No more than ten hotels representing international chains are planned to be opened in Ukraine in the next two years, International Relations Director of the Ukrainian Hotel & Resort Association (UHRA), partner of BURFORD Management & Consultancy, Ivan Lun has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Today, only 17 hotels operate under international brands in Ukraine. This is a paltry figure: compare it with 185 branded hotels in Poland, a country comparable to ours in terms of geography, population and economic potential,” he said.
According to the expert, this year the Radisson Hotel City Center Odesa (90 rooms), Best Western Plus Lviv Market Square (70 rooms), Ibis & Adagio Kyiv (combo, 265 rooms) are announced for opening. In the next two years, Ibis Lviv (100 rooms), Radisson Hotel Pechersk Park Kyiv (167 rooms), and Sheraton Kyiv Troitska Square (208 rooms) are planned to start operating, a bit later – Novotel Lviv (125 rooms) and Hampton by Hampton Lviv airport (138 rooms).
“These projects are just a small part of those branded hotel projects that have undergone careful urban and architectural planning, as well as painstaking contractual negotiations between the developers of these projects and global hotel groups. However, many projects that were planned to be operated under well-known hotel brands were not completed, in particular their construction,” Lun said.
The most active hotel chains in Ukraine today are Accor, Radisson, InterContinental, Marriott and Hilton, whose development offices are located in Moscow and Warsaw. In addition, according to the expert, the Wyndham chain and the Louvre Hotel Group have recently also promoted their brands and participated in tenders for projects, mainly through franchise supplies.
In general, the expert expects an intensification of the entry of international operators in 2024-2025.
The government is doing everything to support the Ukrainian film business, even despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ukraine has gained a good reputation as a partner of international film companies, Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko has said.
“Even during the difficult period of the pandemic, we are doing everything so that the Ukrainian film business has support from the state, and Ukraine gains a good reputation as a partner of international film companies. We have cool locations and equally cool productions for this. This has already been proven by the film The Last Mercenary from Netflix with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the title role, of which the lion’s share of the shooting took place in Kyiv,” Tkachenko wrote in his Telegram channel.
He also said that Ukraine presents its films and a national stand at the European Film Market of the Berlin Film Festival. There are such domestic films as “Stop-Zemlia” and “Ursus”, animation “Gulliver Returns”, documentary “Puzzles”.
According to Tkachenko, the stand is “a guarantee for the future. Both for promoting our films abroad, and for advertising the system of cash rebates and other benefits from filming in Ukraine.” In particular, the Locations.com.ua service was presented – an online catalog for finding the best locations in our country.
The road service in Ternopil region and the Turkish company Onur Group have signed an agreement for the repair of 47 km of the road between Ternopil and Berezhany on the M-12 Stry-Ternopil-Kropyvnytsky-Znamyanka route.
The State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) reported on its Facebook page the work will start in the second half of March. It is planned that the vehicles will move from the village of Pidhorodne to the west. Part of the work, as noted by the winner of the tender, will be performed by a subcontractor.
“This section is the first new object of the Big Construction project in 2021 in Ternopil region. The repair of the M-12 highway is a priority of the presidential program, because together with the M-04 highway it will form a new route dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Independence. The M-30 highway will be to run from Stry (Lviv region) to Izvaryne (Luhansk region) and will be the longest in Ukraine. The total length of the road will be 1,392 km. It will symbolically “sew” the west of the country and the east, including the temporarily occupied territories captured by occupation forces, and after the victory over them, the road to this village will also be restored,” Ukravtodor said.
The agency notes that a section of the future M-30 Stry-Izvaryne highway in Ternopil region runs from the borders of Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytsky regions through Ternopil. From the regional center to the border of Khmelnytsky region, it was restored in 2018. And from Ternopil through the city of Berezhany to the borders of Ivano-Frankivsk region, this road has not been repaired since the 1990s.
Onur Taahhut, founded in 1991, carries out the construction of roads, bridges, abutments, structures and road reconstruction works. The company has successfully implemented important projects in Croatia, Ukraine, Tunisia, Moldova, Oman, Equatorial Guinea and Turkmenistan. It has experience in performing construction and installation works at infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine.
Ukraine expects to receive some $2.9 billion in financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021, for which the parliament is supposed to pass legislative amendments on reforming the judicial system, presidential economic advisor Oleh Ustenko said.
“We expect to receive an IMF tranche this year. Our program envisions $5 billion, and we have already received $2.1 billion,” Ustenko said on Ukrainian television on Monday.
“Ukraine’s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund is continuing,” he said.
“The Verkhovna Rada is supposed to pass legislative amendments essential for receiving the next tranche. I am talking about the need for judicial reform and [legislation] ensuring the functioning of anti-corruption infrastructure,” he said.
He said “the requirements of the program of cooperation with the IMF coincide with the program of the President of Ukraine, on which the head of state has repeatedly said.”
Ustenko also said, in order to amend the Ukrainian legislation in terms of the judicial system, the president held many meetings, communicated with Ukrainian and foreign experts and persuaded the MPs of the Verkhovna Rada.
“The program is taking place. As soon as the relevant legislative initiatives of the president are voted in the Verkhovna Rada, we can say that on our part we have fulfilled what we promised. We promised to fulfill not only the IMF, we do not do it for someone, we do it for Ukrainian people,” the advisor to the head of state said.
Ustenko said that successful cooperation with the IMF will give Ukraine the opportunity to make more profitable borrowings on the international market and is a good signal for foreign investors.
He also added that 2020 was a difficult year in terms of attracting investment, but the Ukrainian economy could receive about $3 billion in foreign direct investment in 2021.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), the head of state said on his Instagram page.
“Doctors and military personnel are already being vaccinated. I urge all others to join the Diia queue. There is nothing to be afraid of, I am setting my own example,” the president said on Tuesday.
On Twitter, Zelensky said that he was vaccinated on the front line with Ukrainian soldiers as commander-in-chief.
“The same Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) from India, which was delivered first to Ukraine, and which received millions of people around the world. The vaccine will allow us to live again without restrictions,” he said.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 02/03/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
