The RDS road construction group, which is already represented in seven regions of Ukraine, is preparing for the expansion of its geographic footprint in the country, the co-owner of the group, Yevhen Konovalov, has said.
“Today we work in seven regions – Odesa (in the region and its central city), Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Poltava, Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions. I would like to keep the list of the regions we are planning to enter this year a secret, but we have plans for at least three regions today. We will give more information about them soon,” he said in an exclusive interview to Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Konovalov, competition on the road construction and maintenance market has increased in recent years due to a growth in activities of Ukrainian and foreign companies.
“In order to stay afloat, we should expand the chain of our plants and production facilities. This will allow us saving the usual level of production and work load. They say that big companies are monopolizing the market, acting in collusion, but this is not true. Competition in our market is extremely high, we are competing using technologies and human resource,” the co-owner of group said.
While commenting on peculiarities of tenders in this area in Ukraine, Konovalov stressed that the cost of further maintenance should be included in the price of road construction.
“The tender amount can be very big at once, as it should include both the construction and road maintenance for a term of three to five years. Hence, tender financing should be as follows: UAH 100 million directly for the construction and another UAH 30 million for maintenance,” he said.
The co-owner of RDS also said that the group is currently discussing the issue with the management of Ukravtodor State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine.
“The main thing is that the contractor, who had won a road construction tender, should be in charge of maintenance of new roads instead, and not the state represented by regional automobile road agencies with their outmoded equipment,” Konovalov said.
He added that besides maintenance the company should monitor the road quality on its own for five to ten years, as this is guaranteed by banking institutions.
“If the road service requests road repairs, then we will fix it. Otherwise, the bank with withdraw money from our account,” the co-owner of RDS said.
The Ukrainian group of companies RDS includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. Its core business is construction, modernization and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes.
The company is building concrete road H-14 Kropyvnytsky-Mykolaiv. As part of the reconstruction of the H-31 Dnipro-Reshetylivka highway in Poltava region, RDS is building an overpass over the railway and the section of the first concrete road in Ukraine. In 2019, the company won a World Bank tender for work on the first category highway M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky.
As of January 2020, the company operates in seven regions of Ukraine and has ten production facilities.
The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS are Ukrainian citizens Yuriy Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov. The charter capital of the company is UAH 5.13 million.
Consumer sentiment of Ukrainians in February 2020 deteriorated by 7.1 points, to 81.9 points on a 200-point scale, according to the website of Info Sapiens research agency. “All the indicator’s components decreased and the short-term economic expectations most of all,” the agency said on its website.
“In February the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) kept decreasing. Comparing to the peak level reached in September 2019, the index lost 16 points and almost a half of this decline (7 p.) happened in February regarding the January 2020. The most significant decrease happened in the west (19 p.), north and east (10 p. each) regions. The CCI in Kyiv and in the central region is stable,” Info Sapiens analysts comment.
“In February, the Index of Economic Expectations (ІЕE) decreased by 8.9 points to the level of 86.8. The Index of Expectations of the Country’s Economic Development over the next year (х3) decreased by 12.8 points and equals 80.1. The Index of Expectations of the Country’s Economic Development over the next five years (х4) decreased to the level of 93.7, which is 7.7 points lower than in January,” it said.
“The Index of the Current Situation (ICS) decreased by 4.5 points to the level of 74.5. The Index of Current Personal Financial Standing (х1) equaled 70.7, which is 5.7 points lower than the indicator in January. The Index of Propensity to Consume (х5) decreased by 3.3 p. and reached the indicator of 78.4,” according to the report.
“In February, the indicator of Index of Expectations of Changes in Unemployment equaled 128.7, which is 9.9 p. higher than previous month,” the report says.
In January and February of 2020, Ukrainian enterprises reduced the import of copper and copper products in value terms by 2.1% compared to the same period in 2019, to $15.338 million.
According to customs statistics, released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, export of copper and copper products decreased by 15.9%, to $9.814 million in the first two months of 2020.
In February, copper and copper products were imported to the tune of $8.450 million, exported to the tune of $5.895 million.
In addition, Ukraine in January and February of 2020 reduced the import of nickel and nickel products by 11.3% compared to the same month of 2019, to $14.008 million (in February amounted to $6.034 million), but increased the import of aluminum and aluminum products by 13.7%, to $57.714 million ($30.315 million). At the same time, the import of lead and lead products decreased by 60.6%, to $896,000 ($364,000), while tin and tin products grew by 24.5%, to $447,000 ($295,000), zinc and zinc products rose by 4.3%, to $7.562 million ($3.331 million).
In January and February of 2020, exports of aluminum and aluminum products increased by 11.9%, compared to the same period of 2019, to $16.839 million (in February amounted to $9.679 million), lead and lead products increased by 73.7%, to $5.179 million ($2.672 million), nickel and nickel products increased by 18.2%, to $480,000 ($320,000). Zinc exports in January and February of 2020 amounted to $11,000, while in the same period of 2019 amounted to $86,000 (in February amounted to $8,000). The export of tin and tin products in January and February of 2020 amounted to $16,000, while in the same period of 2019 amounted to $15,000 (there was no export in February).
The draft law “On priority decisions related to the prevention, prophylaxis and elimination of the COVID-19 coronavirus, other infectious diseases associated with it, as well as crisis response measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic” provides a clear algorithm for forced isolation and self-isolation, as well as liability for non-compliance with quarantine.
Minister of Health of Ukraine Illia Yemets presented the bill on Friday to MPs and representatives of relevant departments at a meeting of the working group under the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance to draft legislative proposals aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Ukraine.
The bill also provides for the simplification of the procurement of goods, works and services to prevent and combat coronavirus, which will speed up the process of purchasing personal protective equipment and test systems; the ability to work remotely; a ban on holding mass events with more than 200 people; a ban on conducting state surveillance and control measures during the implementation of measures related to the prevention and control of coronavirus; strengthening control of entry and exit to the territory of Ukraine.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Health, deputies supported the initiative and made several amendments to it.
CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, INTRODUCING, NON-COMPLIANCE, QUARANTINE
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the leaders of Ukrainian enterprises to allow their employees to work remotely.
“I personally ask business executives – if possible, allow your employees to work at home, remotely. Especially those who have children and who cannot leave them because of quarantine at schools and kindergartens,” he said in his video address to Ukrainian people posted on his Facebook page on Friday night.
