Month: December 2019

We wish you all Happiness, Health and Prosperity for the year 2020.

May you enjoy the holidays with your dear ones.

We hope to be in touch again in the year ahead.

Please note that our Russian offices will be closed from January 1- 8, 2020.

1. Being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, Belarus gives its investors access to the markets of Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan with 184 000 000 consumers. 
2. Belarus can not boast of plentiful mineral resources. However, it has another treasure:  its talented and educated people.  Belarus was called the “assembly shop” of the Soviet Union.  It has 52 universities, 16 000 IT graduates each year.  Belarusians are highly qualified in medicine, IT, mechanical engineering, construction, agriculture and in other fields.
3. The capital of Minsk is only 2 hours by plane from most European capitals. Belarus has extensive and well-taken-care-of network of roads, highways and railways making the country very suitable for transit.
4. The Belarusian government strives to make Belarus a heaven for IT start-ups as well as for the IT “veterans”.  Hi-Tech Park (HTP) has been functioning since 2005. IT companies in HTP are exempt from all corporate taxes, including VAT and profit tax, as well as from customs duties, etc.  About 1,2 billion people all over the world use the mobile apps developed by HTP residents. Belarus has one of the world’s most progressive IT legislation. The Decree of 2018 On Development of Digital Economy, among many other things, made cryptocurrency exchanges, mining, smart-contract, blockchain, etc.  legal.  Operations with tokens (mining, buying, exchange, etc.) are VAT exempt.
5. The country is friendly to investors. It has six free economic zones and there is a National Agency on Investments and Privatization.  Being an element of the so-called “Silk Road”, the Great Stone Industrial Park recently established with active Chinese participation welcomes new members.  It is a big-scale project with the prospect of becoming a large transnational business hub.

On 06 December 2019 the Ukrainian Rada (the Parliament) passed a law adopting an important amendment to the Code of Labour Laws of Ukraine. 

In particular, it introduces a new Article 5, whereby electronic documents drawn up  according to Ukrainian law are considered written documents for the purpose of labour law.

The law will make possible conclusions of labour contracts between employers and employees in electronic form.

The law is entering into force on the day following the date of its official publication.

Please feel free to contact us if you wish to be updated on the publication date or if you need other assistance in labour issues.

1.        Ukraine is a big European state and a big market with 42 million consumers.  The country is rich in natural resources (fertile lands, coal and ore mining (marganese, titanium, iron).  The Ukrainian GDP at current prices is almost 131 billion USD.  Ukrainian workers are cheap, disciplined and well-educated.

2.       Excellent geographic position.  It is a potential commercial hub between Europe and Asia.  Through Ukraine passes one of the branches of the so-called Silk Road from China to Europe.

3.       Ukraine is booming with reforms.  Since 2015 there has been a National Anticorruption Bureau.  Struggle against corruption is seen as a vital prerequisite to economic prosperity.  Economic reforms envision high-tech agriculture, machine-building and IT as principal economic growth drivers.  Since February of 2019 currency transactions are regulated by a liberal law ‘On Currency and Currency Transactions’.  Investors shall not bother about transferring their money abroad.

4.       Ukraine made its choice:  the country promptly strives to obtain membership in the European Union as well as in NATO.  The Association Agreement with the EU has been active since 01 January 2016.  A Free Trade agreement governs the trade between the EU and Ukraine.

5.       Warren Buffet, the famous American investor, said once, “Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.”  Now Ukraine is “marked down”, so to say.  So, be among the ones who are in time to take their positions at this potentially highly-lucrative market.

Juralink is extending its services to Ukraine and Belarus. We are pleased to welcome Vladimir Zenkovich, an experienced local lawyer, to our team. Vladimir has previously worked on corporate and contract law from Minsk, both as an attorney/ consultant and as a corporate lawyer. Vladimir has graduated from Belarusian State University in Minsk, Belarus. He received his LL.M. at the University of Minnesota Law School, USA. 

He is fluent in Belarussian, Russian and English.  We have come to know Vladimir as a competent and reliable lawyer from a number of short assignments in the past and we look forward to a structural co-operation.

If you have any questions on legal issues in Ukraine or Belarus, please feel free to address Vladimir.  His phone is +375 29 684 80 85.

Authorities in the Russian Federation have published measures for the prevention and control of the measles. Employers must carry out immunization measures against the measles among their employees and report to authorities. Both company and director can get a penalty if employees do not carry proof of vaccination or immunity.

On 11 March 2019 the Regulation of the Chief sanitary officer of the RF “On the performance of clean-up immunizationagainst the measles in the territory of the RF” dated 06.03.2019 No.2 was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the RF.

This regulatory act requires you to carry out immunization measures against the measles among your employees and report the number of employees vaccinated to Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare) by 31 December, 2019.

Please note that this Regulation also governs migrant workers. Art. 3 of the Regulation reads as follows: “3. Employers, who involve foreign citizens in the performance of work, must prior to 31.12.2019 take immunization measures against the measles of the mentioned foreign citizens that have not been sick with measles and have not been vaccinated or have no medical history of vaccination against the measles.

This issue should not be postponed and may require extra time for the following reasons:

• There are not always sufficient vaccines in the health care facilities
• One can be rejected for vaccination due to medical reasons, so it can take additional time to solve this situation
• There are various requirements to the report from different subdivisions of the Rospotrebnadzor

In total the whole procedure and filing of the reports can take up to one month.

Juralink can assist you in order to comply with the above measures. If you would like to know more, please let us know and we will contact you soon.