The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a EUR 50 million credit line to help Ukraine’s railway and road authorities, Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukravtodor, eliminate bottlenecks in European transport networks. As the bank announced, its board of directors approved the project on September 19, 2018. It covers projects for small transport infrastructure worth up to EUR 20 million.
Loans are to be used to improve interaction within the framework of the Eastern Neighborhood and provide substantial support for small-scale but locally significant projects. It is also expected that such financing will improve traffic safety.
The EIB document states that the total cost of this framework project is approximately EUR 110 million, but other sources of co-financing are not specified.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has permitted law firms Asters and EPAP Ukraine (both based in Kyiv) to merge. The committee said that after the merger of operations and assets of the two law firms the merged group Asters and some entities of the EPAP Ukraine group would have joint control over Magisters law firm.
Magisters law firm was founded in Kyiv in 1997 as Magister&Parnters and later was renamed Magisters and expanded its operations to the CIS. In summer 2011, the firm merged with Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners (EPAP).
As reported, in August 2018, the law firms Asters and EPAP Ukraine announced their intention to merge. It was planned that the merger will be completed on October 1, 2018.
The combined firm with its offices in Kyiv and Washington will be the largest in Ukraine with 26 partners and more than 140 lawyers. Over 250 employees will work in the firm.
The Asters and EPAP Ukraine law firms have been working in Ukraine for more than 20 years. They are the leaders of the legal market, have the highest recommendations of international and national ratings.
The Nova Poshta Group predicts that in 2018, the group would increase the number of deliveries to 170 million, which is 16.6% more than last year, Nova Poshta Director Oleksandr Bulba has said.
“The [upward] trend continues in 2018: we expect a 15-20% increase in the eight months ending August this year. We delivered 108 million parcels (for comparison, in the eight months of 2017, 90 million.) Our plan for this year is about 170 million parcels,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
The press service of the group told Interfax-Ukraine that this year Nova Poshta intends to open up to 600 new points of presence of different formats.
As reported, Nova Poshta in January-June 2018 delivered 78 million items, which is 21% more than in the same period in 2017.
Nova Poshta was founded in 2001. Its network has more than 2,350 depots and a fleet of more than 3,600 trucks. In 2017, more than 145 million items were delivered.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy and Opposition Party Co-chairman Borys Kolesnykov has said Ukraine should export more highly processed products, remove the energy and food blockade of Donbas and create a comfortable business climate for investors. “Ukraine simply needs to export more and import less, and within three years we must export highly processed products. We must act solely in our own economic interests,” he said on his Facebook page on Thursday. Kolesnykov said government should “promptly remove the energy and food blockade of Donbas and create a real investment climate in the country for both domestic investors and foreign investors.” “Ukraine simply has to become an Eastern European Singapore,” he said.
