The Kyiv international airport (Zhuliany) serviced 130,800 passengers in February 2018, which is 51.6% more than in February 2017, the airport’s press service has reported.
The press service said that the number of passengers on international flights was 124,900 and on domestic flights – 5,900.
The number of flights in February 2018 was 1,648, which is 20.5% more than a year ago, including 1,356 international flights and 292 domestic flights.
The most popular international destinations in February-2018 remained similar to January: Dubai (the UAE), Minsk (Belarus), Ankara (Turkey), Budapest (Hungary), Warsaw (Poland), Memmingen (Germany), Rome (Italy); and domestic – Odesa, Zaporizhia and Lviv.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environmental Partnership E5P have signed two donor agreements totaling EUR 16.4 million to support higher education and municipal infrastructure in Ukraine.
“This assistance will be used to upgrade educational institutions. The facades [of their buildings], ventilation, heating and lighting systems will be modernized … The second agreement concerns the heating system in Kryvy Rih: meters will be installed at the consumers’ level,” EIB Vice President Vazil Hudak said at an official event to sign the agreements in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Under the project, EUR 10 million will be spent on measures to improve energy efficiency in seven universities in Ukraine, and EUR 6.4 million will be allocated for upgrading Kryvy Rih’s heating supply systems.
E5P is a multi-donor fund supporting municipal investments in energy efficiency and environmental projects in the Eastern Partnership countries, namely Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The big three of Ukrainian mobile operators predicts that the 4G communications technology for the 1800 MHz band could be launched in July 2018, representatives of all three mobile operators told reporters after an auction held on Tuesday.
CEO of mobile operator lifecell Ismet Yazici said that his operator is ready to launch 4G communications in July, as soon as conversion of radio frequencies is finished.
“We will launch in the 1800 MHz band in July. Nobody has the right to launch it until July. Everyone should start simultaneously. Now it will be a frequency exchange. This is a difficult and complicated operation. I’m not even sure that Ukraine had precedents of such a grand exchange frequencies,” Kyivstar President Peter Chernyshov said.
He said that from the point of view of infrastructure, Kyivstar has everything ready to launch 4G in the1800 MHz frequency band.
CEO of Vodafone Ukraine Olha Ustinova also said that the network of her operator is ready for the launch of 4G communication.
“I predict that in the 2600 MHz band we will launch it at the end of March, if nothing happens. In the 1800 MHz band – early July,” she said.
Previously, all operators had forecasted that 4G communications would be launched late March or early April.
Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers must undergo prequalification of the WHO (World Health Organization) to participate in international tenders, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director in Ukraine Janthomas Hiemstra has said.
“Ukrainian companies will have to compete at the international level. Now Ukrainian companies will have to upgrade their standards to international standards, which means they can compete not only at our standards, they can compete internationally. They can start exporting. That’s, actually, very good news for Ukrainian companies – to live up to international standards and start producing for the rest of the world as well,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Hiemstra noted that in tenders held by international organizations, in particular, UNDP, “Ukrainian producers have to compete at the international level as well.”
Some foreign medicines are cheaper than Ukrainian ones, but in this case international confirmation of quality is very important. In the world, the standards of the World Health Organization (the so-called prequalification) have been developed, but Ukrainian producers have not been able yet to adopt these standards, he said.
“For the last 20-30 years Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies were mostly producing for Ukraine. So they didn’t have to live up to international standards,” he added.
The Lviv international airport increased passenger flow by almost 50% in February 2018, to 71,000 people. “Based on the results of the activities of the state-owned enterprise Lviv International Airport, in February 2018, 71,000 passengers took advantage of air transportation, which is 47.9% more than in February 2017 (48,000 passengers) .The number of flights made is 868, which is 37.1% more than during the same period last year (633),” the airport reported on its Facebook page on Monday.
In January-February 2018, passenger traffic grew by 47% compared to the same period last year (106,500 passengers) and reached 156,600 passengers. The number of flights increased 38.1%, from 1,348 to 1,861
The establishment of the national procurement agency in Ukraine is a lengthy process and can take up to five years, UNDP Country Director in Ukraine Janthomas Hiemstra has stated. “A very good work has been done so far supported by many knowledgeable and international support agencies. And the trouble with establishing a brand new agency is that, I mean anywhere in the world, this takes something between two and five years because … [there are] so many complications. So that is a long-term process. And I don’t think this can be done any faster in Ukraine,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the expert, UNDP together with the Ministry of Health started working on the creation of the national procurement agency in 2017.
At the same time, he noted UNDP and the Ministry of Health discussed the situation that the national procurement agency won’t be created, because, according to the legislation, 2018 is the last year when international organizations purchase drugs, but he did not specify the results of this discussion. “The particularly tricky thing with establishing this agency is that it will need to be a Ukrainian agency … [and] the systems, the organization and the people … need to be very strong against corruption,” he added.
