•More than half of Ukraine's 2016 grain exports were sent to nine Asian countries, most notably China, India, Indonesia and Thailand, Ukrinform reported. Nine of the top 10 countries Ukraine exported grain to last year are in Asia, and those countries combined accounted for 54 percent of Ukrainian grain exports.

•The Ukrainian-Arab Business Council is proposing to establish a bank consisting entirely of investments from the Arab world in Ukraine, a move that is expected to ease entry for Middle Eastern companies into the Ukrainian market, according to multiple sources. The goal of the bank is to raise $100 billion worth of investments in Ukraine, given Arab interest in Ukrainian agricultural and processing industries.

•Flagship carrier Turkish Airlines will add three flights on the Istanbul-Kherson route to the summer schedule, as reported by avianews.com. The airline has been expanding its service in Ukraine, with Lviv and Kharkiv the beneficiaries of previous enhancements.

•Transit shipments of Russian natural gas to the European Union via Ukraine have hit a record high in the last few years, exceeding 300 million cubic meters per day, according to Ukrtransgaz.

•State Property Fund boss Igor Bilous acknowledged that privatization of 78.3 percent of the shares of major energy company Centrenergo could be delayed until 2018, casting doubt on an initial timetable of the first quarter of 2017, multiple sources reported. Bilous said investors from China, India, South Korea and Turkey are interested in buying Centrenergo.

•Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said Britain’s High Court of Justice will rule in April on Ukraine's $3 billion eurobond debt to Russia, multiple sources reported, citing TV Channel 112 Ukraine.

•With annual growth of 2 to 5 percent, Ukrainian strawberry production has risen to the seventh spot among European countries, Ukrinform reported. The country now grows 6 percent of the global strawberry crop.

•Corruption, not the ongoing war, is far and away Ukraine’s biggest problem, participants in a World Economic Forum discussion about the country said, Novoe Vremya reported.

Ukraine lost 23 banks in 2016, according to Unian. As of Jan. 20, the country has 94 operational banks, of which 39 have capital from abroad.

•Industrial production rose 4.5 percent in December, building on the 3.7 percent expansion recorded in November and marking a nine-month high, the State Statistics Service reported. Growth was broad-based across the index in December, and annual average growth in industrial output rose to 2.1 percent, the best result since August 2012.

•India is interested in investing in Ukraine, an Indian minister told a Ukrainian counterpart at a recent meeting to discuss bilateral interests. The Indian official also said his country is interested in various Ukrainian exports.

For comments and news tips, please email UBJ AM editor David Edwards at david.edwards@theubj.com.