The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, which officially opens its work on Monday, 15 January, on Sunday announced the fourth meeting of national security and foreign policy advisers to discuss the Ukrainian Formula for Peace.
According to the forum’s official programme, a press conference on Switzerland’s role as co-organiser of the meeting and its continued support for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine will be held in the afternoon, and in the evening key members of the Ukrainian delegation will share the results of the discussion.
The day before, Justice Minister Denys Malyska said on Facebook that the work of the delegation in Davos, where representatives of more than 80 countries gathered, would last about a day and a half.
According to the official programme, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will deliver a special address at the WEF on Tuesday, 16 January.
On the same day, later in the day, there will be a session on “Ukraine’s Horizons” on how Ukraine can intensify its reconstruction efforts to support its economic and political ambitions to join the EU and NATO after nearly two years of devastating war. It will be attended by, among others, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker, Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office (OP) Andriy Yermak, Foreign Ministers of Spain and the Netherlands Jose Manuel Albarez Bueno and Hanke Bruins Slot, and Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder.
The following day, Wednesday, 17 January, at the session “Ukraine at War: Year Three”, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will discuss strengthening international unity in support of the country’s defence and economy, which will continue to come under pressure, and what approaches and goals Ukraine and its international partners should agree on for the coming year.
In addition, on 15 January Davos will host the Ukrainian House, co-organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Horizon Capital and Western NIS Enterprise Fund, followed the next day by an exhibition and discussion area Deciding Your Tomorrow/”691 Days Deciding Your Future”, organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President.
The programme of Ukrainian House events up to and including 18 January includes, among others, Demonstration of the vision of Ukraine’s digital transformation – Diya, Mriya and Win-Win with Mikhail Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of Digital Economy, a discussion on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine with Deputy Head of the OP Rostislav Shurma, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management William Browder, Senior Sovereign Strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management Timothy Ash, and another discussion with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba.
In addition, the topic of Ukraine’s sustainability in 2024 will be discussed by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko, investor and advisor to General Catalyst Teresa Carlson, founding partner of Argentem Creek Partners John Patton, CEO of Datagroup-Vol Mikhail Shelemba, while Shurma from OP, CEO of Marsh McLennan John Doyle, Managing Director for Europe and the Caucasus of EBRD Matteo Patrone and Citigroup representative Julie Monaco will talk about Ukraine’s investment opportunities and risk insurance.
Among the speakers of the Deciding Your Tomorrow discussion programme on 16-18 November are, among others, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilström, musician Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, Harvard University Professor of Economic Development Ricardo Gausman, President of the Board of the Munich Security Conference Foundation Wolfgang Ischinger, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Kornienko, historian Serhiy Plokhiy, Executive Director of Roubini Macro Associates Nouriel Roubini; Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry; and Niall Ferguson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Finally, on 18 January, the Ukrainian Breakfast, a traditional private event organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne, will be held on the margins of the WEF.
DAVOS, EastOne, Victor Pinchuk Foundation, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
In Ukraine on Sunday, January 14, light snow, in the afternoon in the southern regions with rain, only in Odessa region without precipitation, reported Ukrhydrometcenter.
There is ice on the country’s roads.
Wind south, south-west, 7-12 m/s, in western regions in some places gusts of 15-20 m/s, in the Carpathians 20-25 m/s, blizzards in some places.
The temperature at night 7-12°, in the eastern, Sumy and Chernigov regions 13-18° of frost, in the daytime 0-5° of frost, in the Carpathians 4-9° of frost; in the western regions and southern part of the country at night 2-7° of frost, in the afternoon from 1° of frost to 4° of heat.
In Kiev on Sunday, light snow. The roads are icy. The wind is southwesterly, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night is 7-9°, during the day 0-2° of frost.
According to the Central Geophysical Observatory named after Boris Sreznevsky. Borys Sreznevsky in Kiev on January 14, the highest daytime temperature was 9.5 in 2015, the lowest nighttime temperature was -24.3 in 1896.
On Monday, January 15, at night in the eastern regions and the Carpathians moderate, in the rest of the territory in some places light snow; in the afternoon without precipitation, in some places in the western and northern regions light snow.
Temperatures at night 2-7° frost, in central and southern regions and in the Carpathians up to 10° frost, during the day from 4° frost to 1° warm, in the south of the country 1-6° warm; in Crimea at night about 0°, during the day 3-8° warm.
The roads are icy.
The wind is south-western with a transition to north-western, 7-12 m/s, in some places gusts of 15-20 m/s.
In Kiev on Monday there will be light snow in some places. The roads are icy. The wind is south-western with a transition to north-western, 7-12 m/s, gusts of 15-20 m/s. The temperature at night and in the daytime is 4-6° of frost.
National Energy Company Ukrenergo on 11 January announced a tender for the purchase of insurance services for equipment during its transportation.
According to the message in the system of electronic public procurement Prozorro, the expected cost is 430 thousand UAH.
Documents are accepted until January 20.
The European Commission (EC) is allocating EUR126 million to Romania in 2024 under the “solidarity corridors” program to invest in the development of ports facing an increase in Ukrainian exports, according to its website.
“The funds will allow Romania to reduce bottlenecks created by the sudden increase in the number of goods arriving at ports along the Danube and Black Sea coasts. The funding will help port operators to handle and store goods, thus reducing the blockade caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine. “This will contribute to the EU’s ‘solidarity corridors’ action plan without disrupting excessive competition in the single market,” said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s vice-president for competition policy.
According to the report, all logistics companies that operate in Romanian ports located on the EU eastern border (Constanta, Galati, Giurgiu), on the Danube-Black Sea canal (Poarta Alba, Midia and Navodari) and the Sulina Canal, in the “satellite ports” of Constanta (Midia and Mangalia) will be able to receive grants of up to EUR10 million.
Operators will receive the assistance needed to cover the additional costs of equipment and storage facilities to handle cargo deviating from their normal trade routes.
The funding has been made available at the request of Romania, which has notified the European Commission of its plans to support companies in Romanian ports to invest in additional handling or storage capacity to process goods from Ukraine. The EUR126m scheme will run until December 31, 2024.
As reported, thanks to increased shipments from Ukraine, the Black Sea Romanian port of Constanta recorded the highest grain exports in 2023 – 36 million tons, up 50% from a year earlier. Ukrainian grain accounted for about 40% of the total, or 14 million tons, up from 13 million at the end of November and from 8.6 million for the whole of 2022.
Romania is making efforts to increase its transit capacity to bring Ukrainian grain handling to 4 million tons per month, for which it is upgrading rail and road infrastructure in and around the port. Ukraine and Romania agreed to launch an additional anchorage for Ukrainian agricultural products in the port of Constanta.
increase in Ukrainian exports, solidarity corridors, The European Commission
State-owned Oschadbank (Kyiv), with financial support from the German government, is implementing the second phase of the project “Access to finance and sustainability support for MSMEs in Ukraine II”, which will finance more than 500 enterprises for EUR4.2 million, the bank’s press service said on Friday.
“German Sparkassenstiftung for International Cooperation is honored to have the opportunity to continue its support for Ukrainian businesses, which is very important for the development of the Ukrainian economy, especially during the difficult economic circumstances caused by the war. … Thanks to the second phase of the Project, more than 500 more companies will be able to receive financial support for the realization of their own business ideas,” said Eduard Schmitt, head of the representative office of the federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (DSIK).
According to the state bank, under the project, internally displaced enterprises and businesses from the de-occupied territories will be able to receive compensation in the amount of 30% of the cost of the investment project, but not more than EUR30 thousand in hryvnia equivalent.
“For all other enterprises, the maximum amount of grant support is 20%, but not more than EUR20 thousand in hryvnia equivalent,” the report says.
According to the terms of the program, the participants can be enterprises with a positive credit history, with up to 250 employees and annual income up to EUR10 million, which have not received international technical assistance since February 1, 2022 and do not have debts to the state budget. Applications for participation are accepted in the branches of Oschad until January 31, 2024.
The press service recalled that the state Bank had a successful experience in the implementation of the first phase of the project during 2023.
“According to its results, the Bank’s clients received approval of grants from the German government for a total amount of more than UAH 52 million. According to this indicator, Oschad ranks first among all participants of the program. More than 62% of grantees are registered and carry out their activities in war-affected areas or in de-occupied territories”, – stated in the release of the financial institution.
It is specified that this project is implemented by Oschadbank within the framework of the international cooperation project ReACT4UA (“Application and Implementation of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in the field of trade”) to provide grant support to MSME enterprises involved in economically important business areas for Ukraine: agriculture, food supply and processing, textile industry, processing industry, etc.
The project is financed by the German authorities and implemented by the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in cooperation with Deutsche Sparkassenstiftung für international Kooperation (DSIK) and the Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF).
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of November 1, 2023, Oschadbank ranked 2nd in terms of assets (UAH 346.85 billion) among 63 banks operating in the country and 1st second in terms of the number of branches (1182).
Access to finance and sustainability support for MSMEs in Ukraine II, OSCHADBANK, upport from the German government
Traffic on the transit section of the Odessa-Reni highway, which was hampered due to a traffic accident near the control post “Mayaki”, has already been restored.
“Traffic on the highway Odessa-Reni restored,” – reported in the telegram channel of the State border service of Ukraine on Friday.
As reported, the accident occurred near the control post “Mayaki” towards the checkpoint “Palanka-Mayaki-Udobnoye”. The traffic on the adjacent section of the road was organized in reverse mode.
