Japan is urgently prepared to provide support to Ukraine with a loan of at least $100 million as a sign of support for it in the conditions of the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan said following a telephone conversation between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Prime Minister Kishida informed that Japan is urgently prepared to provide support with a loan of at least $100 million based on the request of the Ukrainian side, and President Zelensky expressed deep gratitude for this,” the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a report on the website after the February 15 conversation.
Japan has been paying close attention to the move to strengthen Russian troops around the Ukrainian border. Japan has consistently supported Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan said.
“The two leaders agreed to work together to ease tensions through diplomatic efforts,” the ministry said in the statement.
Concorde Consulting LLC, a member of the Concorde Capital group of companies, acting as an adviser on the privatization of PJSC President Hotel, has set its starting price at UAH 390 million, the company’s press service has reported.
The company said that they expect a significant increase in prices during the privatization auction due to the competition of bidders. At the same time, even a sale at the starting price will bring more benefits to the state than income in the form of annual dividends, according to Concorde Capital.
“There is no need to keep the President Hotel in state ownership. This is not a strategic facility. Today, the hotel is in a state that requires significant investments. In the near future, it can take a significant place on the hotel map of Kyiv precisely by attracting the necessary investments through privatization,” CEO of Concorde Capital Ihor Mazepa said.
According to him, the modernization of the hotel and its further operational management could create hundreds of jobs.
Thus, Concorde Capital recommends holding a competition for the privatization of the President Hotel in the near future.
Concorde Capital’s independent appraisal partners were Marcus Bureau, Creston GCG, BDO Consulting, Redcliffe Partners and Cushman&Wakefield.
Earlier, the starting price of the President Hotel at the privatization auction, according to UkraineInvest, was estimated at $12 million.
The volume of commercial output of Kyivsky cardboard paper mill (Obukhiv, Kyiv region), the leader in the pulp and paper industry in sales, grew by 42.4% in January compared to the same month in 2021, to UAH 668 .31 million.
According to the statistics of the UkrPapir association, provided to Interfax-Ukraine, at the same time, in kind, only the production of base paper for sanitary and hygienic products showed a slight increase (by 1%), to 7,570 tonnes.
The mill reduced the production of corrugated packaging by 7.5%, to 15.65 million square meters, cardboard – by 6.4%, to 17,830 tonnes (including container increased by 2.8% to 12,130 tonnes, boxboard reduced by 21.3% – to 5,700 tonnes.
Production of toilet paper in rolls fell by 8.2% to 33.19 million pieces.
According to the association, in general, enterprises of the industry in January 2021 increased the production of corrugated packaging by 3.5%, to 48 million square meters, paper and cardboard were reduced by 4.6%, to 64,000 tonnes, toilet paper production in rolls was reduced by 8.5%, to 54.65 million pieces.
Kyivsky cardboard paper mill is one of the largest enterprises in Europe for the production of cardboard and paper products with a staff of about 2,200 people. Products are sold to almost 700 companies in Ukraine, a number of CIS countries and far abroad.
As reported, the mill intends to invest up to EUR 20 million in the development of a new industrial site in Verkhniodniprovsk (Dnipropetrovsk region) for the production of corrugated products.
Ukraine has registered 31,513 new cases of COVID-19, as well as 27,684 recoveries and 310 related deaths, in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
“Over the past day, Ukraine has recorded 31,513 new cases of COVID-19, including 2,872 children and 992 medical workers, while 65,805 people have been vaccinated for COVID-19, among them 18,247 people who received the first dose, 29,307 who received the second dose, 542 who received an additional dose, and 17,709 who received a booster shot. In the past 24 hours, 3,640 people have been hospitalized, 310 have died, and 27,684 have recovered,” the ministry said on Telegram.
There were 29,724 new infections in Ukraine the day before.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ukraine has seen a total of 4,603,930 cases of COVID-19, including 3,839,314 recoveries and 103,565 deaths.
As many as 15,613,185 people have been vaccinated for COVID-19 in Ukraine to date.
From April 2022, Poland will change its visa operator in Ukraine – it will be the TLS consortium, consisting of five companies – TLS Group S.A., TLSContact Maroc Immeuble Walili, TLScontact Ukraine LLC, Personnel Service, Viza Staff.
Such data is contained in the materials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, provided in response to a deputy request from Olena Moshenets (Servant of the People), which is available to the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
“According to the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ukraine, on February 7, 2022, an agreement was concluded on the provision of visa services with a company determined as the winner based on the results of a tender for the selection of a visa operator. The start of work of a new visa operator is scheduled for April 2022,” the Foreign Ministry said in response at the request of an MP.
Prior to the start of the work of the new operator, the acceptance of documents will be carried out by VFS Global.
“The announcement of the launch of the new operator will be made public on the official web portal of the Polish diplomatic/consular institutions,” the ministry said.
Yalta European Strategy (YES) and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation will host the 5th Munich Ukrainian Lunch titled “Europe’s Security is Decided in Ukraine” on February 19 on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.
The press service of YES said that the discussion will explore the threats to Ukraine’s security and what they mean for Europe and the West.
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, will moderate the discussion with Anne Applebaum, historian and staff writer at The Atlantic, Ann Linde, Foreign Minister of Sweden, General James Mattis, former US Secretary of Defence and General David Petraeus, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.
Among the participants will also be: Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada; Peter Hultqvist, Minister for Defence of Sweden; Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman, Munich Security Conference, member of YES Board; Jeppe Kofod, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Denmark; Ben Hodges, Pershing Chair, Center for European Policy Analysis, former Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe; Alina Mikhailova, SOS Army volunteer, Russian-Ukrainian war veteran; and Kurt Volker, Distinguished Fellow, CEPA.
On February 19 at 13:30 (Kyiv time), watch the online streaming of the Ukrainian Lunch in Munich.
MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE, PINCHUK FOUNDATION, UKRAINIAN LUNCH
