The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) has said that only 2% of inspected bridges are in a good condition, Ukravtodor Head Oleksandr Kubrakov said during the presentation of a concept of the government target economic program to restore bridges on automobile roads of general use and local roads for 2020-2025 held in Kyiv on Friday.
“A total of 35% out of 16,200 bridges and structures were examined. That is, we do not even have information about what condition they are in. We can say that only 2% of the bridges are in good condition,” he said.
Kubrakov said that most bridges were built in 1960-1970s (a total of about 8,700 structures).
In total, according to him, there are 16,155 man-made structures in Ukraine that fall under the terminology “bridges” in the corresponding government target program. Of these, only 35% were examined, namely, 5,631 structures.
Of the inspected bridges, 71% are state-owned and 15% are local. At the same time, only 36% correspond to modern standards in terms of weight and size.
According to Ukravtodor, 2% of the inspected bridges are serviceable, 10.6% are limitedly serviceable, 57.8% are functioning, 26.9% are limited to be used, and 2.7% are non-functioning.
Hungary’s low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced the launch of the flight on the Salzburg (Austria) – Kyiv – Salzburg line from July 1, 2020.
The press service of the airline said on Friday that the flights will be performed on Wednesdays and Sundays. The cost of the ticket starts from EUR 20.
Along with Kyiv, Wizz Air will start flying from Salzburg to Belgrade, Skopje, Bucharest, Tuzla and Larnaca.
Earlier Wizz Air prolonged the suspension of its operations to and from Ukraine until June 15 inclusively, as a result of the extension of travel restrictions imposed by the Ukrainian government.
Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agricultural groups, in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2019 (FY, July 2019-June 2020) posted $22.2 million in net loss against $15.9 million in net profit for the same period last year. According to the financial report on the company’s website, its revenue in January-March increased by 30.4%, to $1.5 billion amid high sales of vegetable oils in natural terms, purchased from external suppliers during the reporting period, EBITDA by 1.9 times, to $104 million.
In general, for the nine months of 2020FY, Kernel’s net profit decreased by 2.2 times, to $82.56 million compared to the same period in 2019FY, revenue by 4.9%, to $2.91 billion, while EBITDA grew by 12% and amounted to $320 million.
Revenues in the oilseeds processing segment for the third quarter of 2020FY increased by 3%, to $375 million, revenue in infrastructure and trading segment increased by 42%, to $892 million.
Revenues in the oilseeds processing segment over the specified period decreased by 6%, to $1.04 billion, while revenue in infrastructure and trading segment rose by 3%, to $2.45 billion.
In the revenue structure, Kernel intragroup settlements for the third quarter of 2020FY grew by 13%, to $392 million, for nine months of 2020FY by 20%, to $1.07 billion.
The ratio of net debt to EBITDA as of March 31, 2020 amounted to 3.5 against 2.5 on the same date in 2019. Net debt stood at $1.33 billion, which is 1.7 times more than on the same date last year.
The company notes that on April 30, 2020 it paid dividends of $21 million ($0.25 per share), approved by the shareholders at a general meeting on December 10, 2019.
Sixty-six checkpoints on Ukraine’s border with Moldova and EU member states reopened at 0:01 a.m. on May 29 on government orders, the Ukrainian State Border Service said in a statement on Friday. The neighbors were informed about the reopening of the border checkpoints, it said.
Trans-border traffic will fully restore after neighbors reopen checkpoints in their territories, the statement said.
The agency said it would rapidly inform the public about the resumption of international travel on its website, including by means of the interactive map.
The agency said, however, that Ukraine still had quarantine restrictions on foreign travelers.
Fresh fruits from the USPA FRUIT aggregation platform have been presented in the UAE market for three years already, but there are still many opportunities for development within the markets of the Middle East and Africa, the use of which will further strengthen the position of Ukrainian suppliers in the regions, diversify sales, increase competitiveness and profitability of exports of the platform ‘s member companies.
USPA FRUIT, together with the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine are launching a joint initiative «Fruits’ Expansion to the Countries of the Middle East and Africa,» within the framework of which to study markets perfectly, work to develop the export potential of platform’s members companies and organize trade missions. This will help to establish stable supplies of Ukrainian fruits to the markets of the Middle East and Africa, as well as to diversify supplies.
Establishing stable supplies will be preceded by a detailed study of the Middle East and Africa markets, which will help USPA FRUIT identify priority exports, develop and implement pricing and marketing policies for each country in the region, which in turn will create competitive entry and consolidation in these markets.
Within the project, USPA FRUIT aggregation platform organizes trade and economic missions to Egypt, Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, what will help to establish program supplies of fresh fruits from Ukraine.
For Ukrainian producers-members of the aggregation platform, it is an opportunity to enter new markets, increase export sales volumes and create new jobs.
Air traffic between Ukraine and Austria may resume after June 23, provided that both countries open airspace and remove restrictions on the entry of citizens, Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria Olexander Scherba has said.
“Regarding the situation with the restoration of air traffic between Ukraine and Austria. There is a possibility that flights will resume after June 23 provided that both countries “open” for each other in terms of opening airspace and in terms of lifting restrictions on entry of citizens. There is such a desire. It is very important that Ukraine pass the conditional peak of the pandemic,” the ambassador wrote on Facebook
