Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) stopped direct regular flights between Kyiv and Almaty (Kazakhstan) on October 27, 2019, the airline’s press service has said.
“The decision to stop flights was made in connection with the unprofitability of the flight, caused by the need to bypass the territory of the Russian Federation. The ban on using the airspace of the Russian Federation for Ukrainian carriers led to a significant increase in the duration of the Kyiv-Almaty flight from five hours 20 minutes to six hours 35 minutes and, accordingly, additional costs, which it is not possible to cover even taking into account the effect of transit traffic,” the airline said.
At the same time, UIA maintains a code sharing agreement with Air Astana on routes to Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) and Almaty. However, the company emphasizes that the schedule of code sharing flights between Kyiv and Almaty will allow retaining only part of transit capabilities, and the closure of its own flight violates the airline’s hub model and is a necessary measure designed to return the company to profitability.
“The decision is necessary and logical. It is connected with the difficulties in implementing the hub model that have been repeatedly voiced earlier. Losses exceeding $7 million do not allow us to continue operating a loss-making flight,” UIA President Yevhen Dykhne said.
In 2013-2019 UIA performed 2,120 flights on the Kyiv-Almaty-Kyiv route, carried 528,500 passengers and delivered 3,600 tonnes of cargo and mail, and also provided an additional transit flow of 380,000 passengers to Boryspil International Airport.
Estonia’s Skywalk Trading OÜ has asked Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada committee for energy and utilities Andriy Gerus and Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Maksym Nefyodov to interfere in the situation with locking a batch of diesel fuel made by Εlefsina refinery belonged to Hellenic Petroleum (Greece) at the Pivdenny seaport (earlier Yuzhny, Odesa region).
According to the text of Skywalk Trading’s letters to Gerus and Nefyodov, on August 25, 27,000 tonnes of diesel fuel was delivered to the seaport, which, after passing through all customs procedures, was shipped to port tanks in the customs warehouse mode. Later, on September 11, the State Customs Service of the State Fiscal Service (SFS) suspended the registering of fuel for analysis of sulfur content in it. On September 13, the company was refused to clear the batch due to exceeding the sulfur content requirement by 0.00001 percentage points.
So, according to the conclusion of the analysis of samples performed by the department of tax and customs examinations of the SFS, the sulfur content was 10.1 ppm (with a limit value of 10 ppm). This contradicts the quality certificate of the manufacturing refinery and the conclusions of international survey companies – Intertek, SGS and Saybolt. In accordance with their data obtained in the analysis of fuel during its discharge into tanks at the Pivdenny port, the sulfur content in the fuel varies between 9.4–9.6 ppm.
Despite the fact that the results of the analyzes of the SFS department contradict the manufacturer’s quality certificate and the conclusions of three international survey companies, and the recorded excess of the sulfur content is within the technical error of the device, the Energy Customs refused to re-analyze it and actually blocked 27,000 tonnes of fuel in reservoirs of the port,” the company said in the text of letters.
Skywalk Trading OÜ asked the officials, within their powers, to help resolve this situation, namely, to conduct a new sampling and research of diesel fuel from the Εlefsina refinery in any other state-owned laboratory with the involvement of international survey companies and any independent observers to ensure transparency and publicity of this process.
Imports of vegetables to Ukraine have significantly exceeded the figure of the previous record, which had been held for nine years, and in the 2018/2019 season (August-July) exceeded the previous record immediately by 27% and reached 264,100 tonnes.
According to the EastFruit information and analytical platform, in the 2009/2010 season, the import of vegetables to the country over the season exceeded 200,000 tonnes for the first time and amounted to 208,500 tonnes. Since then, the volume of imports of vegetables has not even approached the mark of 200,000 tonnes, but last season it exceeded the previous record by 27% at once.
“In 2018/2019, import volumes exceeded the previous season’s figure in natural terms by more than two times. Over the past two seasons, import volumes have more than tripled. In value terms, growth rates were slightly lower due to an increase in the volume of traditional inexpensive vegetables and potato in the import structure. In general, foreign suppliers of vegetables and potato earned $155 million in Ukraine over the season,” EastFruit noted.
According to the platform, the main items of vegetable imports to Ukraine in terms of value were tomatoes, onion, pepper, and cucumbers. In fact, Ukraine increased its imports of almost all positions of vegetables and potato, including salad crops and greens.
The Ukrainian government is planning to open European integration offices in all regions, as is evident from the government action program, whose text is published on the Verkhovna Rada website.
“The government will ensure the establishment of European integration offices in all regions of Ukraine, with the primary focus on the southern and eastern regions, to make European integration advantages closer to the people and businesses at the local level,” the document said.
It intends to attain this primarily through fostering cultural and educational projects, contacts, and also economy and infrastructure involving the EU’s investments and financial assistance, it said.
The government is confident that an emphasis on “regionalization of Euro-integration” would help direct extra resources to provinces so that their residents could feel immediate advantages from Ukraine’s course toward integration with the EU, the document said.
The Ukrainian legislation should adopt at least 80% of the EU acts envisioned by the Association Agreement.
“Among the results of these measures would be consistent growth in support from Ukrainian citizens of our country’s integration with Europe,” it said.
The government said it is determined to make dialogue with the EU instrumental in fostering “growth of direct investment in Ukraine from companies from the European Union and an increase in the EU’s financial assistance for Ukraine.”
The Cabinet of Ministers sets a goal of raising $50 billion of investment for GDP growth of 40% in five years in the government program, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said.
“We confirm that over the next five years (and we consider this situation realistic and aiming high with this ambition) we will come to a situation when our economy will grow by 40%. To do this, we need to attract somewhere $50 billion of investment,” he said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday, talking about the government’s program.
As reported, the State Statistics Service in 2018 substantially revised foreign direct investment (FDI) indicators in Ukraine in the form of equity capital: if at December 31, 2017 they amounted to $39.14 billion, then at January 1, 2018 – $31.59 billion. According to the statistics, FDI growth for the first half of 2019 amounted to $0.84 billion, compared with $0.69 billion in 2018 and $0.38 billion in 2017, while before that, three years FDI were reduced – totally by $22.47 billion.
In addition, according to Honcharuk, the government sets itself the task of creating 1 million jobs.
“We must create such conditions so that it would be comfortable for people to start a business, their own business, so that foreign companies would be interested in entering the country,” the prime minister said.
The government said in the program, posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada on Monday, that the government intends to distribute new budget revenues according to the 70/30 principle, “where 70% will be invested in economic development, 30% will be spent on social security.”
“To simplify the calculations, we proceed from the fact that 1% of inclusive economic growth gives us about UAH 15 billion of revenue to the national budget,” the government said in the document.
In the opening statement of the program, bringing of all the main roads into good condition (24,000 km), the active development of the railway and the construction of five deep-sea ports and 15 airports are listed among the main plans.
Lviv Tech Angels, an investment fund supporting startups, has 10 potential investors and could sign the first deal with a startup at the early stage by the end of 2019, President of Lviv Tech Angels Michael Puzrakov has said.
“At the moment there are ten members of this club, ten potential investors. Now we are in search of a manager who would take up organizational work. When we hire a manager we will select startups,” Puzrakov told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Lviv IT Arena forum.
According to him, the first investment of the fund is possible before the end of this year, although the fund does not have a specific plan.
Angels’ money (investing in a startup at an early stage in exchange for a company share) in startups comes from IT, from other successful startups, that is, those who have brought their companies to a profitable level and have free funds. They can evaluate the quality and prospects of startups and help them,” Puzrakov said.
Lviv Tech Angels investment fund was launched in June this year as part of Lviv IT Cluster, the union of IT companies.
INVESTMENT DEALS, INVESTMENT FUND, LVIV TECH ANGELS, SUPPORTING STARTUPS
