Some UAH 100 million has been invested in the reconstruction of the Central Bus Station, Maksym Skliarenko, the director of Ukrpas, said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, a food court, a shopping area, a pharmacy will be located on the first floor of the renovated Central Bus Station, and a food court, cash desks and a waiting area for passengers on the second floor.
“All tenants will go out for repairs after the completion of the reconstruction of the station itself. On the third floor there is already a hotel with three categories of rooms – from a hostel with a place for UAH 450 to superior rooms for UAH 1,500 per day,” Skliarenko said.
As reported, the State Property Fund of Ukraine in the spring of 2020 sold at an auction a state package in the amount of 99.9% of the charter capital of Kyivpasservice. The starting price of the lot was UAH 195.9 million. The winner of the auction was Bastion Group LLC with an offer of UAH 230.89 million.
Kyivpasservice includes the Central Bus Station, the bus stations Podil, Darnytsia, Polissia, Pivdenna, Dachna in Kyiv, as well as 18 bus stations in Kyiv region.
The condition for the privatization of Kyivpasservice is that the investor retains the activities of bus stations in Kyiv for at least five years, in Kyiv region – for at least 15 years.
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of july 20
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 20/07/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
The Health Ministry of Ukraine proposes to oblige all unvaccinated persons entering Ukraine to go through 14 days of self-isolation or 7 days if after this period they receive a negative PCR test, the President’s Office has said following the results of a traditional weekly teleconference held on Monday.
“The Ministry of Health proposes to strengthen control when crossing the state border in connection with the increase in the incidence of COVID-19 in certain regions of the world and Europe, in particular due to the Delta strain,” it stressed.
The report says that only Ukrainians under 18 years of age and persons who left the country before this requirement came into force are proposed to be released from this obligation.
In addition, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal pointed out the need to create vaccination points at border checkpoints so that everyone can be vaccinated.
Health Minister Viktor Liashko said that over the past week, for the first time in several months, the number of newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients increased – up to 3,460, which is 253 more than a week earlier.
As reported, at present, foreigners who arrive in Ukraine (regardless of which country) need to have a negative PCR result or express test conducted no more than 72 hours before crossing the border, or a document confirming that they have received a full course of vaccination against COVID-19 with vaccines included by the WHO on the list of approved for use in emergencies.
At the beginning of 2021, the number of regular Internet buyers increased to 42%, while in the third quarter of 2020 their number was 33%, according to the analytics of the online platform OLX.
According to the OLX press service, about 11 million people in the country buy online. The most common categories for them remain clothing, appliances and cosmetics. At the same time, in April-May 2021, from 5 to 20 purchases were made by almost 60% of online shoppers, while in the fall of 2020 – every second.
According to the OLX analytics, the core of consumers (56%) is concentrated in settlements with up to 100,000 inhabitants. Among all online shoppers, 55% are women and 45% are men. Most often they have complete higher education and work. The income of Ukrainians who shop online is 38% higher than that of those who choose offline, OLX analysts say.
Among the barriers to shopping on the Internet on local platforms, Ukrainians name the need to try on, the lack of a need for a product and confidence in its quality. If to talk about orders in social networks, mistrust is added to these reasons.
According to the service OLX Delivery, electronics became the most popular among buyers from November to April. Sales in this category for the six months increased by 40%, and this is 635,000 orders. Clothing was in second place in terms of the number of transactions – 441,000. Sales of children’s goods increased by 84% (almost 378,000 orders). In addition, the purchasing activity of goods for leisure, hobby and sports increased by 55%, and goods for home and garden by 75%.
At the same time, OLX notes that despite the growth of online orders, the expenses of Ukrainians remained at the same level as in the period from May to October 2020. The average bill has hardly changed: electronics – UAH 1,587, clothes – UAH 671, baby products – UAH 552, hobby, recreation and sports – UAH 814, home and garden – UAH 754, spare parts for transport – UAH 775.
According to the study, the most popular way to get a purchase is pickup from the post office: in 87% of cases it was Nova Poshta, another 25% took the order through Ukrposhta.
OLX notes that Ukrainians make purchases using a smartphone in 71% of cases, a laptop in 42% of cases.
Metinvest, an international vertically integrated group of mining and metals companies, signed a memorandum of cooperation with K1-MET, a leading Austrian research center in metallurgy, to implement joint projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the steel industry in line with the European Green Deal.
As part of its long-term vision to develop emissions-free steelmaking, Metinvest plans to increase the sustainability of its production facilities and is interested in gaining experience of leading technologies aimed at reducing environmental footprint. Meanwhile, К1-МЕТ has profound experience and expertise regarding the implementation of research and development projects focusing on energy efficiency, the circular economy, carbon capture, storage and usage, climate-neutral metal production and other related areas in collaboration with leading industrial players, research organizations and institutes.
Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest, pointed to the group’s awareness of the urgent need to reduce the negative impact of metallurgical production on the environment.
“Metinvest is constantly looking at various technological solutions to reduce its emissions today and in the future. The partnership with K1-MET represents an important part of a comprehensive approach to decarbonizing the steel industry in the long run, and we will continue to actively explore this and other areas,” he said.
In turn, Thomas Buergler, CEO of K1-MET, said that the decision of the 2015 climate conference in Paris to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 compared with the pre-industrial period, and the EU Green Deal 2019, which aims to make Europe a carbon-neutral continent in 2050, highlight great challenges for resource-intensive industry.
“The focus of the research and development programme at the K1-MET metallurgical competence centre is aligned with the climate targets, sustainable development goals and needs of our industrial partners,” the General Director said.
The projects combine carbon-neutral technologies, the circular economy and digitalization for sustainable steelmaking. Strategic research will also be increasingly considered to gain a deeper understanding of process flows. At K1-MET, the interaction of industrial and scientific partners helps to ensure that results from applied research can be transferred to industrial applications. The partnership with Metinvest based on the memorandum signed sets the course for this.
K1-MET (Austria) is one of the leading and internationally renowned metallurgical competence centres for ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. It cooperates with established national and international partners from the sector to cover issues such as energy efficiency, the circular economy and carbon-neutral metal production. K1-MET and its partners are working on process solutions to advance the transformation of the European metallurgical industry.
AUSTRIAN RESEARCH CENTER, CARBON FOOTPRINT, COOPERATION, METINVEST
