Ukrainian young designers, engineers and scientists, together with colleagues from Belgium and Finland, will be able to present their projects at the Dutch Design Week, a key European event for design and innovation. At the exhibition in Eindhoven, which will be held this year from 17 to 25 October, the top three developments from each country will be presented for expert consideration.
The project European Design Upgrade (EDU) aims to develop the creative industries and support talented designers, artists and technologists. Its goal is to find innovative urban solutions for creating a modern and harmonious socio-cultural environment in Ukraine. The project is being implemented under a European Comission-funded Creative Europe program, and implemented by the Vasyl Khmelnytsky fund K.Fund, a GoLocal non-governmental organization and partner country companies — Brussels Creative from Belgium and Urban Mill from Finland.
“It’s a great honour for us to partner with an important European educational project. We hope that cooperation with the EU will open the door to new initiatives aimed at increasingly integrating Ukraine into the international cultural space and enabling talented Ukrainians to contribute to Europe’s development,” Vasyl Khmelnytsky, entrepreneur and founder of the K.Fund, said.
“Creativity is a property of every human being. Creative processes and methods are essential to all societies. But creative people, especially artists, make too often their living by selling their time slots or artefacts as freelancers. Many creative communities are still searching for sustainable business models that enable to scale up outcomes of their creativity. We in Finland are grateful for getting the opportunity to start a process with Ukraine and Belgium to jointly find a solution to this challenge,” Kari Mikkelä, executive producer and co-founder of the Urban Mill Innovation Platform, said.
“We will have to demonstrate that Collective and Connected Intelligence can work cross-border. Interdisciplinary and multicultural ecosystems will collaborate to empower and accelerate their local projects, and the best in class will have the opportunity to showcase their product or service at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. Proud and glad having the Brussels Region connected with Regions of Kyiv and Espoo!,” Alain Heureux, co-founder of Brussels Creative acting as Cluster of the creative economy, said.
Implementation of the project will begin in March 2020 with a selection for a specialized educational course “European Design Upgrade: Transnational Capacity Building”. Participation in it will be free of charge 35 Ukrainian designers and artists, creative specialists in technical, engineering, scientific and entrepreneurial fields, as well as teachers of higher educational institutions of art and design.
The selection for the program during March and April will be carried out by international and Ukrainian experts and mentors. Among them, in particular, the CEO of Brussels Creative, trainer and partner of Virtuology-Academy (Brussels) Alain Heureux and executive producer of Urban Mill, a public-private service for cooperation and creation of innovations and the ecosystem of a smart city (Smart Urban Innovations & Ecosystems, Helsinki) Kari Mikkelä. The lecture course provides six days of masterclasses from leading designers in Ukraine, Belgium and Finland throughout May 2020.
By the next stage — the Design Lab, which will last from June to August 2020, will pass ten participants to whom the program experts will put practical tasks and help form cross-functional teams from the specialists necessary for the chosen direction (artists, marketers, technologists, engineers and etc.) and will provide technical support for the implementation of creative development or ideas that are consistent with existing municipal, regional or national problems
The three best creative ideas from Ukraine, together with Belgian and Finnish similar projects, will be presented at the Dutch Design Week in October 2020.
You can learn more about the project and apply for participation at the following link.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Fund K.Fund was founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky in 2015 to support projects in the field of education and economics. The mission of K.Fund is to provide keys for development and implementation, to provide opportunities for acquiring new knowledge and skills, to promote discoveries and help to reach a new level.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 11/03/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of march 11
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
On March, 14 and 15 the «Kyivan Rus Park» invites to a new program «Warriors of Light». Horse-trick performances and spectacular performances, Slavic amusements and round dances, interesting games and funs will be waiting for the guests. And also: riding purebred horses, tasty dishes prepared on open fire and hot drinks, master-classes, zip-lines, museums, and expositions. And all of these in a real living medieval town!
Ancient Kyiv opens at 10:00. The program starts at 13:30.
The ticket price: a full adult ticket – 200 UAH, for pensioners and students – 150 UAH, for schoolchildren – 80 UAH, for preschool children – for free.
Ancient Kyiv in the «Kyivan Rus Park» is located in Kyiv region, Obukhiv district, the vill. Kopachiv.
Details on the website www.parkkyivrus.com
The Interfax subscribers can save money with the “openbusiness-20” promo code for a 20%-discount for a full price adult ticket to the Principality of Kyivan Rus:
– by previous order by tel.: +38 044 461-99-37, +38 050 385-20-35
– or at the cash desk at the entrance to the «Kyivan Rus Park».
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) in connection with information on coronavirus spread offers passengers who have flights to Italy and a number of other countries in March-April 2020 to change the departure date for free, the company’s press service has said.
“To date, there are no any prohibitions on the termination of air traffic with Italy received from international or national competent authorities. In this regard, UIA continues to fly to Italian cities, namely, to Rome, Milan and Venice according to the plan. The airline understands that some passengers who planned their trips to/from Italy in March and April may be concerned about this situation. Thus, UIA offers the opportunity to change the departure date free of charge within the tickets’ validity (if there are free seats in the initial booking class),” reads the statement.
The offer concerns flights from Ukraine to Italy, Germany and Switzerland; from Italy to India, Turkey and Egypt; from Italy, Austria, Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland to Israel and applies to the transit flights through Ukraine to Italy.
All additional services are automatically transferred to the next flight. Tickets are returned in accordance with the rules of the applicable fare.
“Now we are receiving single requests for changing the departure date, there are no mass refusals of passengers to fly to Italian cities, flight loading remains high. Many airlines reduce or even cancel flights to Italy. We understand how important it is to maintain air traffic between countries and economies in this situation. For our part, to make sure the safety of the flights of our passengers and crews, we take all possible measures and follow the appeal issued in the IATA press release, namely do our job consistently and professionally, without panic,” Yevhenia Satska, UIA Communications Director, said.
State-owned PrivatBank intends to involve an adviser in the preparation and sale of the financial institution’s shares in Bukovel, the largest ski resort in Ukraine, Deputy Head of PrivatBank Halyna Pakhachuk has said. “The bank owns two-thirds of the complex, which consists of 64 facilities, one-third is Skorzonera LLC,” she said.
Pakhachuk reported that this list of objects is not an integral property complex; in addition to the hotel, it includes 104 hectares of land and part of the lifts.
According to the deputy head of PrivatBank, when these objects were initially put on the bank’s balance sheet, their value was estimated at UAH 12.6 billion, including the Radisson Blu Bukovel hotel (Zirka Bukovelia) at UAH 1.62 billion, but their real market value differs from these indicators.
Pakhachuk also said that in recent years the bank has been renting its facilities in Bukovel to the Parktur LLC resort operator (Polianytsia, Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk region). In 2019, the rent amounted to UAH 110.5 million, including UAH 47.5 million per hotel, and in 2020 it will increase to UAH 117.5 million, including UAH 50.5 million per hotel.
The deputy head of the bank reminded that these facilities are non-core for the financial institution, and according to the standards introduced by the National Bank in the future, they will have to be taken into account at zero cost.
Radisson Blu Bukovel hotel increased its net income by 9.1%, to UAH 221 million, and the net loss decreased by 36.7%, to UAH 39.33 million in 2018. According to the state register, the beneficiaries of this enterprise are former owners of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov.
The revenue of Parktur LLC increased by 71.9%, to UAH 425.35 million, net profit increased by 6.2 times, to UAH 86.14 million in 2018, the owner is Vitaliy Kovalchuk, registered in Kolomyia (Ivano-Frankivsk region).
