Some 83 organizations from Ukraine, including higher education institutions, research organisations, and private sector, receives EUR 17.23 million from the EU within Horizon 2020 programme.
The EU Delegation to Ukraine wrote on its Facebook page that In total, 505 Ukrainian organizations participated in the preparation of 915 project proposals, expecting European Commission contribution of EUR 312.81 million.
These results classify Ukraine in the sixth place among Associated Countries in both: the number of participations, and gained contributions from European Commission.
“The potential of the country is bigger, though. Ukraine requires further reforms to create more favourable conditions for the intensification of cooperation between Ukrainian science and industry with partners from the EU and other countries involved in Horizon 2020,” the EU Delegation to Ukraine said.
Ukraine became a new member of Associated Countries (AC) in March 2015. Since then, Ukrainian organizations have been able to fully participate in Horizon 2020 on equal terms with the EU Member States and other ACs.
The number of tourists visited Kyiv in 2017 grew by some 21%, the press service of Kyiv City Council has reported, referring to head of the permanent commission for budget, social and economic development Andriy Strannikov.
The press service said that the number of foreign tourists rose by 25%, to 1.6 million people, and the number of domestic tourists – by 18%, to 850,000, which allowed attracting additional funds to the city budget. “The tourist tax amounted to UAH 25 million in 2017. This is a very good indicator, taking into account the fact that in 2016 this figure was UAH 18.8 million. Profits grew by almost a quarter,” Strannikov said.
According to the press service, a significant factor in attracting tourists last year was Eurovision song contest.
Kyiv City Council recalled that in 2018 in Kyiv will be the final matches of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Women’s Champions League 2017/2018. The expected number of tourists is 120,000.
In 2018, Kyiv plans to establish another tourist information center on the European Square, as well as create photo zones with 3D designs of tourism logos at the railway station and near the city hall.
Ukrzaliznytsia plans to finish construction of the new Beskydsky tunnel on May 25, 2018 and starts new large-scale infrastructure projects for over UAH 10 billion, Ukrzaliznytsia acting Board Chairman Yevhen Kravtsov has said.
“We plan to finish the project, which was to be completed this autumn, earlier. The Beskydsky tunnel is to be opened on May 25, 2018,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Kravtsov said that among new projects is a large-scale project on electrification of the Dolynska-Mykolaiv-Kolosivka section, which concerns the access to the Mykolaiv maritime merchandise port and is a strategic one for the agricultural sector of Ukraine.
He also recalled the project on electrification of the Potoky-Zolotnyshyne section, which is important for improving transactions in the metal and ore complex of the country.
“The electrification of the Kovel-Izov-the state borer is the access of Ukrainian cargo to the European markets. Today this is the narrowest place on our transport map,” Kravtsov said.
Among other things, he pointed out the importance of railway communication with Mariupol: this year the company will continue improving the capacity of the Kamysh-Zoria-Volnovaha-Mariupol section.
“We did a lot in the past year: we expanded [throughput] from 14-15 pairs of freight trains per day to 22. This is a significant increase in one year, and we plan to raise it to 28 before the end of this year,” he said.
Head of national energy company Ukrenergo Vsevolod Kovalchuk hopes that the state-owned enterprise will be reorganized into a private joint-stock company in autumn 2018.
“There is a certain procedure, which should be passed step by step. If everything works perfectly, this process could be finished in August or early September 2018. This concerns the registration of our shares,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on November 22, 2017 approved the reorganization of state enterprise Ukrenergo into a private joint-stock company, 100% of which is state owned. All the property being on the balance sheet of the state enterprise, which ensures the integrity of the united energy system of Ukraine, dispatching management, trunk and interstate power grids, is assigned to the private JSC and not subject to alienation.
According to Kovalchuk, as part of the transformation, the company must conduct a stocktaking of assets, carry out the assessment of the value of the entire property complex of the enterprise and issue shares with their transfer to state ownership. At the same time, he recalled that the transformation to the private JSC as opposed to a public joint-stock company means the impossibility of buying and selling shares of the company on the stock exchange.
Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power grids, as well as conducts the centralized dispatching of the united energy system of the country. The company is a state enterprise. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, but it will be transformed into a private joint-stock company.
Exports of IT services from Ukraine in 2017 increased by 7.58% compared to 2016, to $2.485 billion ($2.31 billion in 2016), the IT Committee of the European Business Association (EBA) has told Interfax-Ukraine, with reference to a study of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“According to NBU preliminary data, the total volume of computer services exports for 2017 amounted to $2.485 billion, including operations for the sum less than $20,000 amounted to $842 million,” the report said.
According to the previously unveiled infographics of the IT Ukraine profile association on its website, exports of IT services in Ukraine in 2017 grew by 20% compared to 2016, to $3.6 billion.
The EBA is a non-governmental organization uniting more than 900 European, international and domestic companies operating in Ukraine. It was established in 1999 on the initiative of the European Commission, which is interested in supporting European business in Ukraine and establishing bilateral relations between Ukraine and the EU.
The IT Committee of the EBA is an industrial association of companies engaged in production of software and provision of software services.
Ukraine’s seaports handled 10.8 million tonnes of cargo in January 2018, which is 10.9% more than in the same period in 2017, according to live data from the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority.
According to its data, the volume of transshipment of exported cargo fell by 1.1% compared to the previous year, to 7.8 million tonnes, imported cargo increased by 70% and amounted to 2.1 million tonnes.
Growth in exports was recorded for metals and metal products – 1.5 million tonnes (21.2% compared to January 2017), containers – 26,300 TEU (a 17% growth), grain – 3.1 million tonnes (growth by 1.1%).
Transshipment of imported coal amounted to 700,000 tonnes (112.3% more than in January 2017), import of ore cargo to 700,000 tonnes (42% more), oil to 80,000 tonnes (in January last year there were no transshipment), petroleum products to 50,000 tonnes (16% more), and containers to 26,900 TEU (5% more).
The decrease in imports was observed for construction cargo (80,000 tonnes, or 35.4% less) compared with January last year.
In general, the seaports of Ukraine processed 913 vessels in January 2018, which is 291 vessels, or 46.8% more compared to the same period in 2017.
