Ukraine’s transport enterprises in January-November 2019 carried 3.9 billion people, which was 5.6% less than in the same period in 2018, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to the report, passenger turnover for the reporting period totaled 91.1 billion passenger-kilometers, which was 3.5% more than this figure for January-November last year.
In the 11 months of 2019, some 142.2 million passengers used rail transport (including the commuter rail service), which was 2.1% less than in January-November 2018, and 1.656 billion passengers were carried by road (5.4% less), the State Statistics Service said.
Airlines increased passenger transportation by 10.5%, to 12.8 million people.
In addition, according to the State Statistics Service, in January-November, 571.5 million passengers used trams (a decrease by 7.2% compared to the same period a year earlier), 652.9 million people used the subway (a 1.8% decline), and 864 million used trolleybuses (a 7.6% decrease).
Passenger transportation by water increased by 3.5% compared to January-November 2018, to 700,000 people.
The State Statistics Service says the report does not include data from the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol and certain districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Building B12 of the Kyiv innovation park UNIT.City has received the silver certificate LEEDv.4 Core & Shell of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). “Building B12 is the first commercial building in Ukraine to be awarded such a certificate. The developer of the project was KAN Development, the contractor was KAN Bud. Delta Ukraine performed the LEED certification of the building,” Delta Ukraine’s press service said.
In particular, the following features of the building were noted: good location relative to the public transport network and social infrastructure, the availability of an underground parking lot with electric car chargers, energy-efficient design, engineering equipment, LED lighting, water-efficient plumbing and landscape irrigation system, separate waste collection, a ban on smoking in and around the building, two-stage air purification and quality control.
As reported, with reference to UFuture, in general, until 2021 the amount of investment in UNIT.City will reach EUR 245 million, and by 2025 the total area of real estate in the park should be 500,000 square meters.
The UNIT.City Innovation Park officially opened in April 2017 in the territory of the former Kyiv Motorcycle Plant. By the beginning of 2019, some 50,000 square meters were already built up in the technical park, and more than 100 companies became its residents.
UNIT.City also started the construction of residential buildings, which should occupy about 30% of its area. It was planned to commission the first facilities in April 2020. By 2025, the total area of UNIT.City should be 500,000 square meters.
Lviv International Airport has started serving the Azerbaijani low cost carrier Buta Airways, which made its first direct flight to Baku from Lviv. The airport’s press service said on its Facebook page the company will fly to Lviv during the winter season on Mondays and Thursdays. The minimum one-way rate is EUR 29.
Some 51 passengers arrived on the first flight, 64 passengers departed. The flight was carried out on board an Embraer 190 aircraft.
“This direction is not new for the airport. For several years it has been operated by the largest Azerbaijani carrier Azal Airlines. But these flights were stopped for the winter season. This year the airline decided to change its policy and transferred the flight to its subsidiary low cost company Buta Airways,” the report says.
Currently, Lviv Airport also serves such low cost airlines as WizzAir, Ryanair, Pegasus, Ernest, and SkyUp.
As reported, Lviv airport in 2018 increased passenger traffic by 48% compared to 2017, to 1.598 million people.
JSC Megabank (Kharkiv) has raised EUR 5 million to lend to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), according to a posting on the bank’s website. “The management of JSC Megabank signed an agreement with a fund managed by Swiss responsAbility Investments AG, an investment asset manager, on the provision of a loan totaling EUR 5 million on December 3,” the bank said.
According to Megabank Board Chairman Oleksiy Yatsenko, the loan term is three years.
Yatsenko added that negotiations with Swiss partners began in May 2019 in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, and before signing the agreement, Megabank successfully passed due diligence.
According to the report, the current agreement with responsAbility Investments AG is already the second for Megabank. In November 2012, two private investment funds led by responsAbility provided the bank with two three-year loans totaling $4 million to support SME.
“We repaid the loan in due time in 2015. This year we decided to deepen our cooperation. We thank to the responsAbility Investments AG team for their trust. It is important for us to get an assessment of a bona fide bank. We are working further without losing momentum,” Yatsenko said.
According to the report, since the beginning of the year, the bank concluded five transactions with international partners for a total of $20 million in equivalent, of which $11 million were for programs supporting micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Ukravit, a large Ukraine producer of crop protection agents and micronutrient fertilizers boosted production in 2019 by 25%, to 11,000 tonnes. The company told Interfax-Ukraine last week that its share of the Ukrainian crop protection agents and micronutrient fertilizers market in 2019 was around 10%. The company said that this year, Ukravit launched the seventh production facility in Cherkasy with an area of 1,300 square meters, which allowed to increase production by 1,100 tonnes compared to 2018, to 11,000 tonnes. Investment in the project exceeded $3 million.
According to the report, in 2019, the company also began to switch to direct sales and currently has 12 regional sales offices throughout Ukraine.
In addition, Ukravit expands the workshop for the production of plastic containers and storage facilities, renews its fleet.
The company this year began the construction of a plant manufacturing crop protection agents and micronutrient fertilizers in Uzbekistan, but has not yet disclosed project details.
Ukravit was founded in 1999. It is engaged in production and sale of pesticides, fertilizers, means for destruction of rodents and household insects.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has selected 15 technology startups that will represent Ukraine at Startup Grind Global 2020, the tenth global conference of entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. According to the organizers, the results of the competition have demonstrated great potential for the development of Ukraine as a technological IT center.
“The competition made it possible to select the most interesting and promising Ukrainian startups. The experience of the Competitive Economy of Ukraine [CEU] program in supporting Ukrainian startups in global technological events testifies to the interest of foreign investors in the products of Ukrainian startups,”, USAID CEU Program Deputy Chief Olesya Zaluska told reporters during a pitch in Kyiv last week.
Following the results of the competition, a list of startups-finalists who will be included in the Ukrainian delegation was compiled:
1. Let`s Enhance – Improving Image Quality with Machine Learning;
2. Replay.io – A multi-channel sales platform that automates contacts using emails, calls and tasks;
3. Legal Nodes – A global marketplace for the technology business, with the help of which the founder or legal adviser of a technology company can contact a lawyer that is most relevant to legal needs and financial capabilities;
4. Poptop – The leading marketplace for booking performers of various kinds and locations for events in real time;
5. Delfast – Electric bicycles;
6. Animal ID – Service for the identification of animals;
7. Kray Technology – A drone that helps to increase crop yields and reduce the amount of fertilizer in the agricultural sector;
8. Costless – A personal shopping assistant who helps to make smart decisions, saving money, time and energy. It provides agencies, brands and retailers with real-time analytics, forecasts of changes in prices and volumes of consumption, information on consumer behavior;
9. AxDraft – Helps to draw up legal documents 10 times faster, avoiding mistakes and increasing the efficiency of the legal department by 25%, delegating part of the legal work to “non-lawyers” without risks;
10. Effa – An environment-friendly toothbrush made of paper and environmentally friendly materials as a “green” alternative to disposable plastic brushes;
11. Pix – A backpack with support for animation;
12. Nuka – Creates a convenient way to record. The first product is a waterproof perpetual notebook with the ability to clean sheets. It can be fully synchronized with the nuka mobile application. The second product is an eternal pencil;
13. CamTouch – A complex that allows you to turn any flat surface into an interactive one and control it using a laser pointer or a special stylus;
14. ActiveChat – A service for creating virtual assistants;
15. ADAM – 3D bioprinting of organic bone structures.
Startups-winners will receive the right to participate in the conference in the United States, own exhibition booth, promos, PR support from the organizers and reimbursement of financial costs for logistics.
More than 160 Ukrainian startups fought for the right to participate in the conference, of which 25 applicants were selected who presented their products to the jury during the Open Call Pitch Event in Kyiv in the evening on December 19.
“Of the 160 applications received, more than 50 startups are ready to attract foreign investment and bring their products to new markets,” Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Director Kateryna Dehtyar said.
According to Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Co-Director Hannah Zenn, Ukrainian startups that are on the delegate list have great potential to attract Seed and A-round investments, find customers among U.S. companies such as Facebook, Deloitte, Target, BMW, CISCO, as well as partners for further growth.
The competition was held jointly with Startup Grind Kyiv (the official representative of the Startup Grind international startup ecosystem) with the support of the USAID CEU Program.
