KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The EU-China container train will start running across Ukraine this year, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said during the infrastructure day in the European Business Association (EBA) on Tuesday.
“We received freights from the EU. I hope that the frequency will be at least one train a week next year,” he said.
He added that synchronously the work on the creation of the new route of the Silk Road: Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan and the EU-China route via Ukraine is underway.
Commenting on the current state of affairs with the launch of the Ukraine-Georgia ferry route, Omelyan said that the memorandum signed by Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and CJSC Azerbaijan Railways signed in September 2017 is not enough.
“A private investor is required, preferably Chinese one. This is the guarantee that the freight will reach its destination,” the minister said.
He said that the ferries on the balance sheet of Ukrzaliznytsia are still undergoing repair and are “breaking the berth” at the Chornomorsk port.
“Their commercial exploitation is under large question. We need a private operator with new effective ships,” Omelyan said.
As reported, the first pilot container train on the new Silk Road Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China (across the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea) was launched by the Infrastructure Ministry jointly with Ukrzaliznytsia on January 15, 2016. The dry run of the new container train ended in the early hours of January 31, 2016, on the 16th day of the journey. It had problems with returning home and was not launched anymore.
Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and Azerbaijan Railways on September 8, 2017 signed a memorandum of cooperation on the joint operation of a permanent rail-ferry service for the development of freight traffic along the EU-Ukraine-Black Sea-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea-Asian region states route using ferries of Ukrzaliznytsia.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has introduced smart technologies in the Ukrainian capital as part of the International Mayors Summit, which is taking place in Kyiv on November 28-29, the press service of the Kyiv mayor has reported.
“Kyiv has become the first city in Ukraine to start successfully and comprehensively introducing smart technologies and building the city’s digital infrastructure,” he said during the opening ceremony of the summit on Tuesday.
Klitschko greeted the guests of the capital and shared with them the plans for Kyiv’s development.
“I am pleased to welcome all the mayors participating in the summit in Kyiv, colleagues from Ukraine and abroad. It is very good that we can exchange experience at such an event. I am pleased to adopt the best experience of colleagues from different cities and countries. I want as many new successful ideas and projects as possible to be realized in Kyiv. Earlier, abroad, I had already photographed beautiful buildings, and now we have urns, bollards, and pedestrian crossings. That is, these are the best examples that our city can and does realize,” he said.
The mayor stressed that the task of all mayors was to make the cities they lead comfortable, modern and safe. He also said what innovations had already been introduced in Kyiv.
In particular, Klitschko noted that two years ago Kyiv started developing smart infrastructure of the city. The first project as part of the Kyiv Smart City program was the “Open Budget,” which made it possible to track online incomes and expenditures of the city budget.
“As part of Kyiv Smart City, various city services were also introduced in the capital so as to make the city more comfortable, safe and modern. These are a system for informing residents of Kyiv, booking an appointment with a doctor online, the 1551 service, determining the arrival time of public transport, control over the movement of municipal transport, and many other things,” Klitschko said.
Separately, he spoke about the “Safe City” project, which was initiated and is being implemented for the safety of Kyiv residents, traffic control and traffic in the city. He noted that almost 5,000 CCTV cameras had been installed in institutions and public places.
During the opening ceremony, the summit participants signed a manifesto of mayors-innovators. Among the commitments are to develop and implement innovations that make the life of city residents more comfortable, adopt the best world experience, cooperate with young leaders and the start-up community, increase the social impact of urban projects and involve citizens in assessing the results of their implementation.
The International Mayors Summit (IMS) was founded in 2016 as a platform for the exchange of experience between local government leaders and world-class local development specialists.
KYIV. Nov 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Wizz Air, the largest low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, will start operating in Kharkiv, which will become the third Ukrainian airport of the airline.
Wizz Air will also launch five new routes from Lviv and Kharkiv.
The press service of the airline reported that as a result of the increased demand of Wizz services by the Ukrainian passengers, the airline is delighted to offer a greater choice of flights for the Ukrainian travelers and their visitors. The new services available from Kharkiv to Dortmund and Katowice, will operate each twice per week and will start in April and June, respectively. Lviv low-fare network will be further expanded, in addition to the recently announced London-Luton connection, with three new routes to the beautiful cities of Dortmund, Katowice and Gdansk from next spring. Passengers looking for their next adventure abroad can already book their tickets on the newest on wizzair.com from just UAH 279.
The company recalled that from the beginning of this year, 6 new routes were launched from Kyiv to Warsaw, Poznan and Lublin in Poland, Nuremberg and Frankfurt Hann in Germany and Copenhagen in Denmark while adding a second Airbus A320 to its Kyiv fleet. Furthermore, Lviv operations were restarted this spring with 2 new services to Berlin and Wroclaw.
“Wizz’s fast-growing Ukraine operations will continue to stimulate the local economy as it has done for the last years, bringing increased employment in Ukraine’s aviation and tourism sectors and supporting more than 600 jobs this year in associated industries throughout the country. Expanding its operations in 2018 to three aircraft, Wizz Air will have a local staff of more than 100 direct employees in Kyiv and will offer in total 29 low-fare routes to 10 countries from three Ukrainian airports,” the airline said.
The two new routes from Kyiv to Tallinn and Lisbon will be launched in 2018.
During the 10-month period of 2017 (January-October), nearly 590,000 passengers have enjoyed Wizz’s low fares, easy booking system and excellent on-board service to and from Ukraine, showcasing a growth of 75% in comparison to the same period last year.
The airline said that the flights on the new routes will start from Kharkiv to Dortmund on April 5, 2018 (the price starts from UAH 869), to Katowice on June 20, 2018 (from UAH 579), from Lviv to Gdansk and Katowice on March 26 (from UAH 279) and to Dortmund on May 21 (from UAH 719).
Wizz Air services more than 550 routes from 28 bases, connecting 144 destinations in 43 countries. Its fleet consists of 87 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.
KYIV. Nov 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and China are preparing to expand cooperation in the space sector, updated cooperation plans were outlined in a new version of the program of bilateral cooperation in the space sector until 2020, which has been recently adopted in Beijing.
The updated version of the program of bilateral cooperation in the space sector for 2016-2020 was approved during a session of the working group and the 4th meeting of the Sub-Commission on Cooperation in Space Sector of the Ukrainian-Chinese Intergovernmental Commission, the Ukrainian State Space Agency’s press service reported.
“During the meeting, the interim results of the implementation in 2017 of the program of Ukrainian-Chinese cooperation in the field of space for 2016-2020 were summed up, the Protocol was signed and the updated version of the program was adopted, the sides noted the development of positive dynamics of cooperation in the space sector between the two countries, and outlined cooperation areas in the medium and long term,” the report says.
New areas of cooperation included in the updated version of the program are confidential and are not open to public, the press service of the space agency specified to the agency Interfax-Ukraine.
China is among long and prospective partners of Ukraine in the space sector.
As reported, Ukraine and China approved a long-term program of cooperation in the space sector for the period of 2016-2020 during a previous meeting of the subcommittee on cooperation in the space sector of the Ukrainian-Chinese intergovernmental commission in Kyiv on April 7, 2016. The document provides for the joint implementation of more than 70 projects. Most of them envisage the creation of rocket and space technologies, taking into account China’s implementing the Lunar Exploration Program and a mission to study the planets of the solar system, as well as cooperation in the field of creating new materials and Earth remote sensing.
KYIV. Nov 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Rentkom LLC (Lviv) has commissioned the first stage of an elevator for 30,000 tonnes in the village of Dzvyniach (Ternopil region), according to the website of Ternopil Regional State Administration.
According to the report, investments in the launch of the first stage of the elevator amounted to about EUR5 million.
The launch of the second stage with the capacity of 60,000 tonnes is scheduled for 2019.
The construction of the facility began in May 2016. Its planned capacity is 90,000 tonnes of grain.
“The total cost of the complex construction is UAH 300 million (EUR10 million), the cost of the first stage of the complex is UAH 150 million (EUR5 million). The construction is carried out at the expense of Rentkom,” the regional administration said.
The elevator complex was created for purchase, storage and subsequent processing of oilseeds at the enterprises of Rentkom located in the village of Dzvyniach in Ternopil region and Lviv.
In future it is planned to build a plant for processing oilseeds (soybeans, rapeseeds, sunflower) with a capacity of 15,000 tonnes per month (180,000 tonnes per year) in the territory of Dzvyniach village council.
KYIV. Nov 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agrarian groups, forecasts EBITDA in the 2018 financial year (FY, July 2017-June 2018) at a level of no lower than $210 million.
“We expect EBITDA in the 2018 financial year to exceed $210 million, but it will be below $250 million,” member of the company’s board of directors Yuriy Kovalchuk said.
Kernel posted $319 million EBITDA in the 2017 FY.
Kovalchuk noted that in the 2018 FY the company plans to process 3.2 million tonnes of sunflower. The processing capacities of the agricultural holding are estimated at 3.5 million tonnes.
Due to a lower capacity load, Kernel expects a 15% decrease in EBITDA in the grain infrastructure segment in the 2018 FY. In 2017 revenues in this segment reached $110 million.
According to Kovalchuk, EBITDA in the agricultural segment in 2018 could reach $85 million against $144 million a year earlier.
Kernel Financial Director Anastasia Usacheva estimated the current level of the company’s debt as “satisfactory.”
She noted that the peak demand for the working capital of the group and, consequently, the maximum level of debt will be in December, and then it will be gradually decreasing.
