The Slovak Republic has always been a reliable transit country for Russian gas to the West through Ukraine, and it is interested in maintaining this transit through Ukraine, said Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger.
“As for the Nord Stream 2 Project, it is not in the hands of Slovakia to decide. Slovakia has always been a reliable transit country for the Russian gas to the West through the territory of Ukraine and we are definitely interested in keeping this gas transit through Ukraine. We believe the transit contract between Russia and Ukraine will be fulfilled further on,” Heger said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government has banned aircraft registered in Belarus from using Ukraine’s airspace from midnight on May 29.
“The government has approved the official instruction of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE) to ban aircraft registered in the Republic of Belarus from using the airspace of Ukraine from midnight on May 29,” a government source told Interfax-Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) will pay more attention to dredging, service functions, and berths and other infrastructure should go to concession through tenders, head of the supervisory board of the USPA Andriy Haidutsky said.
“As you know, investments in each berth are estimated on average from UAH 500 million to UAH 1.5 billion, depending on the type of berth, its length, depth, and so on. Of course, the USPA does not have such large funds, since we have revenue of about UAH 7 billion and about UAH 2 billion of profit, but the shareholder – the state – likes to take 50-70% of the funds as dividends. Thus, we have very limited capital investments, and there is demand for new berths and infrastructure renewal. The USPA is changing – it will pay more attention to dredging, service functions, and berths and other infrastructure should go to concession through tenders,” he said during the Ukrainian Ports Forum 2021.
He noted that pilot projects of concessions in the seaports of Kherson and Olvia are already being implemented, concession tenders are being prepared in the ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Berdiansk.
“In the future, we will move to the concession of individual berths – this is also a world practice. And thus the state will be able to continue to receive dividends, and the port infrastructure will be able to receive investments directly in the development of the industry,” he said.
As reported, with reference to acting head of the USPA Oleksandr Holodnytsky, the transfer of the integral property complex of Kherson seaport to the concessionaire will be completed in June 2021, the property complex of Olvia specialized seaport – in December 2021.
INDIVIDUAL BERTHS, UKRAINIAN SEA PORTS, UKRAINIAN SEA PORTS AUTHORITY
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-February 2021 decreased by 55.3% compared to January-February 2020, to $ 256.5 million from $ 573.2 million, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to its data, the export of goods from Ukraine for the reporting period increased by 4.5%, to $ 8.475 billion, imports by 0.5%, to $ 8.731 billion.
The State Statistics Service clarifies that in February 2021 compared to January 2021, the seasonally adjusted export volume increased by 4.3%, to $ 4.625 billion, while imports decreased by 1.1%, to $ 5.04 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in February 2021 was negative and amounted to $ 415.1 million, while in the previous month the balance was also negative and amounted to $ 665.1 million.
The ratio of coverage of import by export in January-February 2021 amounted to 0.97 (in January-February 2020 some 0.93).
The State Statistics Service clarified that foreign trade operations were carried out with partners from 201 countries of the world.
The development company Budhouse Group will invest about EUR 314 million in three projects in the next three years, namely in the Yessa (Odesa) – about EUR 12 million, the Khortitsa Mall (Zaporizhia) – EUR 82 million, and in the Hartz complex (Kyiv) – about EUR 220 million, Anatoliy Shkribliak, founder and shareholder of one of the largest Ukrainian developer Budhouse Group, said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“This summer we are resuming the construction of the Yessa shopping and entertainment center in Odesa, we plan to complete it in about a year and two months, in the autumn of 2021,” Shkribliak said.
The expert added that since the project was suspended in 2014, its reconception will be carried out.
In addition, this summer, the construction of the Khortitsa Mall project (the former working title is the Fabrika-2 Mall) will begin in Zaporizhia.
“This object will be built on a destroyed industrial zone located on the main highway of Zaporizhia. Investments in the construction of a new shopping and entertainment center, with a total area of 85,000 square meters and a lettable area of 65,000 square meters, will amount to about EUR 82 million. In two years and a half this center will become the largest and most preferable in Zaporizhia,” Shkribliak said.
The site for the multifunctional complex Hartz in the center of Kyiv on the Peremohy Avenue was cleared back in 2011. “The project in the Ukrainian capital should become the ‘icing on the cake’. We will start its construction after the completion of projects in Odesa and Zaporizhia,” Shkribliak said.
According to him, the estimated payback period for projects is eight years or more.
JSC Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant (ZAZ) intends to produce 10,000 cars in 2021 after resuming their production last year, said head of Zaporizhia Regional State Administration Oleksandr Starukh.
“The enterprise suspended its production, now it has been resumed, and everything is started small … We signed an agreement with Renault – this year we will have 10,000 cars,” Starukh said during the UkraineInvest Talks: Dnipro forum on Thursday.
According to him, in the first quarter of this year, ZAZ also sold 50 buses to Poland.
As reported, in 2018, ZAZ, due to economic inexpediency and in the absence of state programs to stimulate the automotive industry, stopped the production of passenger cars, the production of which was the leader in the country for many years. But in September 2020, Groupe Renault officially announced the start of production of passenger cars for the local market.
