Ukrainian citizens who export services abroad may soon be able to sign contracts with foreign business partners electronically, sidestepping excessive bureaucracy, according to legal amendments passed by the Ukrainian parliament on Nov. 3.
The amendments to bill No. 4496 open up a way for Ukrainians who sell their intellectual property abroad to reach agreements with colleagues or clients from other countries without having to have a paper contract agreement with physical signatures.
The amendments were approved with 270 votes “for” in the 450-seat parliament.
If Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signs the bill, it will be possible to export services abroad and sign contracts via e-mail.
The law will mainly affect freelancers that sell their services abroad, including IT professionals.
“Freelancers, IT specialists, lawyers, accountants, designers, realtors – everyone who supplies services abroad, now you can simply bill for providing services, do it by email, and get foreign exchange earnings sent to accounts in Ukraine,” the lead author of the bill, independent lawmaker Victoria Ptashnyk told the Kyiv Post on Nov. 3.
She said the bill would promote an increase in exports.
“This will stimulate a faster inflow of foreign currency into Ukraine, which in turn will have a positive impact on the development of small- and medium-sized businesses in the country,” she said.
Under the old legislation, any transaction that was conducted abroad was defined as foreign economic activity, so any e-business in Ukraine that sold to foreign buyers was subject to Ukraine’s currency controls.
That meant that foreigners who bought Ukrainian services over the internet, and the Ukrainian sellers, had to provide documents – an invoice and a purchase/sale agreement – physically signed by both sides and verified by a bank.
All the documents for such e-transactions could only in paper form, and signed and sent by post by the buyer to the vendor, totally negating the whole point of convenient, paperless e-business.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected].
