The share of IT industry of the Ukrainian economy is 4% of GDP, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“Today, the IT sector is 4% of GDP, 150,000 employees with high wages, who form the middle class. In a year and a half they will already be 200,000,” he said at a government meeting on Wednesday.
Kubiv also said that the government intends to support investments in innovations in such areas as the agricultural and industrial complex, the IT industry, aircraft manufacturing, tourism, infrastructure and other sectors.
“Together with the National Bank, we must form the best prerequisites for creating financial projects that will create new high-paying jobs,” Kubiv said.
Turkish Airlines in 2018 serviced over 800,000 passengers of own flights to/from Ukraine, which is 28% more than in 2017.
General Manager of the airline Dincer Sayici said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday that the number of transit passengers on international flights increased 25%. The total number of passengers traveling to/from Ukraine increased 14%.
The load factor for flights to and from Ukraine was 71%.
The most popular destinations are Istanbul, Phuket, Guangzhou, Antalya, Miami, Beijing, Maldives, New York and Barcelona.
“The freight traffic of the airline from Ukraine increased by 16% for exports, by 23% for imports compared with the figure for 2017,” Sayici said, without giving absolute figures.
According to him, Ukraine in 2018 took the seventh place in the number of tourists visiting Turkey, showing an increase of this flow by 10%.
In general, Turkish Airlines in 2018 increased the number of passengers carried by 10% compared with 2017, to 75.2 million people. The load factor rose by 1.1 percentage points, to 80.2%. For the year, the airline operated flights to 124 countries in 306 destinations.
Ukraine in 2018 exported grain for $7.2 billion, hitting the record, the press service of the Institute of Agrarian Economics national research center has reported.
According to the Institute of Agrarian Economics, grain exports in kind fell by 0.4% in 2018 compared with 2018, to 41.7 million tonnes, and the record revenue is linked to growth of grain prices.
The volume of wheat and barley exports in 2018 fell compared with 2017 to 16.4 million tonnes and 3.6 million tonnes respectively.
At the same time, according to the institute, in 2018, corn exports exceeded the figure for 2017 by 10%, amounting to 21.4 million tonnes. Export of rye also increased fourfold, but its volumes still remain insignificant – about 100,000 tonnes.
According to the Institute of Agrarian Economics, the countries of Asia, Europe and Africa remain the largest buyers of Ukrainian grain. Egypt is the leader with a share of 9.2%, but in 2018 it reduced purchases of Ukrainian grain to $666 million (a fall of 20%).
Spain ranked second for the second year in a row (8.9%), which in 2018 increased the volume of grain purchases to $643 million (a rise of 35%). The top buyers of Ukrainian grain are the following: the Netherlands ($556 million), China ($552 million), Indonesia ($487 million), Saudi Arabia ($449 million), Italy ($336 million), Philippines ($316 million), Tunisia ($290 million), Morocco ($263 million), and Libya ($248 million). In total, these 11 countries formed two thirds of the value of all purchases of grain products, the Institute of Agrarian Economics reported.
The UkraineInvest Office at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is currently accompanying investment in Ukraine in the amount of around $2 billion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said. “Our UkraineInvest Office is accompanying around $2 billion of investment. It is extremely important that these are real projects being implemented or that will be implemented in Ukraine and new jobs will be created,” he said at a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The UkraineInvest Office was created on October 19, 2016 aiming at boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) thanks to cooperation with investors, who want to enter the Ukrainian market. Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) finances the UkraineInvest Office.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) 410 Civil Aviation Plant has started providing Boeing aircraft repair and maintenance services. “The company has already begun to develop services for the repair and maintenance of Boeing aircraft, conducting joint work on these aircraft with Concorde Aerotechnica,” the press service of the enterprise said on the website of 410 Civil Aviation Plant.
According to the press service, currently there are two Boeing 737-500 planes in the workshops of the aircraft repair plant, where maintenance and painting works are being carried out.
“Upon the completion of the training and certification phase of production, the company will be able to significantly expand its capabilities by independently performing maintenance work on modern aviation technology as a full player in the international market,” the enterprise said.
The 410 Civil Aviation Plant is the sole enterprise in Ukraine that repairs Antonov aircraft and D-36 engines. Since June 2015, the enterprise has been part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern. In July 2015, the enterprise was certified its compliance with NATO standards.
Kyivstar mobile communications operator is launching the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB IoT) network in the 1800 MHz frequency band (Band 3), the press service of the operator has told Interfax-Ukraine. The operator tested the NB IoT networks designed for smart devices in December 2018 and early 2019 in its laboratory using gas and water meters.
“Successful testing of the network allowed us to scale up the project and begin its implementation at client locations. In particular, the operator’s business clients in Kyiv and Odesa regions have already joined the network for testing it at their enterprises,” the company said.
The company plans to launch the NB IoT network for customers all over Ukraine, who can order both connection to the NB IoT network, “smart” devices and software for monitoring and control.
NB IoT is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP to enable a wide range of cellular devices and services. The technology provides an environment for collecting data from various types of equipment: sensors, meters, and others; and provides two-way communication of devices operating in a 200 kHz frequency band. The data transfer rate in NB IoT is up to 200 kbps, which is sufficient for devices that periodically transmit small data of the same type.
