Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

VASYL KHMELNYTSKY’S K.FUND OPENS IT SCHOOL UNIT FACTORY IN KHARKIV

Vasyl Khmelnytsky’s K.Fund is about to open UNIT Factory, a school for programmers in Kharkiv, K.Fund’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
K.Fund notes that UNIT Factory will prepare programmers using its own ucode curriculum, one of the key features of which is the challenge-based learning methods, that is, solving real-life problems for obtaining applied knowledge.
“This methodology was initiated by Apple and is used in the Apple Developer Academy where students not only learn how to write code, but also create ready-to-market products,” it said.
In addition, it indicates that in the new UNIT Factory campus in Kharkiv, students will be able to master such programming languages and technologies as C, C++, Web (HTML, CSS, JS, PHP) and Java. Duration of training is from one to two years (depending on the progress of a student).
Participants for the UNIT Factory program will be qualified through a so-called marathon, which will last about a month and will start on September 30, 2019 (in total, three marathons are planned this year), K.Fund said.
Training will begin in the middle of January 2020 and will cost UAH 15,000 per calendar year. Any person who is 17 or older can register for the qualification stage.
“We are pleased with the success of UNIT Factory and expand it by introducing new educational practices. For two years, we have been investing in the development of ucode, the program built on Challenge-Based Learning meeting the requirements of the modern world. We want our talented youth to have access to high-quality, up-to-date IT education and find a well-paid job here in Ukraine,” Vasyl Khmelnytsky, Founder of UFuture Investment Group, said.
K.Fund was founded by Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky in 2015 to support projects in the field of education and economics.
UNIT Factory is a project of K.Fund, founded by Vasyl Khmelnytsky, and supported by a non-profit public organization, Osvіtorіa. Its mission is to promote Ukraine’s innovative development through training of IT professionals.

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NBU SAYS UKRAINE COULD ISSUE $1 BLN EUROBONDS

The updated macro-forecast of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) assumes receiving $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility, as well as the issue of eurobonds worth $1 billion, deputy governor of the NBU Dmytro Sologub has said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“We expect that in the fourth quarter the new program is likely to start with the IMF, and Ukraine will receive $2 billion. And we also expect $2 billion in each of the next years as part of the new structural financing program,” he said.
Sologub stressed that such an assessment is an expert commentary. According to him, if the funds arrive a little earlier or a little later, it will not have a significant impact on other macroeconomic parameters, except for international reserves.
The banker also estimated, based on the example of other countries and the size of Ukraine’s quota in the IMF, that the size of the new program could be in the range of $5-10 billion for a period of 36 to 48 months.
“We have no insight, this is our expert assessment,” he said.
Sologub also said that the National Bank laid down in its forecast another entry of Ukraine to foreign markets with eurobonds in the amount of about $1 billion as its expert assessment.

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NBU FORESEES $2 BLN FROM IMF IN Q4, 2019 UNDER NEW PROGRAM

The updated macro-forecast of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) assumes receiving $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility, deputy governor of the NBU Dmytro Sologub has said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“We expect that in the fourth quarter the new program is likely to start with the IMF, and Ukraine will receive $2 billion. And we also expect $2 billion in each of the next years as part of the new structural financing program,” he said.
Sologub stressed that such an assessment is an expert commentary. According to him, if the funds arrive a little earlier or a little later, it will not have a significant impact on other macroeconomic parameters, except for international reserves.
The banker also estimated, based on the example of other countries and the size of Ukraine’s quota in the IMF, that the size of the new program could be in the range of $5-10 billion for a period of 36 to 48 months.
“We have no insight, this is our expert assessment,” he said.
Sologub also said that the National Bank laid down in its forecast another entry of Ukraine to foreign markets with eurobonds in the amount of about $1 billion as its expert assessment.

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RIVNE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT REDUCES OUTPUT OF REACTOR NO. 1 TO 50%

The Rivne nuclear power plant on July 18 reduced the output of its power unit No.1 (VVER-440) to 50%, having disconnected the TG-2 turbo generator at 05:26 a.m. Kyiv time on Thursday, July 18, after the leakiness of the condensate electric pump line of a turbine unit had been revealed, National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom’s press service said.
The causes of the incident are being checked. The TG-2 turbo generator is to be put into operation before 02:00 p.m. on the same day.
Energoatom said the incident is rated as “zero,” according to the INES nuclear event assessment scale, or “out-of-scale.”
Thus, as of Thursday morning, 10 of the 15 power units of four operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants were in operation.

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LEMTRANS REDUCES FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION BY ALMOST 4% IN H1

In January-June 2019, the transport and forwarding company Lemtrans transported 24.85 million tonnes of various types of freight, which is 3.94% down on the same period of 2018.
In the six months of 2019, coal and iron ore accounted for the bulk of loading, totalling 10.44 million tonnes (9.93 million tonnes in January-June 2018) and 8.15 million tonnes (8.68 million tonnes in January-June 2018), respectively, the company’s press service said.
Volumes of transportation of ferrous metals in the first half amounted to 3.83 million tonnes (3.62 million tonnes in January-June 2018), shipments of fluxing materials totaled 1.12 million tonnes (1.60 million tonnes in January-June 2018), and those of coke 0.99 million tonnes (1.54 million tonnes in January-June 2018).
The company notes that the observed decline is due primarily to an increase in the turn-around of railway cars and a fall in the average speed of trains (Lemtrans’s turn-around period in the first half of 2018 was 7.8 days, it grew to 8.9 days in the first six months of 2019, which is an increase by 1.1 days, or 14%).
“The surplus of the railway car fleet, associated with excessive purchases of cars by market participants in 2018-2019, which were related to problems with railway equipment, is coupled with the lack of locomotives. In general, the approach to solving problems should be comprehensive. And the first step is the adoption of a new law on railway transport,” the press service quoted Lemtrans CEO Volodymyr Mezentsev as saying.
The SCM Group owns 100% of Lemtrans’s charter capital.

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PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY URGES FOREIGNERS TO INVEST IN UKRAINE

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to foreign investors to invest in Ukraine.Zelensky posted the corresponding video on his Facebook page on Thursday.
So, Zelensky said that it is necessary to carry out a series of reforms that would contribute to the economic growth of the country.
“We need to change a lot here: fire non-professionals and hire professionals, deregulate industries, simplify rules, improve the infrastructure and many other things. As you know, changes take time … I invite you, investors, from any part of the world to join the opportunity,” Zelensky addressed investors in the English language.

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