Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was certain he will visit the White House and meet United States President Donald Trump, and has invited him to Kyiv.
“I am sure it will happen. The last time I met U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, we talked about it, and said that I would very much want my visit to America to be something special for the two countries. With some very important result for the two countries. Something beneficial for the two countries,” Zelensky said during the 56th Munich Security Conference on Saturday, when asked if he had a specific date for the White House visit.
The president said he wanted to re-start the relations with the U.S. “with a clean slate.”
“After all this Santa Barbara…about the impeachment…I want to come and start our relations with a clean slate, so that we agree and sign some contracts, agree strategic things, investment things. Let’s prepare a package of such documents and meet. So now the ball on the U.S. president’s court, but we are always happy to see them all in Ukraine. So I am ready to invite, and I am inviting, President Trump to Kyiv.”
He also commented on the blocking of U.S. military aid.
“We needed that aid, we needed a tactical win in this story, without the souring of our relations with the U.S. So, tactically is how I am thinking about Ukraine. Always. And, honestly, I’ll tell you this: sometimes I reply not how I want to, but in the way necessary for Ukraine. So, my body, my brain, my eyes belong to the Ukrainian people,” Zelensky said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s international partners and business representatives to become involved in the implementation of infrastructure and social projects in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions affected by the armed conflict. During his speech at the Ukrainian Lunch in Munich, the head of state said that a global fund had been created to restore the Donbas infrastructure in Ukraine.
“It combines two ‘windows’. The first is for international partners, organizations and foundations. The second is for the Ukrainian fund, which will attract funds from the private sector and individual donors,” the head of state said.
According to the president, the key priorities of the fund are large infrastructure projects, work with local business and its affordable crediting, care for the least protected groups of the population, overcoming the consequences of the war – with a focus on youth, women, children and veterans.
“For the first time such a fund is administered jointly by the World Bank, the Office of the President and the Government of Ukraine,” Zelensky stressed.
In addition, the head of state told about the plans to establish the Ministry of Reintegration and Restoration of Donbas.
“I urge our international partners to join and start fundraising for the reconstruction and reintegration of Donbas together with me,” the president summarized.
The net income of JSC Kyivstar in 2019 amounted to UAH 22.392 billion, which is 19.6% more than in 2018.
According to the company, the operator’s income from provision of mobile services increased by 20%, to UAH 20.903 billion, from provision of fixed-line services by 11%, to UAH 1.35 billion.
In addition, last year’s EBITDA rose by 39.4%, to UAH 14.683 billion, while EBITDA margin by 9.3 percentage points, to 65.6%.
Kyivstar capital expenditures for the year increased by 64.8% and amounted to UAH 5.111 billion.
The number of mobile operator subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 0.6% compared to the same period in 2018, to 26.2 million, while the number of fixed-line subscribers increased by 10.8%, to 1 million.
The decrease in the number of subscribers in the company is explained by the general market trend of consumer refusal from several SIM cards of various operators.
According to Kyivstar, in the fourth quarter of 2019 the number of mobile Internet users reached 16.9 million, which is 14.6% more than in the same period earlier.
Data traffic consumption increased from 2,753 Mb to 4,263 Mb per subscriber.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the operator’s revenue increased by 16.1%, to UAH 5.815 billion. Of these, UAH 5.417 billion was income from mobile services (16% up), UAH 355 million was income from fixed-line services (more by 14%). EBITDA for this period increased by 44.3%, to UAH 4.031 billion, margin increased by 13.6 percentage points, to 69.3%.
Nova Poshta International (part of the Nova Poshta group of companies) does not plan to suspend delivery of items to/from China, the company’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“As regards parcels from China, they are delivered as usual. For this, when ordering from Aliexpress, customers need to specify the Aliexpress Standard Shipping delivery service and select the nearest Nova Poshta office from the list of available ones,” the company noted.
At the same time, according to Nova Poshta, the delivery of shipments from Ukraine to China may be delayed due to the fault of the Chinese side.
“For our part, we continue to deliver parcels from Ukraine to China, but local delivery within China itself may occur with delays. This is due to restrictions in the work of Chinese companies in connection with coronavirus. We warn our customers about possible delays in sending parcels,” the company said.
Nova Poshta also emphasized that the number of parcels from China is usually reduced in January-February, due to the celebration of New Year holidays in this country, during which business activity in the country decreases.
“It is also known that due to the situation with the coronavirus, some suppliers ship goods with delays. Therefore, it is still difficult to analyze how coronavirus affected the volume of parcels from China,” Nova Poshta said.
The T.B.Fruit group of companies, the largest fruit and berry processor in Ukraine, in 2019 occupied 10% of the world juice market, increasing its share, founder of T.B.Fruit Taras Barschovsky has said.
“It was 8-9% [the share in the world juice market in 2018], depending on the season and consumption. In August, we launch a new plant in Poland, the share will increase significantly,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Barschovsky, after the launch of the plant in Poland, the group’s share in the world juice market will increase to 12-14%.
According to him, in 2019 T.B.Fruit increased juice production compared to 2018 by 10%.
As reported, T.B.Fruit on May 30, 2019 announced the start of construction of the eighth plant of the fruit and berry processing group in Brzostowiec (Poland), investments in which will amount to EUR45 million.
According to the group, its capacity for processing apples will amount to 300,000 tonnes, strawberry 10,000 tonnes, cherry some 6,000 tonnes, raspberry some 12,000 tonnes, and currant some 7,000 tonnes per year.
T.B.Fruit is a vertically integrated international group of companies with a closed production cycle (growing raw materials, processing, transportation).
The group of companies was created in July 2011 after combining all the assets of businessman Taras Barschovsky.
The deficit of Ukraine’s balance of foreign trade in 2019 totaled $3.63 billion, which is 41.5% less than in 2018 ($6.21 billion) and this is linked to the sharp improvement of trade in services with Russia, the State Statistics Service has reported. Last year, exports of goods and services increased 11.2% to $63.68 billion, while imports – only 6%, to $67.31 billion.
The main improvement was thanks to an increase in the surplus in trade in services by 63.4% to $8.71 billion: their exports jumped by 30.9%, to $15.24 billion, while imports by only 3.5%, to $6.53 billion
At the same time, in particular, the export of Russian services grew at once by 85.3% to $6.18 billion, while their imports from Russia – only by 4.4%, to $0.29 billion. This is probably due to a payment of $2.9 billion, which Gazprom transferred to Naftogaz at the end of the year as part of the execution of the award of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in a dispute between the companies on their transit contract.
At the same time, last year in trade in goods, imports grew faster than exports. In general, over the year, deliveries to Ukraine increased 6.3%, to $60.78 billion, while supplies from Ukraine – 5.8%, to $50.06 billion. As a result, the deficit of trade in goods increased 8.8%, to $10.72 billion.
According to the State Statistics Service, last year there were negative trends in trade with the EU: export growth slowed to 3.9% from 14.3% a year earlier, while imports – to 7.5% from 12.7%, resulting in a deficit in trade with the EU, which expanded by 31.5%, to $4.56 billion.
The export of Ukrainian goods to the EU in 2019, in particular, increased 3%, to $ 20.75 billion, while the import of European goods to Ukraine grew 7.7%, to $24.99 billion.
As reported, the deficit of Ukraine’s balance of foreign trade in 2018 amounted to $5.83 billion, which is 2.3 times worse than in 2017. In 2018, exports of goods and services grew by 8.6%, imports – by 14.3%.
