CUCC Holds AGM

By Walter Derzko

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The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce was held at UNF Hall in Toronto on Wednesday June 5, 2013. The meeting was chaired and called to order by Renata Roman. After the introduction of special guests from Ukraine, the minutes of the previous AGM was read by Bohdan Leschuk and accepted unanimously by the attendees. In the President’s Report Zenon Potichny highlighted some of the main events from the past year, which included the 2 day Canada-Ukraine Business Forum, which included 130 registered delegates and 40 guests from Ukraine and the 20^th Anniversary Gala Dinner at the Royal York Hotel from November 2012, attended by over 200 guests. He announced plans for the next forum, which will take place in Lviv, Ukraine later this year. The CUCC also signed cooperation agreements with Invest Ukraine and Lviv Chamber of Commerce and the Ukraine League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. CUCC provided input to the Canadian government on the Free Trade Agreement now being negotiated between Canada and Ukraine and to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In 2013, six new companies joined CUCC in Ukraine. The CUCC office in Ukraine was used as a base for the Canadian long term observer mission in 2012. The president also announced plans for restructuring the CUCC, reducing the Board of Directors from 30 to 15 members and adding an advisory board and a core sustainability management group.

Next, the financial overview was presented by Bohdan Myndiuk and the Auditor’s report was read by Les Lucyk. Both reports were accepted unanimously by the members without any concerns.

The first of the speakers was introduced by Dr. George Foty. Mr. Mykhaylo Ratushniak is the Director of the Ternopil Business Council, or Ukrainska Sprava. Mr. Ratushniak explained their “Buy Ukrainian” campaign - a form of economic patriotism, that encourages Ukrainians to support Ukrainian owned small and medium sized businesses in Ternopil Oblast, that in turn finance numerous Ukrainian social projects, theatre, language, religion and specifically support youth projects, including PLAST and CYM.

John Iwaniura introduced the slate of the proposed Board of Directors.

His Excellency, Ambassador of Ukraine in Canada, Vadym Prystaiko was the next key note speaker and was introduced by Renata Roman. He openly outlined some of the challenges and future activities of the Canadian embassy in Canada. The Ambassador reiterated that his job was to promote a better image of Ukraine in the world and better opportunities for business. He addressed three key areas: Ukraine’s position in the international community, what the Ukrainian government is doing to promote Ukrainian business (albeit large oligarch owned business) with the rest of the world and cooperation with CUCC and what we can do better. He stressed that Ukraine is not just an agricultural bread basket country but has a diversity of industry for export opportunties including minerals, chemicals, coal, electricity, uranium, textiles, steel, fertilizers, aircraft, machinery, high tech and information technology. However, Canada only does about $500 million dollars worth of trade per annum with Ukraine, which represents only 0.2% of Ukrainian trade turnover, or 0.023 % of Canadian trade turnover, a marginal amount compared to other trading relationships. The image of corruption is unfortunately a fact of life and the Ambassador is personally unhappy with the current situation. Ukraine is negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Canada, expecting that one more round is needed to reduce tariffs and open the market for IT and service industries. “Canadian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ukraine is about $100 million dollars and there is room for improvement” said the Ambassador. He was not aware of the Ukrainian FDI amount in Canada. The Ambassador welcomed further cooperation with the CUCC and “with anyone who wants to do business with Ukraine. It’s our number one priority.” he said. Over 10 years, Canada has supported Ukraine by providing over $410 million dollars in various technical assistance projects. Canadian Ukrainian business relations need to mature to the next level, from simply a one sided wish to help our Ukrainian “motherland” to a more sophisticated two way reciprocally beneficial relationship.

After his formal speech, the Ambassador answered questions from the floor centered around: 1) tax reform and punitive taxes against small business in Ukraine; 2) the challenges of small and medium-sized business in Ukraine, which are being largely ignored by the current government in power; 3) how the Embassy can improve the perceived negative world image of Ukraine by promoting technology transfer opportunities from Ukraine to the west; 4) actively promoting Ukrainian innovations and scientific discoveries in the west, which are collecting dust on university and institute shelves, which currently is not a priority of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences or Akademia Nauk, 5) the timeline for the FTA; 6) how the CUCC and the Embassy can co-promote new business relationships; 7) smoothing out the path for launching business in Ukraine especially around corruption; 8) his political aspirations; 9) strengthening trade mark protection and intellectual property rights and reducing software piracy; 10) direct trade promotion, that should come from the Ukrainian government.

The annual general meeting was adjourned by Renata Roman and she invited members and guests to chat after the meeting and partake in food and refreshments.

PHOTOS

1 - L. to R.: His Excellency, Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, Renata Roman, Bohdan Leschuk, Zenon Potichny, John Iwaniura, Oleh Koval

2 - Director of the Ternopil Business Council from Ternopil Ukraine, Mykhaylo Ratushniak

3 - R. to L.: Zenon Potichny presents a gift to His Excellency, Ambassador of Ukraine in Canada, Vadym Prystaiko

Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors

Director & President/Chairman – Zenon Potichny

Director & First Vice President – John Iwaniura

Director & CFO – Bohdan Leshchyshen

Director & VP of Public and Government Relations – John Moskalyk

Director & VP of Membership & Branch Development – Alex Ochrym

Director & VP of Marketing – Les Salnick

Director & Legal Counsel – Bohdan Onyschuk

Executive Director & Secretary – Bohdan Leschuk

Director & Treasurer – Bohdan Myndiuk

Director – Markian Silecky

Director – Paul Bozoki

Director – Gerald Fedchun

Director – TBA (Representative from Alberta)

Director – Renata Roman

Director – Wally Rudensky

Canada-Ukraine Trade Association [Kyiv, Ukraine]

Administrative Board

Director & VP - Ihor Liski

Director & VP - Yuro Kryvosheya

Director & VP - Roman Sawycky

Director & VP - Oleh Mandyuk

Managing Director - Emma Turos

Advisory Board

John Znaczko

Diane Francis

Paul Grod

Walter Kish

Lubomyr Kwasnycia

Steve Merena

George Ochrym

Arthur Sawchuk

James Temerty

Morgan Williams