• The European Investment Bank is starting a loan project worth 400 million euros to support small and midsize businesses in Ukraine, according to several sources. The loan amounts range between 25 million euros for small and midsize companies and 50 million euros for companies with over 3,000 employees.

• President Petro Poroshenko signed into a law a bill simplifying the export of services from Ukraine, multiple news outlets reported. He said the law is a major step in the creation of a favorable business climate in the country. Unian said the legislation should facilitate development of Ukraine’s IT industry and market for freelancers.

• China’s largest spot commodities exchange bought the Ukrainian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, numerous sources reported. Bohai Commodity Exchange Ltd has an annual turnover of about $1 trillion. As the winning bidder, Bohai will be required to increase the bank’s capital to $4.6 million.

• International experts estimate that restoring the battered economy of the Donbas from the ravages of the war will cost $1.5 billion, according to a Ukrinform report. The estimate applies to the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkov and Zaporizhia regions.

• Bringing Ukraine’s roads up to the lowest European level will take a minimum of three years, Unian reported based on an interview with Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yevgeny Kravtsov.

• The Ivano-Frankivsk region has attracted $9.5 million in FDI this year, per Ukrinform. Although the regional administrator interviewed for the report said the activity of foreign investors in the region has fallen significantly, there are nevertheless positive signs, such as construction of a plant in Kolomyia by German company Leoni that is to create about 800 jobs.

• Capital investment in Ukrainian metallurgy production grew 5 percent in the first nine months of 2016 from the same period the previous year, according to a Unian report.

• Kernel, a major player in the domestic ag industry, reported a more than twofold increase in Q1 net profit in fiscal year 2017, Interfax Ukraine reported. The company’s farming division posted record revenues and saw double-digit growth in yields.

• Two of Ukraine’s telecom giants, Kyivstar and Vodafone, reacted coldly to the government’s announcement of a planned nationwide 4G wireless rollout next year, according to Novoe Vremya.

• Ukraine introduced new poultry import restrictions affecting Austria and certain regions of Germany, Novoe Vremya reported. The German regions affected are Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony.

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