President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky took part in festivities on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of Independence of Ukraine.
At the Alley of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, the head of state announced a moment of silence for those killed during the Revolution of Dignity.
“We begin the Day of Independence of Ukraine from the place where the best sons and daughters of Ukraine gave their lives and their future to preserve our independence. And today, our future says ‘thank you’ to all of them. May the memory of the deceased live forever,” Zelensky said.
The president of Ukraine and his wife also laid flowers to the Cross at the Alley of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.
After the ceremony of hoisting the State Flag of Ukraine and performance of the State Anthem by the combined military orchestra of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the head of state congratulated Ukrainians on the 28th anniversary of Independence. He noted that August 24 was the most important day for Ukraine.
The president thanked the military men, who defend Ukraine in Donbas.
Zelensky also urged all Ukrainians to unite and build the country together.
“We are different. But we are united. We must be united, because only then we are strong. We should understand that we have to count only on ourselves. Not to quarrel over the past, but to unite for the future. Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking, regardless of age, gender, religion, we must be one people. Not on posters, not on slogans, but here. In everyone’s heart. We must move forward, build the country together, do the impossible together,” the president said.
At the same time, he expressed confidence in the future development of the state because of the new generation formed in times of independence.
“Today, an entire generation, born in independent Ukraine, has already formed. For them, this is a normal state of affairs. It can’t be different for them. And that’s wonderful. Because this generation is our mental foothold. Foothold for freedom, democracy and development. They think differently, they think in a modern way, which means that Ukraine will only move forward,” he said.
The head of state also presented state awards in the framework of marking the 28th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises are expected to increase steel production by 4% by the end of the year compared to 2018, up to 21.895 million tonnes.
According to background documents of Economic Development and Trade Ministry available for Interfax-Ukraine, a total rolled steel output will see 3% rise by the end of 2019, up to 18.937 million tonnes, when pig iron will see 0.4% down, to 20.748 million tonnes.
Such forecast was made following the performance indicator of January-July 2019, the ministry said.
The agency’s source in the ministry also said that under ongoing trends scrap metals supplies to the enterprises would decrease by 3%, to 3.238 million tonnes.
Besides, pipe output in 2019 may grow by 19%, to 1.144 million tonnes, coke output will drop by 5%, to 10.305 million tonnes, metalware output will drop by 1%, to 186,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile, the metal and mining enterprise can increase iron ore extraction by 4%, to 76.095 million tonnes, iron ore concentrate output by 5%, to 63.568 million tonnes, ready iron ore raw materials may increase by 1%, to 53.696 million tonnes. Sinter cake output will remain on the level of previous year with 31.706 million tonnes, steel pellets output will increase by 3% reaching 21.989 million tonnes.
Acting Head of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) Slawomir Nowak has said hopefully Zaporizhia-Mariupol highway will be repaired by the end of 2019.
“We have a very ambitious goal: to complete Zaporizhia-Mariupol corridor this year. Large-scale funding was provided to complete these works, because this corridor is very important for the whole country. This is ‘the road of life’ for Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions, for Mariupol as well, thus we want to work so fast to be able to complete the construction,” Novak told the journalists during a visiting meeting.
He said the works are carried under constant supervision of the agency.
According to the Ukravtodor, the total length of the site is 209 km (41.3 in Donetsk region and 167.6 km in Zaporizhia region). Meanwhile, 54.1 km of roads have already been repaired (10.1 in Donetsk region and 44 km in Zaporizhia region).
Inter alia, the highway workers plan to repair 80.4 km of road in Zaporizhia region worth UAH 1.567 billion, and 31.2 km of road in Donetsk region worth UAH 840.6 million.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has addressed a balance of funds of the Ukravtodor in an amount of UAH 1.920 billion and unappropriated expenditures of 2019 in an amount of UAH 94.142 million for the development of the principal highways.
The government passed a respective decision at its meeting on Wednesday.
According to an explanatory note to the document, over UAH 1.240 billion will be allocated for continuation of the permanent medium repairs of Boryspil-Dnipro-Zaporizhia-Mariupol highway enroute Zaporizhia-Mariupol, extra UAH 400 million will be spent for Dnipro-Mykolaiv highway (Dnipropetrovsk region) repairs in 2019.
New Yorker Ukraine LLC (Kyiv), which is developing the German clothing and footwear network New Yorker in Ukraine, opens a store in the River Mall trade center at 12 Dniprovska Esplanade in Darnytsky district of Kyiv, thereby expanding the Ukrainian network to ten stores.
According to the press service of the mall, the store will be located on the second floor of the facility and will occupy 1,100 square meters.
The outlet will be the fourth one in Kyiv and the tenth one in Ukraine.
The New Yorker network has been developing in Ukraine since 2011.
According to the company’s website, as of August 22, 2019, the chain had nine stores in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Kryvy Rih, and Sumy. The New Yorker international chain has more than 1,000 stores in 40 countries.
Ukraine’s banks almost quadruple net profit in Jan-July 2019
KYIV. Aug 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Solvent banks in Ukraine in January-July 2019 received UAH 36.7 billion in net profit, which is 3.7 times more than in the same period in 2018, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said.
According to its data, the income of banks this year increased by 30%, to UAH 141.4 billion, while expenses by 6%, to UAH 104.7 billion.
Based on the previously released data, in July, the net profit of Ukrainian banks grew by 3.8 times, to UAH 5.69 billion: revenues increased by 23.1%, to UAH 20.34 billion, while expenses decreased by 2.5%, to UAH 14.65 billion.
The main factors in the growth of bank profit are the increase in net interest income by 19%, to UAH 46.3 billion, the growth in net commission income by 16%, to UAH 24.7 billion, a positive result from revaluation and from sale and purchase operations (UAH 10.6 billion), a decrease in deductions for reserves to UAH 6.3 billion against UAH 11.6 billion last year.
The NBU expects the sector returns to remain high in 2019.
As reported, in 2018, the banking system’s profit reached a historic high of UAH 21.7 billion.
The surplus of Ukraine’s foreign trade in services in January-June 2019 increased by 13.3% compared with January-June 2018, to $2.937 billion ($2.593 billion in H1 2018), the State Statistics Service has reported. Exports of services in January-June 2019 grew by 7.6%, to $5.897 billion, while imports of services rose by 2.5%, to $2.96 billion.
The ratio of coverage of imports by exports was 1.99 in January-June 2019 (1.9 in H1 2018).
Foreign trade operations in the service sector were carried out with partners from 226 countries.
The Spanish retail operator Inditex Group will open seven new stores of the chain with a total area of 7,400 square meters in the River Mall trade center at 12 Dniprovska Embankment in Darnytsky district of Kyiv.
According to the press service of the shopping center, the new facilities include the country’s largest two-storey Zara store with an area of 3,500 square meters, Zara Home (529 sq m), Massimo Dutti (678 sq m), Pull & Bear (798 sq m), Oysho (408 sq m), Bershka (932 sq m), and Stradivarius (557 sq m).
In general, by the end of 2018, Inditex Group had 65 stores in Ukraine, in particular, such brands as Pull & Bear (14), Zara (9), Zara Home (2), Massimo Dutti (6), Bershka (14), Stradivarius (12), Oysho (7), and Uterque (1).
As reported, Inditex plans to launch online sales of the Zara brand in Ukraine in the fall and winter of 2019.
According to the company’s report, the pretax profit of Inditex in the country in 2018 amounted to EUR28 million.
Inditex Group was founded in 1963. It unites more than 7,000 stores in 91 countries under the brands Zara, Zara Home, Oysho, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, and Uterque.
In Ukraine, Inditex Group has been represented since 2008. At the end of 2016, Inditex presented its first Uterque brand store in the Ukrainian market in the Gulliver trade center.
