Ukrainian-Israeli economic cooperation only begins to open up the existing bilateral potential. Trade between the countries that kept at around US$1 billion for long slightly decreased in 2016. However, Ukraine has maintained a positive balance of foreign trade and has been able to attract potential investors and business partners from Israel. The latter see mainly IT, advanced technology, agriculture as promising areas for cooperation.
This issue was on the agenda of the international conference titled “On the Situation and Prospects of Ukrainian-Israeli Trade and Economic Relations,” which was arranged by the bilateral Business Council with the support of the embassies of both countries and the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The sides discussed algorithms to boost trade and investment-related cooperation, as well as risks, protection, insurance of business on the domestic markets.
President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatoliy Kinakh noted that the level of direct investment from Israel is still quite low —up to US$ 50 million for the whole period, or 0.1% of the total volume of foreign investments. The leader of the business community is convinced that Ukraine, which is experiencing investment hunger, is attractive for investment. This is due to human, scientific and technical potential, proximity to European markets and high ROI of investment projects.
“Of course, we, on our part, need to ensure clear protection of the rights of owners and investors, the rule of law,” Kinakh said.
He also urged not to be limited to IT or agriculture, but develop cooperation in the reform of medicine, particularly rehabilitation of soldiers where Israel is a world leader.
The K.Fund of entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky has supported the opening in Ukraine of the representational office of the world Lean Global Network – Lean Institute Ukraine (LIU), a press release issued by the foundation has said.
According to the report, the Institute’s activity will be focused on promoting the knowledge of lean approach as one of the cutting edge methodologies that improve enterprises’ performance and optimize resources consumption.
“We believe that deeper understanding and use of lean thinking is a vital, effective strategy to help Ukrainian companies to go through serious transformation, to raise their competitiveness on local and international markets, and contribute into social and economic development of the country,” President and initiator of the project Serhiy Konberianov said.
Konberianov has large experience in the field as an independent lean consultant in Ukraine in the past five years.
Lean philosophy is derived mostly from the Toyota company, which grew to the world’s largest automaker with the help of lean manufacturing. The lean approach to work means that all the workers are engaged in daily continuous improvement of the operating processes, identifying and eliminating waste.
“This approach turns problems into opportunities for development, helps workers to grow, and aids the organization’s leadership in its market,” the fund said.
Lean Institute Ukraine will help spreading lean thinking and practice in Ukraine through publishing books, organizing summits, leading trainings and workshops. You can find the announcements of its events and books at lean.org.ua, as well as on the K.Fund site and on social networks. LIU is a member of Lean Global Network, which comprises 21 educational and research organizations and dozens of co-learning partners around the globe.
K.Fund was founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky in 2015 to support education and economics projects.
The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) has been popularizing the idea of co-financing under loan programs for energy efficiency with the use of the national and local budgets. Mykolaiv region has become an active participant in the ULIE’s initiative as for participation in the expanded model of funding for making buildings, private households and apartments more energy efficient.
The regional and city administrations together with the advisory center of the ULIE’s Commission for Energy Development and Energy Saving have held six workshops with participants in the program. Currently, the regional council is preparing a round table with local authorities for the discussion of methods of joint state and local funding programs for the so-called thermo modernization.
The sum of money allocated from the national budget in the amount of UAH 400 million this year to compensate loans under the thermo-modernization program is much lower than demand, the ULIE said earlier.
“The complicated economic situation in Ukraine and growing utilities tariffs encourage the introduction of energy efficiency and energy conservation technology in housing, as well as the social and budget-sustained sectors. An effective tool is the implementation of state, regional and municipal programs for popularizing energy efficiency measures among households. This will reduce energy consumption in homes to 60%, while saving billions of cubic meters of gas and electricity,” the ULIE said.
Work in this direction continues. It must be mentioned that a series of workshops on the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the corporate and municipal sectors, as well as in housing are being conducted by experts of the ULIE, the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, and the local authorities in the regions of Ukraine.
KYIV. March 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some 3.49 million Ukrainian citizens travelled by air in 2016, domestic flights accounted for 36.7%, Amadeus Ukraine’s press service has reported with reference to Amadeus booking data.
The split according to the geography of flights from Ukraine was the following: Russia accounted for 8%, Turkey for 6.2%, Germany for 5.7%, Italy for 2.9%, Belarus for 2.8%, Israel for 2.3%, Austria for 2.3%, France for 2.3%, Poland for 2.3%, and the United States for 2.2%.
Spain accounted for 1.9%, Georgia for 1.8%, the Netherlands for 1.8%, the UK for 1.5%, Moldova for 1.2%, the UAE for 1.2%, China for 1.2%, Switzerland for 1.1%, Kazakhstan for 1%, and Lithuania for 1%.
The most popular destinations for domestic flights were Kyiv (27%), Odesa (3.2%), Lviv (1.7%), Kharkiv (1.7%), and Dnipro (1.1%).
Amadeus is the leading provider of IT solutions to the global tourism and travel industry. Its solutions process transactions and operations of travel agencies, airlines, hotels, railway, ship, ferry, car rent operators, and other service providers in the industry.
KYIV. March 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Canada’s Maritime Launch Services Ltd. (MLS) plans in 2020 to start commercial launches of satellites with the Cyclone 4M orbital launch vehicle from Ukraine.
“The preferred site is located in the Guysborough Municipality near Canso and Hazel Hill in Nova Scotia, Canada and would host a commercial launch complex,” MLS said in a press release.
An exhaustive review was conducted which assessed 14 potential locations over the last year. “The criteria evaluated through the study included access to polar/sun synchronous orbit, very low population density, proximity to multimodal transportation, and interest from the community, province and government,” the press release said.
John Isella, CEO of MLS, said: “While we have a number of challenges ahead to work through the regulatory processes, approvals and site planning, we are optimistic that we can break ground on the launch complex within a year and meet market demands with our first launch in 2020.”
MLS plans to achieve a launch rate of eight per year by 2022.
“The timing is perfect for this venture. Ukraine’s independent space industry, and the solid market for these launch services all add to our confidence in this program. The Cyclone 4M rocket will become the standard of the medium class space launch industry,” he said.
Initial funding was obtained in 2016 from United PARADYNE Corporation (UPC) in Santa Maria, CA.
“Building on the historically close ties between Canada and Ukraine, and addressing the satellite constellation launch market with an all Ukrainian medium class (3,350kg to SSO) launch service targeted at $45 million USD, are a few of the fundamental strengths of this program,” Isella added.
MLS said its key partners under this project are Yuzhnoye (Pivdenne) and Yuzhmash (Pivdenmash) in Ukraine.
KYIV. March 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority in 2017 will invest UAH 3.5 billion in modernization and development of port infrastructure, Authority Head Raivis Veckagans said at the presentation of top priority plans of the authority for 2017 in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said that UAH 1.738 billion will be sent to seaport dredging projects.
The project on reconstruction of the approach channel to deep-water berths of Yuzhny maritime merchandise port will be continued. Dredging works total 3.45 million cubic meters, the duration of the project is 29 months and a half. The total cost is UAH 1 billion and the projected depth is 21 meters.
It is also planned to start new projects, in particular, reconstruction of approaches, maneuver zones and operation water areas of the Yuzhny port. Dredging works are 4.4 million cubic meters, the duration of the project is 13 months, the projected depth is 16-19 meters and the total cost is UAH 1.436 billion.
Another project is reconstruction of the operation water area of the first bay of Dry estuary of the Chornomorsk maritime merchandise port with dredging works of 2.5 million cubic meters, the projected depth of 16 meters, the total cost of UAH 720 million and duration – nine months.
The approach channel of Chornomorsk seaport will be reconstructed: 500,000 cubic meters of dredging works, UAH 115.3 million of total cost and 16 meters of the projected depth.
Investment in infrastructure include six projects: construction of berth 1-c of Odesa maritime merchandise port with the total cost of UAH 422.4 million, reconstruction of the hydraulic engineering block of berths 3 and 4 of Mariupol seaport (UAH 333.2 million), reconstruction of the hydraulic engineering block of berth 1 of Chronomorsk seaport (UAH 88.2 million), reconstruction of the hydraulic engineering block of berth 2 of Chornomorsk seaport (UAH 700.4 million), reconstruction of berth 7 of Odesa seaport (UAH 1.066 billion) and construction of an alternative approach road to the Odesa seaport (UAH 250 million).
In general, the authority will invest UAH 930 million in infrastructure in 2017.
