The European Union in March of this year will sign a technical agreement with Ukraine on the issue of EUR 50 million to the Energy Efficiency Fund, European Commission Deputy Director General for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Katarina Mathernova has said.
“Today’s adoption of a number of important documents on the Energy Efficiency Fund will provide an opportunity to sign an agreement on the fund’s financing for EUR 50 million, and this amount will be used for the fund itself and provision of technical assistance within five years,” she said at a cabinet meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.
In particular, the government approved the regulation on the supervisory board of the Energy Efficiency Fund, a standard agreement with an independent member of the supervisory board, the methodology for calculating energy savings as a result of implementing energy efficiency measures and the main activities and personnel requirements for the management of the fund.
“The EU is ready to issue the second part of funding for the Energy Efficiency Fund in the amount of EUR 50 million. As soon as the fund starts working, the EU is ready to provide the second part of financing,” the expert added.
She noted work on the creation of the fund was carried out in a very short time, and this was achieved jointly with the representatives from the Ukrainian side, the EU, a support group from the World Bank, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Services.
Ukraine since early 2017/18 agricultural year (July-June) has exported almost 27.5 million tonnes of grain crops, which is 7.7% less than a year ago (29.8 million tonnes). According to the biosecurity and seeds supervision department of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumers’ Rights Protection, 13.2 million tonnes of wheat was exported (including 7.3 million tonnes of bread wheat), as well as almost 4 million tonnes of barley and 9.7 million tonnes of corn.
The authority recalled that a year ago 13.6 million tonnes of wheat (8.4 million tonnes of bread wheat), 4.7 million tonnes of barley and 11 million tonnes of corn was exported.
Since early 2017/18 agri-year (September-August) over 4.1 million tonnes of oilseeds were exported, including over 2 million tonnes of rapeseeds and 2.1 million tonnes of soybeans. A year a go, exports of oilseeds totaled over 3 million tonnes, including over 940,000 tonnes of rapeseeds and 2.07 million tonnes of soybeans
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a resolution establishing an interdepartmental commission for the protection of business, headed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
“The commission will consist of an absolute majority of business associations and human rights defenders, there will be no law enforcement agencies,” Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, presenting the decision at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said.
The commission, in particular, will monitor the implementation of the law “stop mask-show!”, which the parliament adopted in 2017. It will deal with cases of violations of business rights, including searches, said the Minister of Justice.
Petrenko also noted that the commission would work in public mode and its work implies a systemic response of the government with regard to changes in legislation or personnel decisions.
The resolution also contains recommendations that are obligatory for implementation by law enforcement agencies.
Groysman suggested holding the first meeting of the commission in March on the situation with the pressure on business from the side of the security forces. He also added that the commission included a business ombudsman, the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the European Business Association, the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of trade unions, the Federation of Employers.
The so-called Western hub project to develop transportation by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) from the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk airports have not yet been implemented due to some reasons, Head of the UIA Supervisory Board Aron Mayberg said at a press conference at the Boryspil international airport last week. “We considered several options. We really discussed Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. Ivano-Frankivsk has problems with infrastructure. It seems to us that Lviv sees itself more as an airport that will develop according to the point-to-point model and, in addition, our expectations that the domestic market will develop faster do not inspire confidence,” he said.
Therefore, according to Mayberg, while the main efforts the company applies to the development of the main hub in Ukraine on the basis of the Boryspil airport.
“But we continue to look closely at the West, as the western region of Ukraine is developing. There is a large number of people who use planes, and it is difficult for us to carry them to the West via Kyiv,” he said.
Asked about the development of flights through the Dnipro airport, Mayberg said that UIA would like to see this airport developing, improving infrastructure and presenting its long-term development plans.
“Today this is one of the possible bastions of Eastern Ukraine, where you can develop. After we lost the opportunity to develop in Donetsk, it could be an alternative. We believe, we hope that this will happen,” Mayberg said.
Ukraine International Airlines was founded in 1992. It connects Ukraine with more than 80 cities and key points in Europe, Asia, America, Africa, the Middle East and the CIS countries and provides interlining with the routes of partner airlines in more than 3,000 cities of the world. UIA performs more than 1,100 regular flights a week.
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Epicenter K (Kyiv), which develops a network of eponymous construction hypermarkets in Ukraine in a DIY format, plans on March 3 to open a new Epicenter shopping center on the site of the previously operating shopping center Alta Center at 11a Bandery Street in Kyiv. Epicenter K told Interfax-Ukraine the shopping center with a total area of 56,000 square meters consists of two buildings, united by a passage.
“It will have a Garden and Vegetable Garden department (10,000 square meters), a furniture center (4,500 square meters), an Epic children’s goods store (3,000 square meters), a sports goods store Intersport (3,000 square meters),” the report said.
According to Epicenter, the infrastructure of the shopping center includes a parking lot for 910 cars, an Internet order pick-up point, a repair center for instruments, bicycles and skis, as well as a lounge area, a cafe and the Benicassim restaurant.
In addition, the new Mon Chéri cosmetics and perfumery store will open in Epicenter. According to the company, the new shopping center will create 950 jobs. Annual tax payments to the local and national budgets will amount to UAH 92 million. According to the company, the new hypermarket will be the eighth in the Epicenter K network in Kyiv and 46th in Ukraine.
