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.
The company has also restored 890 base stations and brought back connectivity to 815 settlements
Vodafone Ukraine has invested UAH 7.4 billion in the country’s telecom infrastructure since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. During this time, the operator has restored more than 890 base stations and brought 815 towns and villages back online. Vodafone has repaired 3,000 km of fiber optic cable for mobile and fixed-line communications and laid more than 225 km of new fiber optic lines.
Despite constant damage to the network and destruction of equipment, Vodafone maintains 90% of the network’s capacity thanks to the tireless work of its telecommunications staff.
The company not only restores but also builds – 5,040 base stations were put on the air during the active phase of the war in the country to expand coverage.
Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies providing a wide range of services, including mobile voice, data, messaging, fixed internet and cable TV. The operator operates in 17 countries and has partnership agreements with operators in 46 countries. As of September 30, 2023, Vodafone provides services to more than 300 million mobile subscribers and 28 million fixed-line Internet users, 21 million TV users, and connects more than 160 million IoT devices and platforms. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.
Vodafone Ukraine is a leading Ukrainian telecommunications company providing 3G and 4G broadband, fixed-line and Internet services. Vodafone’s investments in the period of active construction of broadband networks in 2015 – Q3 2023 exceeded UAH 40.6 billion. These record investments have enabled the company to ensure technological leadership and develop new technological services, including the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart City technologies and solutions, big data analytics, fintech services, and cloud services. Vodafone services are used by 15.2 million customers in Ukraine. Since December 2019, Vodafone Ukraine has been a part of NEQSOL Holding.
The Tax Service has imposed UAH 1.65 billion in fines for violations in the use of payment transaction registers (PTRs) in the first half of 2023. This is already three times more than in all of 2021. The number of “cash registers in a smartphone” increased 4 times by 2021, while the number of traditional cash registers decreased by 5%.
The State Tax Service (STS) imposed 29,753 fines for violations in the use of PTRs totaling UAH 1.65 billion on entrepreneurs in the first half of 2023. This is already three times more than for the whole of 2021.
Entrepreneurs were fined for more than half of this amount – UAH 988.15 million – in August. It was during this month that the smallest number of inspections in 2023 was conducted – only 1640, but the largest number of fines was issued – 3336.
287.4 thousand cash registers and 554.6 thousand cash registers are in operation in Ukraine as of the beginning of December 2023. The surge in the installation of cash registers in 2023 occurred in September – +15% per month. We believe that this is due to the lifting of the moratorium on cash register checks in October, which was introduced at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
The Ukrainian restaurant automation company Poster notes that most entrepreneurs were not ready for the return of inspections until the last minute.
“Many entrepreneurs waited until the last minute, explaining that this is not the first time the moratorium has been frozen or postponed. The demand for Poster’s PTR in chats and calls increased rapidly in the last week of September – 1.5-2 times more than usual.
Given that some entrepreneurs use physical cash registers and third-party integrations, we can assume that about a third of businesses were still not ready for the October 1 deadline,” said Rodion Yeroshek, CEO and co-owner of Poster.
Currently, the number of “cash registers in a smartphone” is almost twice as high as the number of regular ones. Compared to November 2021, the number of PTRs has increased 4 times, while the number of cash registers has decreased by 5%.
Despite this rapid growth, PTRs currently account for only 29% of the total number of checks. However, their number is increasing from year to year: for comparison, in 2021, the share of PTR checks was only 2.7%.
In total, 6.62 billion checks totaling UAH 2.3 trillion were issued in 11 months of this year. The total amount of PTR checks increased 1.5 times by 2021.
