National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 24/10/19
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of October 24
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
In November, the German-Ukrainian Fund (GUF) will present a new FinancEast program to support micro–, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the government-controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, under which it is planned to reimburse up to 50% of the cost of investment projects of enterprises, GUF Executive Director Valeriy Mayboroda has said.
“This program is also co-financed by the EU and its amount is EUR9.5 million,” Country Manager to Ukraine of the KfW Development Bank Kurt Strasser said at a GUF press event in Kyiv on Wednesday.
According to him, these will be subsidies to help medium- and small-sized enterprises that lack access to money over the difficult economic situation, as well as those who are located in the Donbas region.
The FinancEast program is co-financed by the EU through KfW, the GUF Executive Director said.
“The stage of the finalization of contracts and operational guidelines is nearing completion, and from November we will begin the active phase of its implementation,” Mayboroda said.
FinancEast materials indicate that investment projects for MSMEs are medium- and long-term ones for more than 12 months that are related to the purchase, modernization or reconstruction of fixed assets. Under an investment project, financing of current assets up to 20% of its value is allowed.
In 2019, the assets of a current program for lending SMEs in the national currency, which is designed until 2030, grew to EUR14.7 million, or 47%, since the launch of the project in 2017. This program is implemented by the GUF and financed by KfW and the EU.
Since the beginning of the project, 217 enterprises have been funded for a total of about UAH 710 million with an initial budget of the program being UAH 370 million. The average rate is 15.5% per annum. According to Mayboroda, the financial resource of the program was used twice due to the reuse of returned loans.
Partners under the GUF’s program are Kredobank, Ukrgasbank, ProCredit Bank and Bank Lviv. The GUF’s Executive Director said that negotiations with CreditWest Bank were also ongoing on its joining the program.
Azur Air Ukraine, together with the tour operator ANEX Tour, launches direct charter flights from Kyiv to the Republic of Cuba (the resort city of Varadero) from October 25, 2019 until the end of April 2020.
This was reported by representatives of the airline, the tour operator and the embassy of the Republic of Cuba at a press conference in Kyiv.
According to ANEX Tour Operations Director Iryna Ohanezova, flights will be operated every ten days.
“All full vacation packages are on our website. Each tour package includes a flight, an insurance policy, a hotel, transfer. In addition to a standard vacation in Varadero, we also offer tours with several days in Havana,” she said.
According to participants in the press conference, the embassy of the Republic of Cuba was the initiator of launching direct flights.
“We have been working on the opening of direct flights from Ukraine for a long time. This issue was resolved in different ways. Finally, all efforts were united, and this idea became a reality,” Acting Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba Natacha Diaz Aguilera said.
Azur Air Ukraine began its operations in 2009. The company is based at Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv region), however, it offers flights from the regions: Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Lviv, and Odesa. Currently, the company operates only charter flights.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his working visit to Japan met with top managers of the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) and said that the IT sector is one of the most dynamically developing in Ukraine. Zelensky also shared plans to develop it.
“We plan to develop innovative infrastructure by opening business incubators, accelerators and innovative platforms, opening landmark R&D centers of global corporations, creating innovative or startup platforms in higher education institutions,” the press service of the Office of the President said on Wednesday morning, citing Zelensky.
According to the report, Japanese businessmen became interested in the State in the Smartphone project. Zelensky said that the digitalization reform is under his personal control.
The head of state also announced Ukraine’s desire to create a competitive IT product.
“In the Western world, our IT specialists are perceived as cheap labor. It is important for us to change this. We want to create IT products and sell them in the world,” he said.
Representatives of the association told the President of Ukraine about examples of successful innovative projects for the use of artificial intelligence in Japan, which have already proved their effectiveness in various fields of life. It is about tourism, entertainment and cybersecurity.
Ireland’s low cost Ryanair to launch flights from Kherson to Vienna
Ireland’s low cost airline Ryanair (Dublin) from March 30, 2020 will launch direct flights from Kherson to Vienna (Austria).
In the airline’s booking system, the start of flights is announced on March 30.
Kherson-Vienna flights will be operated twice a week – on Mondays, departure from Kherson at 18:15 and on Fridays with departure at 21:50.
Travel time is 2 hours and 5 minutes.
The flights will be served by subsidiary of Ryanair – Lauda (formerly Laudamotion).
As reported, earlier Ryanair announced the start of flights from Kherson to Krakow (Poland).
Kherson became the fifth city in Ukraine, where the Irish low-cost airline operates.
In 2020, Ryanair intends to increase passenger traffic on Ukrainian flights by 33% to more than 2.1 million people.
