The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has asked the World Bank to increase the amount of funds previously considered for Ukraine in order to purchase vaccines, according to the agency’s website.
“Now the Ministry of Health has two priority areas in the fight against COVID-19 from the point of view of the healthcare system. The first one is to ensure maximum testing with PCR tests. Therefore, in addition to our large laboratories, it is important to consider the possibility of equipping laboratories for 200-250 PCR tests directly in hospitals. The second priority is the vaccine. We turned to the World Bank with a request to increase the amount of funds that were previously considered for allocating to Ukraine for the purchase of vaccines,” Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov said.
He expressed hope that these two areas will become the basis for new strategic projects between the Ministry of Health and the bank.
Arup Banerji, the World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine), in turn, promised “to cooperate with the ministry’s team to provide all the resources necessary to implement these directions.”
The manufacturer of upholstered furniture Hjort Knudsen (Denmark) intends to invest EUR 11 million in the construction of an enterprise for production of designer furniture on the outskirts of Rivne as part of expanding its activities in Ukraine, the press service of Rivne Regional State Administration reports.
“Another powerful investor is entering Rivne region. The Danish sewing company Hjort Knudsen decided to create a branch in the region. The arrival of such an investor indicates attractive business conditions in the region, which will attract other donors,” head of the regional state administration Vitaliy Koval said during a meeting with Director of United Fashion Ukraine Steen Laursen.
The investor plans to build a production facility with an area of 40,000 square meters, create 1,000 jobs. The plans include the creation of a closed cycle production with the manufacture of value-added products.
The project was being prepared for about a year with the involvement of the regional state administration, the InvestInRivne agency.
Currently, Hjort Knudsen has four branches in Ukraine – the divisions of United Fashion Ukraine, namely in Lviv, Pochayiv (Ternopil region), Velyki Mosty and Brody (both in Lviv region). The enterprises produce traditional and designer sofas, club and office chairs, the assortment includes more than 200 fabric models and a wide range of leather upholstery.
Mariupol seaport (Donetsk region) in January-September 2020 increased cargo transshipment by 16.5% compared to the same period in 2019, which is 5.335 million tonnes.
According to the website of the state-owned enterprise Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, the port increased the transshipment of export cargo by 17.41%, to 4.461 million tonnes during this period, but reduced the transshipment of imported cargo by 36.84%, to 489,900 tonnes, and increased transshipment of cabotage goods by more than 83.5 times, to 384,200 tonnes. At the same time, the port did not handle transit cargo.
In terms of the cargo nomenclature in the nine months of 2020, Mariupol port increased the transshipment of liquid cargo by 10.91%, to 118,900 tonnes, reduced the transshipment of bulk materials by 2.71%, to 1.599 million tonnes, and increased the transshipment of packaged goods by 27.86%, to 3.617 million tonnes.
During this period, no containers were transshipped in the port.
As reported, the volume of cargo transshipment at Mariupol seaport increased by 10% to 6.484 million tonnes in 2019 as in comparison to 2018.
Mariupol seaport is one of the largest ports in Ukraine. Its capacity allows transshipping over 17 million tonnes of cargo per year. The port is open year-round for vessels up to 240 meters in length and up to eight meters draft. Its territory is 73.2 ha, and the length of the berthing line is 4.2 km.
SkyUp (Kyiv) is planning to launch flights from Zaporizhia to Batumi (Georgia), Larnaca (Cyprus) and Prague (Czech Republic) at the end of spring to summer 2021.
The company’s press service said on Monday that tickets are available for purchase on the SkyUp website.
The airline also said that it has extended for the winter season flights on the Kyiv-Zaporizhia-Kyiv route, which it started operating from the new airport terminal on October 19.
“Government support for such important infrastructure projects that make passengers’ vacation more comfortable, also opens wide opportunities for increasing destinations, flight frequencies and potentially setting lower fares. We are grateful to the city and airport authorities for the honor of the first Ukrainian low-cost airline to operate the first flight,” the airline’s press service said, citing SkyUp CEO Dmytro Seroukhov.
As reported, the new terminal of Zaporizhia international airport started accommodating internal flights on October 19.
Ukrainian banks in July-September 2020 closed 251 structural divisions, as of October 1 their regional network consisted of 7,329 branches.
According to data posted on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), in the third quarter, Oschadbank ceased the operation of 166 branches (reducing their number to 1,931), PrivatBank some 83 (to 1,750), TAScombank 11 (to 87), Kredobank five (to 83).
In addition, Ukrbudinvestbank (to 47) and UkrSibbank (to 278) closed four branches in the last quarter, the regulator noted.
It is also indicated that in July-September this year, state-owned Ukrgasbank opened 21 offices, expanding its regional network to 269 branches, A-Bank opened five branches (to 235) and Megabank (to 153) and IBOX Bank (to 42) opened three branches each.
According to the National Bank, as of October 1 Oschadbank remains the leader in terms of the number of branches (1,931), PrivatBank ranks second (to 1,750), Raiffeisen Bank Aval ranks third (456), UkrSibbank is in the fourth place (278) and Ukrgasbank is fifth (269).
Natural gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS) of Ukraine as of October 17, 2020 reached 28.434 billion cubic meters, or 91.9% of their total design capacity, according to operational data of JSC Ukrtransgaz.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, on October 1 through October 17, the storage facilities were filled by 379.6 million cubic meters, and if during October 1 – October 16, the daily injection ranged from 19.6 million cubic meters to 28.2 million cubic meters, then on October 17, it decreased to 10.8 million cubic meters.
Since the end of the season for withdrawing gas from storage facilities on March 26 until October 17, 2020, reserves in Ukrainian UGS facilities have increased by 80.1%, or 12.649 billion cubic meters.
As reported, in the previous heating season, which lasted from November 1, 2019 to March 26, 2020, gas reserves in the country’s underground storage facilities decreased by 6 billion cubic meters (from 21.784 billion cubic meters to 15.784 billion cubic meters).
The system of 12 underground storage facilities of Ukrtransgaz, which fully belongs to NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, has a total design capacity of 31 billion cubic meters.
