KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian meters manufacturer NIK has signed a contract with Britain’s CyanConnode to supply hardware and software for smart metering systems for $29 million, the British company has reported on the website of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The company said that the purchase order is for the supply of CyanConnode’s hardware and software advanced metering infrastructure solution for a 1 million unit smart metering deployment to be delivered over the next three years.
CyanConnode will receive $13 million for the provision of hardware with the majority of deliveries expected to be weighted towards years two and three. The Head End Server software payments will be made over the 10-year period post installation and will be worth $16 million, providing the company with a recurring revenue stream.
NIK LLC (Kyiv) is a large manufacturer of metering devices and automated energy metering systems in Eastern Europe.
KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) has permitted Saltora Plus, Ariant Firm, Milton-Group (all based in Dnipro) to acquire assets in the form of integrated property complexes of enterprise with foreign investments Billa-Ukraine (Kyiv).
According to data posted on the AMC website on September 7, Saltora Plus and Ariant plan to buy Billa supermarkets at 8 Kondratiuka Street and 2 Heroiv Avenue in Dnipro, while Milton-Group plans to buy a Billa supermarket at 2 Yatsenka Street in Zaporizhia.
According to the state register, equal shares in these three companies are held by Kingsbarns Holdings Limited and Mitaly Holdings Limited (both based in the British Virgin Islands).
As reported, the AMC by its decisions on December 15, 2016 allowed the owners of the Varus supermarket chain, Valeriy Kiptyk and Ruslan Shostak, to gain control over Kingsbarns Holdings Limited and Mitaly Holdings Limited.
According to the Billa-Ukraine website, on September 20, 2017 the network united 17 supermarkets in Kyiv, Obukhiv (Kyiv region), Zhytomyr, Dnipro, and Odesa.
KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – If the deregulation continues Ukraine could be 40th in the World Bank’s Doing Business rating, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“In the past six months the government had introduced several important deregulation things. We have sent four new bills to parliament. They would allow Ukraine to reach top 40 of Doing Business after their adoption and implementation,” the prime minister said at the Smart Business Challenge in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He said that the government understands problems of business, and ways to settle some of them is not in the center of the country, but in the regions.
As reported, according to Doing Business 2017, Ukraine was 80th among 190 countries and according to Doing Business 2016 (revised to meet methods applied this year) the country was 81st among 189 countries.
KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – National energy company Ukrenergo, Belenergo and republic unitary enterprise ODU (Belarus) have signed contracts on provision of mutual emergency assistance in the parallel operation mode for Ukrainian and Belarusian power grids.
The press service of Ukrenergo reported that the contracts were signed last week when a Belarusian delegation visited Kyiv.
According to the Ukrainian legislation, the contracts will enter into force after the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) approves them.
The sides also decided to prolong cooperation in commercial exchange of electricity between the power grids of the two countries.
Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power grids, as well as performs the centralized dispatching of the united energy system in the country. The company is a state-owned enterprise. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry.
KYIV. Sept 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has met with EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, thanked him for the EU’s consistent sanctions policy towards Russia and briefed on the latest security situation in Donbas.
The meeting between Klimkin and Hahn took place on Tuesday, September 19, as part of the Ukrainian minister’s visit to New York City to take part in the general debate of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service said on its website.
Klimkin informed Hahn in detail about the course of reforms in Ukraine and the measures the Ukrainian government is taking to ensure internal economic stabilization and development. The two officials also touched on prospects for strengthening economic and investment cooperation between Ukraine and the EU, the expansion of micro crediting opportunities for Ukrainian businesses, including due to the involvement of European and other international financial institutions.
During the meeting, special attention was paid to visa liberalization between Ukraine and the EU.
Klimkin also explained in detail the provisions of a new Ukrainian draft law on education to Hahn. The Ukrainian minister confirmed that Ukraine is ready to send the language-related article of the bill to the Council of Europe for examination.
KYIV. Sept 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine should focus on building a modern infrastructure of mobile communications networks and provide for investment in this sector, Head of the parliamentary committee for informatization and communications Oleksandr Danchenko has said.
“The challenges Ukraine faces now are first linked to building a large-scale infrastructure and mobile operators’ networks. 4G and 5G are very important. The role of the state and private business is important here,” he said at the Huawei CA&C Mobile Broadband Forum in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Danchenko said that the state should provide for the required investment climate and the required legislative conditions allowing business, first of all investors in mobile communications, to invest their money and be protected.
“Investors should understand that they would return their money, while Ukrainian users will receive a good service. As for the parliament, our task is to ensure the legislative base. We have worked on is with the sector. We have drawn up the new base. This is a bill on electronic communications and the new bill on radio frequency spectrum,” he said.
