Bosch (Stuttgart, Germany), one of the leading manufacturers of automotive and industrial equipment in the world, plans to open five to six new authorized service centers Bosch Auto Service in Ukraine by the end of 2020 (109 stations were operating by the beginning of the year), Volodymyr Matusevych, the head of the auto parts and equipment department at Robert Bosch Ltd., said.
“We are interested in expanding the network and are doing everything to make it grow. At the beginning of the year, we had plans to expand, and during the quarantine they did not change, all candidates (there are about 15 of them) are in our pool, and this figure is almost the same every year, but the number of those who will join as a result is different. I think we will open five or six service stations,” he said at an online press conference in Kyiv.
He added that due to the situation with the coronavirus and quarantine measures, the time frame for which a candidate will be brought to a partner status has increased.
At the same time, he stressed that it is still difficult to name the total number of stations that will operate in the country by the end of the year.
“We constantly conduct audits of stations to make sure that all standards are met. If partners do not meet them, we develop programs how to keep them [partners], but if it doesn’t work out, we say goodbye,” he said.
He explained that these requirements for partners are very high.
Bosch Auto Service provides maintenance, diagnostics, repair of cars and minibuses, Bosch Diesel Service specializes in the maintenance and repair of all traditional components of diesel injection systems.
The bus operator FlixBus launches two new international trips from Ukraine on the Kyiv-Krakow-Prague and Kyiv-Vilnius routes. The press service of the company said the Kyiv-Vilnius bus departs daily from Kyiv at 19:20 and arrives at Vilnius airport at 08:40, and then at the bus station at 09:05. Departure from Vilnius is at 21:30, then check-in at the airport of the Lithuanian capital, and arrival in Kyiv at 11:50 the next day. The carrier is the Lithuanian company Ollex. The line route is Kyiv-Chernihiv-Vilnius.
“In recent years, Lithuania has become a popular tourist destination for Ukrainians. According to the statistics department of the Republic of Lithuania, 44% more Ukrainians arrived in Lithuania last year than in 2018. This is the highest increase among visitors from all countries. And although today the pandemic is bringing its limitations, in the long term, the growth of tourism from Ukraine to Lithuania will continue. Now you can get to Vilnius simply and at an affordable price by a comfortable bus, and then, by making one change – across the Baltic countries,” the press service said citing FlixBus Director in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States Michal Leman.
The report notes that FlixBus launched its network in the Baltic countries, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in early July. The company currently offers daily trips from Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius to more than ten other Baltic cities.
The Vasyl Khmelnytsky K.Fund foundation was headed by Lidia Pashchuk, who had been managing one of the foundation’s key projects for about four years — the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship School. Under her leadership, the SME School covered 15 Ukrainian cities, and more than 1,000 entrepreneurs graduated from it. Lidia will replace Fedor Logvinenko, who decided to focus on developing his own business.
“The main goal of K.Fund is to support creative industries through education and personal development. As President of the foundation, I plan to develop and deepen cooperation with international and Ukrainian partners for the development of Ukraine’s economy, as well as to implement educational projects aimed at developing people of all ages, including schoolchildren. Of course, the development of small and medium enterprises will be one of my priorities,” said Lidia Pashchuk.
The new president of K.Fund is a candidate of economic sciences, a certified lecturer at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and an associate professor at the Department of International Economics and Marketing at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, consultant to international organizations. Lidia has more than 15 years of experience in leading international and domestic companies and institutions, in particular, in the World Bank. As a consultant, marketer and manager, she participated in the development and implementation of projects for the assessment and restructuring of enterprises, business reorganization, strategic marketing, communication policy, creation and promotion of new brands, research of local and international markets, etc.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
K.Fund is a foundation of Vasyl Khmelnytsky, established to support projects in the field of education and economics. K.Fund’s mission is to provide the keys to development and implementation, provide opportunities to gain new knowledge and skills, promote discoveries and help reach a new level.
A group of investors plans to create the world’s first hotel fully prepared for e-sports events on the basis of Dnipro hotel in Kyiv, the co-founder of the Ukrainian multi-gaming e-sports organization Natus Vincere (NAVI), the founder of the DreamTeam gaming platform, Oleksandr Kokhanovsky, has said. “The victory in the auction for Dnipro hotel was won not by Russian oligarchs, but by Ukrainian IT specialists. We will turn it into the first hotel in the world fully prepared for e-sports events. It will include not only the attributes of a top hotel (restaurants, bars, SPA zones, and fitness centers), but also unique e-sports elements: training zones, an e-sports stage, special rooms for professional players, as well as the world’s best players’ lounge,” he said on Facebook.According to Kokhanovsky, a group of partners and investors will work on the project.
He also noted that a presentation of the Ukrainian Professional E-sport Association was scheduled for September, which plans to have a large infrastructure cybersport project.
“This is a whole ecosystem, which includes the creation of a modern multifunctional e-sports arena with all-Ukrainian and international tournaments, an e-sports academy, educational projects and an e-sports association uniting key market players who will develop the industry and help improve the legislative framework,” the founder of NAVI said.
He also thanked the State Property Fund for the professional and modern approach to organizing the auction for the sale of the hotel, saying that privatization in Ukraine has stepped to a qualitatively new level.
“Regarding the cost and terms, we will try to cope in one and a half or two years and invest about $20 million,” he said.
Final yield guidance for eurobonds maturing in 2033 being offered by Ukraine is approximately 7.3% per annum, a banking sector source told Interfax.Initial guidance was approximately 7.75%, then powered to approximately 7.3%.
The bid book is open with pricing expected later today. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are running the offering.
Ukraine International Airlines starts selling tickets for flights to the countries of the Adriatic coast.
Tickets are already available on the airline’s website from $250 in both directions, including hand luggage and one piece of baggage weighing up to 23 kg.
UIA plans to operate flights on the Kyiv-Tirana route from July 24 to September 11 on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“Today, Ukrainian tourists are allowed free entry to the territory of Albania, even without passing PCR test,” UIA noted.
UIA plans to operate flights on the route Kyiv-Tivat on Sundays from July 26 to October 4, and also on Thursdays from July 30 to September 17.
From July 30, 2020 to September 17, 2020, another flight will be added, which will be operated every Thursday at 12:10.
“From July 8, Ukrainian tourists can freely cross the borders of Montenegro without passing a PCR test,” the airline said.
UIA plans to carry out flights on the Kyiv-Split route on Saturdays from July 18 to September 26 this year.
“Today, tourists from Ukraine can cross the Croatian border without a 14-day self-isolation under several conditions: the availability of a negative PCR test, which was done no later than 48 hours, a booked package of services (flight, accommodation, insurance),” UIA noted.
