COMMITTEES AND PROJECTS

The BUCC focuses on British and Ukrainian trade and investment and, in particular, facilitating the development of projects to address important needs for British-Ukrainian Business.

Ukrainian Week in London 2-9 December 2019

Please register for the Ukrainian Week in London 5-8 October 2021 here.

Trade Committee

The BUCC’s Trade Committee is studying how best to develop further trade between Great Britain and Ukraine. The BUCC believes that because the UK imports more than half of its food, it should expand tariff free food imports from Ukraine, unlike the EU which severely restricted such imports in the DCFTA to protect EU farmers. Consequently, as a major food exporter and for other reasons, Ukraine should be a major beneficiary from the new British-Ukrainian trade treaty.

Infrastructure Committee: Port/Rail Container Traffic Project

The BUCC’s Transportation Committee is focused on its project to facilitate moving containers from Asia through Ukraine to Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltics and Scandinavia. This was a principal focus of the discussions at Ukrainian Week in london 2018.

Agriculture Committee

The BUCC’s Agriculture Committee is focused on providing for greater irrigation to address the problem that crop yields in southern Ukraine are decreasing due to increasing drought from climate change, which is also making the Oleshky Sands, one of Europe’s largest deserts that is located in Kherson Oblast, even larger and risks damaging soil quality and yields throughout southern Ukraine. In connection with this, the BUCC is working on a proposal to exempt, from the current moratorium on the sale of agricultural land, those sales of land in designated drought destressed areas that are made to farmers who commit to spending the required significant amounts on equipment to irrigate this land and which then do so.

Law Committee: Judicial Ombudsman

For Ukraine’s judicial reform and anti-corruption programs to actually help protect UK and other foreign investors into Ukraine, Ukraine needs a Judicial Ombudsman (also known as legal Ombudsman), as was developed by Sweden when corruption in the Swedish courts was a problem in the early 1900s. The BUCC’s proposal would allow all litigants in Ukraine to take court decisions at any level that constitute an abuse of justice to this Judicial Ombudsman for immediate review, as well as for the judges responsible for such abusive decisions to be investigated for presumed corruption (this would be different from lustration that is not based on the actual judicial misbehavior of judges).

Investment Committee: Political/Conflict Risk Insurance

Ukraine needs greater availability of political/conflict risk insurance, so that such political/conflict risk does not continue to deter foreign investment into Ukraine. The BUCC’s proposal is based on increasing the level of political/conflict risk insurance available from the World Bank’s MIGA, just as has been done, for the same reason, for the West Bank and Gaza and other countries experiencing conflict.

Real Estate / OSBB Project

The BUCC’s Real Estate Committee earlier obtained significant changes to the implementation of OSBB laws and regulations (please see our previous KyivPost article on this). We are now organizing an internet “clearing house” at our website so that (1) different OSBBs can compare their experiences managing their buildings, (2) details on the relative performance of suppliers of services and goods for buildings and their apartments can be posted for all to see,  and the methods for the privatzation of land under the buildaings can be considered.

Tourism Committee

The BUCC’s Tourism Committee aims to promote tourism between the UK and Ukraine, and is presently aimed at obtaining UK destination tourism PR services for Ukraine and certain Ukrainian cities to show potential UK tourists the excellent sites, restaurants and hotels that Ukraine has to offer.

Art Committee: Ukrainian Impressionism Rediscovery Project

Please read more about this BUCC’ project dedicated to restoration of Ukrainian Impressionism here.

Sports

We actively promote sports, including cricket and golf (with a programme with the Kyiv Golf Club, Kyiv’s leading golf course).