following aim, the head of the government was sup-posed to report to Mr. Yanukovych on the process of develop-ment and presentation of a draft law on amendments to the Law “On the list of allowing character documents in the area of economic activity” and other legislative acts suggested by

the President for approval by the Verkhovna Rada.

Startups can also expect bureaucratic machines to work on-line. The prime minister, Mykola Azarov, following the instruc-tions of the President, must now ensure the completion and implementation of electronic registration of legal entities and natural persons - entrepreneurs.

To satisfy those, planning to open or grow their start-up in Ukraine, the head of government also charged with approval of an exhaustive list of document forms of a strict accounting, marketed to consumers in the provision of administrative ser-vices, and representation in the established order to Verkhov-na Rada a draft law amending to some legislative acts concern-ing the establishment of requirements for the production of blank documents rigorous accounting, marketed to consumers in the provision of administrative services solely on the state-owned enterprises administered by the Ministry of Finance, on-Banknote Mint of the National Bank of Ukraine.

The good news for preparing one’s start-up in Ukraine, is the fact that the Prime Minister must also ensure that the Cabinet will consider the question of the status of implementation of the activities of the National Action Plan for 2012 on the intro-duction of economic reform program for 2010-2014, the “Rich society, competitive economy, effective state, “approved by the Decree of President of Ukraine of March 12, 2012, and on the consideration of proposals to strengthen the staffing of the central executive authorities and to take steps to improve the performance discipline in the executive branch.

Based on UNIAN materials

UKRAINE REDUCES PAPER BUREAUCRACY AND MAKES LIFE EASIER FOR ENTREPRENEURS Ukraine reduces paper bureaucracy and makes life easier for entrepreneurs – through the Internet. Really vital reforms for domestic and external business in Ukraine are being imple-mented in several directions simultaneously: the soviet legacy is systematically beaten by modern technologies. Nowadays it’s a matter of taxation and land trade.

For the first quarter of this year the number of taxpayers, who started the use of the electronic reporting, increased by 3%. As reported in the press-service of the State tax service of Ukraine, at the beginning of the year in the electronic form of Declaration on VAT sent for 91.3% of the payers, today this figure is more than 94%.

It says in the statement, that in comparison with the previous year, the number of such reporting has grown twice. In April 2011 on the Internet accounted for only 45% of the taxpayers.

Tax Professionals note that such kind of statements finds its new supporters, because it considerably saves time and ex-penses on the purchase of forms, and also allows you to avoid queues in tax inspections in the peak days statements.

In total for January-April of the current year made 30.7 million

reports from 341,5 thousand taxpayers. For the year 2011 322 thousand of payers sent 17.1 million records.

At the same time the State agency on land resources of Ukraine is planning to start online land registration document turnover.

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According to the head of the department Serhiy Tymchenko, citizens can follow the processing of their documents online on the website of the agency.

“Such automatization of the process helps improving the sys-tem of the state agency on land resources, and in my opinion helps to reduce corruption,” summed up Tymchenko.

Each of these examples of Ukraine’s modernization can serve as proof of country’s direct steps to European and world standards of doing business online.

Source: FINANCE.UA

UKRAINIAN STATE CUSTOMS SERVICE HAS STARTED ISSUING FREE ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE KEYSUkraine is going to be closer to the rest of Europe – because the shipment processing will be easier and faster. Ukrainian State Customs Service im-plements world practice in order to reduce the paper work with goods crossing the country’s border. The electronic digital signature keys are is-sued to customs brokers to sign docu-ments required for customs clearance.

“Since May 3, 2012 the key certifi-cation center of the State Customs

Service has started providing customs brokers and foreign economic market players with electronic digital signature keys in order to execute a cabinet reso-lution,” its press service reported on May 8, 2012.

Electronic digital signature keys can be obtained at the electronic key certifica-tion center at 28A, Svitlytskoho Street in Kyiv.

Based on the FINANCE.UA report

NO ELECTRONIC GADGETS SHIPMENT FROM THE US BY THE END OF THE YEAR FOR UKRAINIANS Since May 16 the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) all outbound international shipment of lithium batteries via USPS has been prohibited. This innovation opens new possibilities for mail or-der in Ukraine.

But the ban, implemented by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Universal Postal Union, may not be per-manent.

As USPS officials have informed the customers: by January 1, 2013, small shipments of electronics with lithium batteries may be able to be sent overseas.

Source: AIN.UA

INTERNET NEWSINTERNET MARKET IN UKRAINE IS GROWING. UKRAINIANS REGISTER 650,000 NAMES IN .UA DOMAINThe most popular public domain com.ua has almost 250,000 names. In April the total number of domain names in the .UA domain reached 650,900, an increase over the same period last year by 15.6%, Hostmaster told proIT.

At the same time the number of second level domain names was 13.6 million (growth of 19.9%).

The most popular public domain com.ua has almost 250,000 names (17%). Among geographic domains, the most popular domain is the capital’s domain kiev.ua, which numbers 53,890 names (8.7%).

Registration services in the domains .UA, com.ua, kiev.ua are provided by 182 registrars. A market share is controlled by five major registrars, with 52.41% (0.42 percentage points to the

April 1, 2012). Domen.UA was registered in December 1992 by Dmitry Kohmanyuk and Igor Sviridov, now it is run under the actual administration of the company “Hostmaster”.

Based on the proIT report

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ANNOUNCEUKRAINE IS READY FOR EURO 2012 AND ARSENALE 2012Ukraine is a country of easily breaking stereotypes. Especially in the case of grandiose project hosting: like Euro 2012 or AR-SENALE 2012.

Despite all sad forecasts concerning Ukraine’s capability to hold Continental football championship, EURO 2012 co-host Ukraine is ready to welcome thousands of football fans, after years of work to revamp and build match venues as well as upgrade vital air, road and rail infrastructure.

Four venues in Ukraine are hosting 12 Group B and Group D matches in Lviv, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv as well as two quar-terfinals and a semi-final before the final at the Olympic Sta-dium in the capital, Kyiv, on July 1.

Despite controversial political news from Ukraine, the Union of European Football Associations President Michel Platini called “extraordinary” the progress made by Ukraine in preparing the football cup.

Ukraine has bought a number of high-speed trains from South Korea to improve rail services.

Ukraine’s biggest and most up-to-date airports were mod-ernized in the four host cities for EURO 2012: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Lviv.

Along with new airports, Ukraine has built and modernized four football stadiums. Kyiv’s Olimpiyskyi, second largest stadium in Eastern Europe, can host up to 70,050 fans. The newly built Arena Lviv was named “the most comfortable sta-dium for fans among EURO 2012 venues” by UEFA officials. Kharkiv’s Metalist became known as a “spider”: the roof of the stadium is supported by 24 towers resembling the ten-tacles of a spider. Thanks to massive support the roof can withstand an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0. Opened in 2009, Donetsk’s Donbass Arena became known as the first elite stadium in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian stadiums of the EURO 2012 football championship are ready to ensure safety to the highest level.

The Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, will visit Ukraine during the finals of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. In particular, he is planning to inspect person-ally the stadiums during EURO 2012 so as to invite Ukrainian companies with experience in building sports facilities for the championship to participate in tenders for the construction of stadiums in Qatar within preparations for the World Cup in 2022.

The host cities Kyiv and Lviv are all popular tourist destinations, unlike Donetsk and Kharkiv - but they can become the tourist discoveries of EURO 2012.

Besides Euro 2012 one more important event is to take place in the artistic life. It is the First Kyiv international biennale ARSE-NALE 2012 to take place from May 24th to July 31st.

Mystetskyi Arsenal (Art Arsenal) is one of Ukraine’s most prom-ising projects in the field of culture and has a fair chance of becoming one of the world’s largest museums.

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The mission of Mystetskyi Arsenal is to combine many Ukrain-ian cultural achievements and initiatives into one conceptual national project thus presenting the Ukrainian historical and artistic heritage as part of world cultural heritage.

This year exhibition will comprise the works of about 100 art-ists. A large scale and diverse excursion program to fit every

taste: from arts specialists to curious EURO 2012 fans. Even children are to meet unusual artefacts and to learn unbeliev-able stories about contemporary art.

For further details relating to EURO 2012 or ARSENALE 2012, please visit UKRAINE2012.GOV.UA or ARTARSENAL.IN.UA

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SOO

N How Ukrainian Internet companies should handle the users’ personal data

New penalties for violations of the personal data protection law are to enter into force in Ukraine in July 2012.

Welcome to Ukraine and be our guest!

Udma digest 8th issue

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Transcript of Udma digest 8th issue