KYIV. June 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli has called on Ukrainian scientists to more actively participate in the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020.”
Ukraine should be one of the key participants of the Horizon 2020, the largest programme supporting research in the world, he said at the international conference “Ukraine – EU: Integration in a Changing World” in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said that Ukraine has a scientific potential. The country should take active part in the programme.
As reported, in December 2016, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers created a coordination center to implement the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020.”
In 2015, Ukraine has become an associated member of the Horizon 2020 Programme. In 2016, Ukrainian scientists are participants of 61 consortiums involved in the programme. Their share of the project budgets exceeds EUR 11.5 million. The annual fee paid by Ukraine to the programme budget is around EUR 5.8 million. The country would receive the half of it back via technical assistance tools.
KYIV. June 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Fujikura Automotive Ukraine Lviv LLC, controlled by the Japanese manufacturer of electrical equipment and telecommunications systems Fujikura, is launching production lines in penal centers of Lviv region where around 400 convicted persons will work.
According to a posting on the website of Lviv Regional Administration, this was discussed at a meeting of Lviv Regional Administration Head Oleh Syniutka and Ukrainian Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko.
Department head of the western inter-regional division for enforcement of criminal sanctions of the Justice Ministry Mykhailo Dziudzia said that production lines were launched in Lychakov penal center No. 30.
Preparations for launching production lines in Drohobych penal center No. 40 and Zbarazh penal center No. 63 are underway.
Fujikura Automotive Ukraine Lviv in April and September 2016 opened two automotive parts plants in Lviv region and in May 2017 First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv said that the company wants to open two more plants in Ukraine – in Vinnytsia and Cherkasy with 1,500 new jobs each.
Fujikura Automotive Ukraine Lviv also plans to expand the work of two major enterprises in Lviv region and increase the number of employees from 2,000 to 3,000, he said.
Fujikura was founded in Japan in 1885 and gradually expanded to an international corporation engaged in innovative technologies. The turnover of the company exceeds EUR5 billion per year. The company’s representative offices operate in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Great Britain, Vietnam, and India. Its staff exceeds 50,000 employees worldwide.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano have agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation between the countries, and agreed their positions on international issues.
Klimkin met with his Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano during his visit to Italy and the two discussed bilateral cooperation in the political, economic, energy, cultural and humanitarian sectors, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service reported on Tuesday.
“The ministers also agreed to intensify the dialogue between Ukraine and Italy and agreed positions on a number of international issues,” the report said.
The Foreign Ministry also added that Alfano assured his Ukrainian counterpart that during the forthcoming Italian chairmanship of the OSCE the “Ukrainian issue” will remain a priority.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukraine-Canada Free Trade Agreement enters force on August 1, 2017, according to an official note from Canada to Ukraine’s embassy [in Canada], Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has said.
“Canada gave us this present for the Constitution Day: we received an official state note about the conclusion of all measures for the agreement on free trade to take force. We have mixed feelings: this is the end of and the start, both at the same time. This is a historical moment that exemplifies the colossal work of our diplomats and politicians. But it is the beginning of a much more important stage: it is time to make this agreement work, through contracts, new jobs and investments,” Shevchenko said on his Facebook page.
The trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine was signed in Kyiv on July 11, 2016. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada ratified the deal on March 14, 2017. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law on ratification on April 3, 2017.
Canada’s ministry of foreign affairs, trade and development informed Ukraine’s embassy in Canada on the conclusion of internal measures of Canada required for the agreement to take force,” says a statement issued by Ukraine’s embassy in Canada.
According to the statement, the agreement from August 1 will cancel 98% of tariffs for Ukrainian exports to Canada and 72% of tariffs from Canada to Ukraine. Over the next seven years the latter will increase to 98%.
Markets for state purchases are also included.
Parts of the agreement safeguard electronic commerce and intellectual property rights.
“Last year Canada and Ukraine signed the Free Trade Agreement and an agreement on military cooperation. Canada also extended for two years its UNIFER training mission in Ukraine,” the embassy’s press service said.
According to Ukraine’s State Statistics Service goods from Ukraine to Canada from January to April 2017 increased by 75% to $14.89 million, while imports rose 23.9% to $75.31 million.
According to Canadian statistics, exports from Canada to Ukraine amounted to $265.19 million, with $107.44 million in imports.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – International retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), which owns Europe’s second largest clothing chain, plans to open first outlets in Ukraine in 2018.
“New H&M store markets planned for 2018 are Uruguay and Ukraine,” the company said in a six-month report posted on June 29.
As was reported, H&M plans to enter the markets of Columbia, Vietnam, Iceland, and Georgia in 2017.
Kazakhstan’s first H&M store opened in the middle of March. In the first half of 2017, the company planned to open online stores in Turkey, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The company owns the H&M brand, as well as COS, Monki, & Other Stories, and Weekday.
KYIV. June 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – In the first quarter of 2017, tourist flows to Kyiv remained positive and its increase compared to the same period in 2016 was 33%, or 70,690 people, head of the tourism department of Kyiv City State Administration Anton Taranenko has said.
“In the first quarter of 2017 in general 283,389 tourists visited (Kyiv) (211,700 in 2016.) In the current year, Kyiv, according to the forecast indicators, expects 1.5 million foreign visitors,” Taranenko wrote on Facebook on Monday.
He said that the leading positions in the rating were taken by such countries as Belarus (an increase by 22,770 people); Israel (by 5,920 people); Turkey (5,350 people); the USA (3,520); Poland (3,130); Azerbaijan (2,110); Latvia and Lithuania (1,200); Germany (1,910 people); Kazakhstan (1,810); China (1,760); France (1,470); the Netherlands (1,040).
