Ukraine’s Minister of Regional Development, Building, Housing and Utilities Hennadiy Zubko has set up a commission to select independent members of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Energy Efficiency Fund. The commission starts work on August 29, according to the ministry.
Six representatives from the European Union, Germany and Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers are on the commission. The members include Head of Operations Section 3 “Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment” of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine Johannes Baur, Member of the Support Group for Ukraine (SGUA) Krzysztof Gierulski, and Project Manager of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Robert Kuenne.
Deputy Regional Development Minister Eduard Kruhliak, Deputy Finance Minister Yuriy Heletiy and Director of the economic development department of the Cabinet’s Secretariat Valentyna Yashchuk are also members of the commission. According to the Regional Development Ministry’s press service, the Hudson recruiting company will also be hired.
The press release said the commission would determine requirements for candidates and define the list of documents for participating in the competition, as well as the procedure and stages of selection, including criteria for evaluating members of the fund’s supervisory board.
As earlier reported, the Regional Development Ministry had planned to announce the competition in September. Ukrainian associations of apartment building coops may be able to apply for the fund’s energy efficiency programs from 2019.
On July 25, the Regional Development Ministry registered state-run the Ukrainian Energy Efficiency Fund in the United State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations. Yulia Holovatiuk-Ungureanu was appointed acting fund director. On July 26, the Cabinet decided to increase the fund’s charter capital by UAH 1.5 billion, to UAH 1.6 billion, using budget funds.
PJSC Odesa Cable Works (Odesakabel) has launched a new production facility for the production of modern LAN cables, the company’s press service said. “One of the latest investments was the acquisition of modern equipment for the production of LAN cables from the world’s leading brands: NIEHOFF (Germany) and SETIC (France),” the company emphasized.
The new LAN cables production complex was launched on August 21, 2018.
The plant emphasizes that the commissioning of the complex will allow the enterprise to increase output by 70%, or 5,000 km of cable per month, while quality will meet the highest international standards.
Odesakabel is the largest cable factory in Ukraine. It produces optical fiber cables, LAN cables, radio frequency cables, telecoms cables, power cables, wires and cords.
The transport enterprises of Ukraine in January-July 2018 reduced transportation of goods by 1% compared to January-July 2017, to 356.3 million tonnes. According to the State Statistics Service, freight turnover for this period decreased by 1.7%, to 191.3 billion tonne-kilometers.
According to statistical data, in January-July 2018 railways transported 185.4 million tonnes of cargo inside the country and for export, which is 4.4% less than in January-July 2017.
Transportation of coal decreased by 9.7%, oil and petroleum products by 12.4%, grain and cereals by 15.4%, cement by 5%, construction materials by 7.2%, and timber by 6.2%. At the same time, the handling of coke grew by 0.4%, ferrous metals by 2.6%, chemical and mineral fertilizers by 6%, iron and manganese ore by 4%, and scrap metal by 5.7%.
Product pumping through pipelines in January-July 2018 in comparison with January-July 2017 declined by 2.1%, to 64.4 million tonnes.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has called on the leaders of foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine to contribute to the fight against smuggling. “Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has urged the heads of diplomatic institutions of Ukraine abroad to join the campaign announced by the government dubbed “Ukraine without smuggling” by prompt response to cases of illegal actions and by providing information on the movement of goods taking into account their present price,” the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers said on the results of the meeting of the premier with heads of foreign diplomatic institutions in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Groysman, in particular, asked the diplomats to respond to the requests of the State Fiscal Service, customs office, law enforcement system and facilitate the rapid receipt of information from international partners.
Department of Tourism and Promotions at Kyiv State City Administration plans to increase the flow of foreign tourists in the capital by 25% compared to 2017, to 2 million people, head of the department Anton Taranenko has said.
“Our plan for this year is 2 million foreign tourists, this year we almost got closer to the level of 2013. This summer has become record in the past four years. Over half a year later, in 2018, more than 850,000 foreign tourists visited Kyiv, whereas in the similar the period of 2013 there were 660,000,” he said at a press briefing on Monday.
According to Taranenko, the “profile” of tourists visiting Kyiv in recent years has changed: if in 2013-2014 more than 50% of them were from Russia and post-Soviet countries, then the top five in the past year are Belarus, Israel, the United States, Germany and Turkey.
“Belarus is in the lead due to the fact that a large number of Belarusians come to Kyiv, get accommodated here for a day or two, and then go to the Black Sea coast, that is, it is short-term tourism. Israel is growing every year, and representatives of the tourist cluster of the United States and Germany are going to Kyiv due to the return of cruises to Kyiv. Turkey is always in the top five, and there is also a flow from Italy, France and the UK,” he said.
According to him, the segment of foreign leisure tourists has been growing recently.
Taranenko told Interfax-Ukraine in a comment that the ratio of “conventional” tourists to those who travel to attend an event or on business trip in the first half of 2018 was 40% to 60%, while in 2017 business tourism accounted for 70% of the entire flow. According to him, this equalizes the occupancy of hotels in the leisure season (from May to October) and in the traditional business travel season (September-May).
“In general, hotels feel much better than in previous years. The average occupancy rate from May to September is 45-50%,” he said.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) intends by the end of 2018 to launch the first stage of a 10 MW biogas complex at Vinnytsia poultry farm.
“Investments in the first stage of the biogas complex will amount to about $20-22 million. The second phase is still under development,” financial director of the company Viktoria Kapeliushna told Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, this year the agroholding continues to invest in the purchase of grain wagons.
“In 2018 we purchased 150 grain wagons and 50 cars last year for a total of about $8 million,” she said.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct is the largest poultry producer in Ukraine. It is also engaged in production of grain, sunflower oil, and meat.
MHP supplies cooled chicken half-carcasses to the European market, which are processed, in particular, at its enterprises in the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The land bank of the company at the end of 2017 was about 370,000 hectares.
The founder and majority shareholder of MHP is Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosiuk.
