October 17, 2011

Ukrainian agriculture attracts international investors

An international investment company, SigmaBleyzer has forecast a growing interest of investors in Ukraine's agriculture for 2012, according to Executive Director of International Bleyzer Foundation, Oleh Ustenko.

According to foundation experts, fight and competition for an inflow of direct foreign investments next year will be strengthened due to a change of investors' moods.

"From this viewpoint, we consider that fight for an inflow of direct foreign investments to Ukrainian agriculture, as a quickly growing and promising sector, will strengthen even more," he said.

At the same time, Ustenko reminded that development of agriculture in Ukraine is hampered by system problems, related to corruption and regulatory barriers, in particular, the legislative framework is not predictive, which hampers investors to plan their activities.

He noted that such a situation does not stimulate an increase in the yield of cultures, since there is direct dependence between the yield, which agriculture shows, and investments.

In this connection, Ustenko added that agroholdings are perspective forms of economic activities for development of production, since they are able to attract additional financial resources and to implement technologies.

At the beginning of the year, SigmaBleyzer forecasted direct foreign investments in the Ukrainian agrarian sector to the amount of US$400 million in 2011.

International investment company SigmaBleyzer was founded in 1994; it manages a group of direct investment funds, working in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan.

Founders of SigmaBleyzer in 2001 have set up the International Bleyzer Foundation, which is engaged in research activities in the economic sphere.