KYIV. April 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian photo bank Depositphotos seeks to invest around UA 150 million in development of Lightfield Productions photo studio with a gross area of some 2,500 square meters that was opened on April 11.
The founder of Depositphotos Dmytro Serheyev told Interfax-Ukraine that he plans that the payback period will be until the middle 2018.
He said that this is the sum, including spending on construction and equipment of the photo studio. The studio is located in Kyiv near the office of Depositphotos.
“We invite all photographers to cooperation with the studio. Best Ukrainian photographers are making pictures here. Now they will be able to earn more. We want to attract more talented authors with their own style to the industry,” Depositphotos said in a press release, citing Serheyev.
Depositphotos is an international photo bank, a commercial platform for authors and buyers of stock photos, vector graphics and video clips. The company is working with clients in 192 countries from offices in Kyiv, New York, London, Berlin, Milan, Moscow and Warsaw.
The company was founded in 2009 by businessman Serheyev. In 2016, the company was estimated at over $80 million.
KYIV. April 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and the U.S. plan to discuss topical issues of deepening cooperation in the space sector within the framework of the next meeting of the bilateral working group on cooperation in the field of research and use of outer space for peaceful purposes scheduled for June.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian space department, the relevant plans were confirmed by the parties during the talks between acting Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) Yuriy Radchenko with the Associate Administrator of the U.S. National Space Agency (NASA) on human exploration and operations William Gerstenmaier during the 33-rd Space Symposium, which was recently held in Colorado Springs (U.S.).
As part of the participation in the leading world forum on space activities, the Ukrainian side also held talks with representatives of the U.S. State Department, as well as with world leaders in the aerospace sphere – American Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as the Canadian MDA, a report says.
As it was reported, the first meeting of the Ukrainian-American working group on cooperation in the field of exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes was held in the U.S. in May 2016.
The parties are holding a dialogue in the new conditions on a qualitatively new content of the agenda of bilateral technological and industrial cooperation in the space sector. Among the new promising areas of partnership are, among other things, rocket engine building, the fight against space debris. Also, Kyiv hopes for a breakthrough in its intercourse with Washington on procurement of components for advanced missile technology.
KYIV. April 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine needs a new economic paradigm, because the current model of the national economy, which provides for the control of large rental business over state institutions, will lead Ukraine’s economy to a final decline, an MP, co-founder of the Ukrainian Business Initiative Union, Serhiy Taruta, has said.
In the course of the II Ukrainian Business Forum, he presented a doctrine of the balanced development ‘Ukraine 2030′, developed by the country’s best economists, which proposes the implementation of a person-centric model of the economy.
“There are balanced calculations showing that only intensive development based on innovative modernization of the national economy, fostering the development of the internal market, will achieve economic growth of at least 10% per year so that Ukraine’s GDP will reach $750-800 billion annually by 2030. The necessary ways to this end are unshadowing of the economy, deoffshorization and deregulation of business, fight against corruption, liberalization of tax policy, the modernization of pension schemes, the introduction of high technology, the renegotiation of cooperation with the IMF and development of the business-constitution,” Taruta said.
According to him, at present Ukraine has fallen from the level of developing countries to the category of poor countries. “And now it is a huge task for each of us to return to the category of developing countries. We all need to unite and decide what to do next. Under the best possible circumstances, Ukraine has only 3% of probability of achieving a balanced development of the developed countries’ level by 2030. It is necessary to make good use of this probability,” Taruta said.
“The doctrine provides answers to the main questions: what are the strongholds of the national economy? What should be the criteria of the national economy for the innovation leap? What are the horizons of balanced development of Ukraine? What do we want to achieve in 2030?” the deputy said.
The Ukrainian business forum traditionally unites business community of Ukraine. More than 400 Ukrainian business leaders, representatives of various sectors and regions of Ukraine, people’s deputies, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman and First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv attended the event.
The forum is organized by influential associations of the Ukrainian business community: the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Ukrainian Business Initiative, the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Federation of Ukraine’s Employers.
KYIV. April 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The first Ukrainian telecommunications satellite Lybid build in international cooperation with participation of Canada and Russia could be placed into orbit in the fourth quarter of 2017, acting Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) Yuriy Radchenko has said.
Assessing the situation with the implementation of the project on Channel 5 TV, he said that the implementation of the project was under a threat of a failure due to the annexation of Crimea and the loss of land infrastructure involved in the project by Ukraine. Taking additional financial liabilities, Ukraine has overcome force majeure: in 2014-2015 a new spacecraft control center was built on Ukraine’s mainland.
“At present, the satellite is ready. The launch vehicle [for the satellite] is ready by 85%,” Radchenko said, adding that Ukraine decided to expand the financing of the project by $17 million.
“The recent meeting in the NSDC [National Security and Defense Council] and in the government allows us saying that the financing of the program is increased,” he said.
Radchenko said that the additional funds will be taken from leasing the resource of the satellite after its launch.
“Under the contract, Canada’s MDA places the satellite to orbit and then transfers it to us for exploitation,” he said, adding that the satellite, the launch vehicle and the launch are insured.
“We hope that the satellite would be launched in the fourth quarter,” he said.
The press service of SSAU told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday that the issues of the implementation of the Lybid project would be discussed during a visit of Canada’s MDA to Ukraine scheduled for April.
As reported, a contract for the construction of a national telecommunications satellite Lybid was signed by the SSAU and Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. The MDA is the head contractor under this project. The Lybid is based on the Express-1000NT platform, developed by Russia’s Reshetnev ISS.
The Canadian export agency EDS provided a $254.6 million loan under the Ukrainian government guarantees to finance the project in the summer of 2009. Initially it was planned to put the Ukrainian satellite into orbit in 2012, later it was postponed to 2013, then to April 2014 and eventually to autumn 2016.
Since 2014 the satellite is stored at Reshetnev ISS in Krasnoyarsk (Russia).
KYIV. April 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company State Food-Grain Corporation plans to send UAH 138 million to modernization of enterprises in 2017, the corporation’s press service has reported.
“This year the capital investment plan includes the implementation of new projects on reconstruction and technical re-equipment and the completion of modernization projects started last year,” Deputy Board Chairman Andriy Zadyraka said.
The corporation plans to upgrade grain drying equipment, modernize or partially buy truck and wagon scales, truck unloading equipment, grain processing equipment and upgrade technological equipment at processing branches. Some funds will be sent to automation of industrial processes.
“We are trying to quickly react to the needs of our branches in technical re-equipment and increase of competitiveness. For comparison: if in 2015 total capital investment was UAH 18 million, in 2016 over UAH 116 million was sent to modernization of enterprises,” Zadyraka said.
The government in August 2010 decided to create the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine. The corporation has a chain of branches, comprised of grain storage facilities, flourmills, fodder factories and a cereals factory. The 53 subdivisions of the corporation can store a total of 3.75 million tonnes of grain, which includes the grain handling capacities of Odesa and Mykolaiv ports of some 2.75 million tonnes of grain cargo per year.
KYIV. April 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Kyivenergo plans to invest around UAH 550 million in reconstruction and development of heat networks and power lines in 2017, Executive Director Alina Bondarenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“The approximate sum of investment into the heat networks in 2017 will be UAH 243 million and in the power block – UAH 308 million,” she said.
Bondarenko said that this year the company seeks to reconstruct around 120 heat points replacing pump equipment, install around 4,000 modems for remote collection of information from heat meters, continue the installation of these heat meters and replace 7 km of heat pipelines.
In addition, Kyivenergo intends to reconstruct the Center power substation, boosting reliability of power supplies in the central part of the city, in particular, Pechersky District.
