U.S. Senator Robert Portman believes that Ukraine needs to achieve greater progress in implementing anti-corruption reforms and continue to implement economic reforms. It is necessary to achieve greater progress in anti-corruption reforms, in particular, with respect to the Anti-Corruption Court, he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
The senator also stressed that economic reforms should continue. We see a lot of opportunities for the development of our business in Ukraine and for investment, as Ukraine is heavily under-invested … Still much ahead in the issue of achieving transparency of the government, the rule of law, justice, etc., the senator said.
According to him, Ukraine’s way to NATO membership also consists in carrying out reforms. The policy of procurement, especially in the military sector, has become much more transparent … There is much that depends on the progress of reforms and it is in the interests of the Ukrainian people to continue working, the U.S. senator added.
The Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine has drawn up the updated national construction requirements allowing the placement of pre-school educational centers on the first two floors of residential high-rise buildings. “We want to expand opportunities for kindergartens located in residential buildings. We previously built kindergartens attached to buildings. Now we divided them into groups: if the children stay in the kindergarten until 16:00, they can be located in buildings, the same requirements apply to kindergartens with up to 80 children. Kindergartens 120 children can be located in attached premises, and maybe later we can expand these requirements to 160 children,” the press service of Deputy Minister Lev Partskhaladze said, citing him.
“In many cases, especially in the central districts of large cities, there is not even enough space to place a new separate preschool educational institution. The ability to design small kindergartens in residential buildings or attached to them will significantly reduce this disparity and provide residents with the necessary social infrastructure, where there is no possibility to build separate preschool educational institutions,” Partskhaladze said.
TIS Port (the stevedoring company operating in Yuzhny port, Odesa region) allows participation in the concession of Yuzhny port if the necessary law is adopted. “Yes, it is quite possible that it will be Yuzhny port,” co-owner and CEO of TIS Andriy Stavnitser said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. Speaking about smaller ports, he noted that, in his opinion, Ukraine does not need as many ports, and some of them can be closed, and some can be reformatted.
“Kherson, Izmail, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky – there could be tourist zones, yacht clubs there, for example, which would bring revenues but not losses to the state,” Stavnitser said.
Asked about the considerations on the basis of which Kherson and Olvia ports were made pilot for concession, he noted that it is probably more visible for the Ministry of Infrastructure, but stressed that TIS won’t participate in any of these concessions.
“Not because we are so big, deep-water and do not notice anything else around. There are simply ports whose maintenance costs the state more than profits from them,” Stavnitser summed up. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis bill No. 8125 on concession.
Freight handling at Ukrainian seaports in January-March 2018 totaled 32.8 million tonnes, which is 1.1% more than a year ago, according to tentative data from the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority. According to its data, the volume of transshipment of imported cargo increased by 30% and amounted to 5.6 million tonnes. Handling of imported coal grew by 24.1%, to 1.4 million tonnes, ores by 20.7%, to 1.9 million tonnes, crude oil transshipment grew by 51%, to 544,000 tonnes.
The volume of transshipment of exported cargo decreased 7.4%, to 23.8 million tonnes. Handling of exported ferrous metals grew by 17%, to 4.2 million tonnes.
Handling of transit freights rose by 38.4%, to 3.2 million tonnes.
In general, the seaports of Ukraine processed 2,853 vessels in January-March 2018, which is 345 vessels, or 9.7% more compared to the same period in 2017.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said that the city authorities are preparing to open several updated tourist sites in 2018 that will help attract more tourists in Kyiv, Kyiv City State Administration’s (KCSA) press service reported on March 31.
“The Champions League final will be held on May 26. We are expecting many tourists. Our goal is to make sure that each of them, upon return home, could tell about the wonderful city of Kyiv. The tourism industry is one of the profitable articles of each city. In the past year, our capital was visited by one-and-a-half million tourists. This year we expect two-and-a-half million guests. I am convinced that Kyiv has great tourist potential, and we are developing it. This year, we will renew St. Volodymyr Hill, the Alley of Artists, and the Landscape Alley. We will soon open very beautiful stairs from the Landscape Alley to the Honchari-Kozhumiaky natural landmark. We will develop the territory around St. Andrew’s Church,” Klitschko said.
According to him, each tourist spends an average of $150 a day in Kyiv, which also invests in the capital’s economy.
According to the report, many guests will come to the city this autumn, when Kyiv hosts the 56th Congress of the World Boxing Council (WBC). Such a great boxing event in Ukraine will be held for the first time.
