The National Bank of Ukraine welcomes Parliament’s adoption of Draft Law No.4496 on Amendments and Supplements to Certain Legal Acts of Ukraine (on removal of administrative barriers to exports of services) in the first reading. A total of 246 MPs voted in favor of this bill.
“The central bank is grateful to the MPs for voting in support of the removal of administrative barriers to exports of services. This draft law is critical to further development of exports of services by Ukrainian companies and efforts to simplify doing business for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This draft law establishes a legal framework regulating the activities of freelancers that will finally be freed from the burden of excessive red tape. Also, this move will encourage higher inflows of foreign exchange receipts to the country,” said NBU Deputy Governor Vladyslav Rashkovan.
Draft Law No.4496 will help reduce to the extent possible administrative barriers during the execution of foreign economic contracts, crediting of foreign exchange receipts, as well as accounting and financial reporting procedures:
- companies will be allowed to execute foreign economic contracts not only in writing but also electronically
- banks will not require the translation of documents into Ukrainian if these documents are executed in the English language
- from now on, an invoice shall serve as a source document and can be signed by handwritten, electronic or digital signature, as well as electronic signature applied by a one-off identifier.
As a side note, over twenty draft laws required for advancing financial sector reforms are pending approval by parliament. These include strategically important draft laws pertaining to the protection of creditor and financial services consumer rights, financial restructuring of corporate and household debts, and consolidation of the state regulation of financial services markets functions.