Business Ombudsman Paid a Working Visit to Kharkiv Region

On 24 June Ukrainian Business Ombudsman Algirdas Šemeta paid a working visit to Kharkiv region.
Mr. Šemeta met with the leadership of Kharkiv regional state administration, where he discussed key problem areas that exist in the region and require the Business Ombudsman’s intervention.
Šemeta also met with the representatives of small and medium-sized businesses to discuss obstacles that entrepreneurs face. The issues raised included VAT refund, non-payment of compensation to the companies by the state, whose employees have been requisitioned to ATO, conflicting decisions of local authorities that affect the rights of entrepreneurs, baseless criminal cases, which cannot be appealed in court and use of these cases to put pressure on business, and connection to power grid.
Business Ombudsman attended several successful enterprises of Kharkiv, namely PJSC “Turbogas” (manufacture of equipment for oil and gas industry) and LLC “Kotloturboprom” (manufacture and reconstruction of boiler-and-turbine equipment) that not only effectively work in domestic market, but also successfully compete with the companies in foreign markets.
Šemeta urged Kharkiv entrepreneurs to contact Business Ombudsman Council if their legal rights are violated: “By now the Office has received more than 131 complaints, 57 of them have become cases, 39 are in process of consideration, 35 have been dismissed at the moment. We have 6 complaints from Kharkiv entrepreneurs now,” indicated Algirdas Šemeta.  “It is important for us to hear the business not only in Kyiv, but all over Ukraine. I am glad that as a result of this visit we have agreed with the regional administration and business community about particular steps to improve the investment attractiveness of the region.” Šemeta added that his Office will develop systematic recommendations regarding legislative changes needed to make the life of the business easier. The outcome of investigations will be publicized in the quarterly report to be published in July.
We would like to remind that the visit to Kharkiv was performed within the framework of the working visits program of the Business Ombudsman to the regions of Ukraine, where Mr. Šemeta meets entrepreneurs and officials to discuss key problems they face while doing business and the possibilities for improvement of investment potential of the regions. At the beginning of June Mr. Šemeta visited Chernigiv region. In the nearest time he plans a range of trips to Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Lviv, Mykolayiv and Kherson.