Financing state budget deficit, bln UAH
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Kyivstar, a leading mobile operator in Ukraine, is investing UAH 5.8 million in an educational initiative to help children who lost one or both parents during the war. The project aims to provide IT education and the necessary technical devices for more than 340 boys and girls in high school.
The mobile operator is joining forces with GoITeens, an online IT academy for children and teenagers, and dobro.ua, a charity platform, to launch an educational initiative aimed at supporting high school students who are wards of the Children of Heroes charity foundation, which takes care of more than 7,000 children who lost their parents due to the war.
“The IT industry in Ukraine has demonstrated incredible growth, and we at Kyivstar feel it is our duty to help develop the potential of our children. This is especially important for those who lost their parents during the war. Our investment in education and development of digital infrastructure is a reflection of the company’s social responsibility and contribution to creating a progressive future for Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Komarov, President of Kyivstar.
The GoITeens educational program embodies a project-based approach that will not only allow young people to successfully work as freelancers or in IT companies, but also to found their own technology startups before they start university. Kyivstar, emphasizing the importance of access to modern technologies in the educational process, partially provides children in need with laptops. This allows them not only to actively participate in real projects that meet the requirements of the modern IT market, but also provides them with practical skills and valuable experience that is the foundation for a future career in the industry.
“Our goal to provide quality education requires considerable effort and investment: in teachers, materials, and infrastructure. We are grateful to Kyivstar for supporting this important initiative, as 340 Ukrainian children will receive up-to-date IT education and the opportunity to create their own success story. This is a great contribution to the upbringing of children whose parents were killed by the enemy for our independence,” said Vyacheslav Polinovsky, CEO of GoITeens, an online IT academy for children.
The charity platform dobro.ua has created a project so that anyone who wants to help teenagers get an IT education can join and contribute to their education and the future of Ukraine.
“Educational projects are always in the focus of our platform. Education is the best investment a society can make in its future. Children who lost their parents during the war need deeper care and support. We will never be able to bring back their loved ones, but we can try to prepare them for adulthood, where they will be in demand as specialists,” emphasized Iryna Hutsal, director of the charity platform dobro.ua.
Kyivstar together with its partners calls on the community to join the initiative and train more children who lost one or both parents during the war. Our goal is to raise UAH 1.2 million and teach 500 children together.
Let’s teach our children because we live here!
About Kyivstar
Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest electronic communications operator, serving 24 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers as of September 2023. The company provides services using a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G, Big Data, Cloud solutions, cybersecurity services, digital TV, etc. Kyivstar helps subscribers, society and the country to overcome the challenges of wartime. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the company has allocated UAH 1.8 billion to support the Armed Forces, society and subscribers. Kyivstar’s sole shareholder is the international VEON Group. The Group’s shares are listed on NASDAQ (New York) and Euronext (Amsterdam). Kyivstar has been operating in Ukraine for 25 years and is recognized as the largest taxpayer in the telecom market, the best employer and a socially responsible company.
For more information: pr@kyivstar.net, www.kyivstar.ua
About GoITeens
GoITeens is an online IT academy for children and teenagers aged 7 to 17. It is a Ukrainian product-based EdTech company that is a part of the EdTech company GoIT. For 8 years of its existence, it has provided additional IT education to more than 50 thousand children and teenagers. It teaches digital professions from Digital Design to Python developers. Winner of the Ukrainian Business Award 2023 in the category of educational services. Author of free patriotic charity marathons. For the project “Building the Ukraine of the Future in Roblox”, she received the X-RAY award in the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence nomination.
About dobro.ua
The dobro.ua charity platform is the first Ukrainian platform of kindness, a fundraising platform where you can quickly and efficiently raise funds for charitable and social projects of any kind. The platform is powered by the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace, a foundation that has raised more than UAH 704,000,000 for charity over 12 years, supported more than 7,800 projects, and won all national awards in the field of charity.
Meest China, an international postal and logistics company that is part of the Meest holding, has announced the start of operations on another continent. It is about the delivery of goods from China to African countries, in particular to South Africa and Nigeria. Currently, air delivery of goods from popular Chinese marketplaces such as Taobao, 1688 and Pinduoduo is available.
Delivery from China to African countries takes 9-12 days. Additional services are also available to customers, such as cargo insurance, parcel consolidation, thorough inspection, photo report, and photo fixation in the warehouse.
“Each new country is a new challenge for us, and here is a whole new continent. We have been preparing for the launch for more than a year, assembled a powerful team for this area, so we are waiting for good news from sunny Africa and rapid development,” said Mykhailo Lymar, CEO and Managing Partner of Meest China.
We remind you that Meest China delivers cargo from China to Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Chile, Mexico and more than two dozen other countries. Over the past few months, the company has also launched deliveries to Ukraine from Japan and South Korea.
About the company
Meest China has been operating since 2014 and is currently the leader in delivery from China to Ukraine. The company specializes in the delivery of goods from China in the format of duty-free postal parcels for personal use, as well as the delivery of commercial goods for business clients. The company has representative offices in China, Uzbekistan, Poland, and Ukraine and its own warehouses in Ukraine and China. Currently, the company delivers cargo from China to about 30 countries, from Korea and Japan to Ukraine, and provides freight services for delivery around the world.
The company has 100% Ukrainian roots and has been actively helping the military since the first days of the invasion, for which in 2023 it received a commendation from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for its systematic assistance and active civic position in the struggle for Ukraine’s independence.
More about the company and services: https://meest.cn/.
Avto-Region, the exclusive distributor of Turkish buses Temsa in Ukraine, plans to sell about 100 buses of this brand in 2024, which will increase its market share to 10% compared to 2% in 2023, when 20 buses were sold, said Nikita Gaidamakha, head of the bus production direction.
“Last year our share was 2%, but it was the beginning of joint production of buses in Ukraine with Temsa, and this year we plan to sell at least 100 buses primarily due to participation in the state program ‘School Bus’,” he told a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
Gaidamakha specified that by now the company has managed to reach the level of localization of almost 20%, and now it is working on increasing this share this year up to 25%, taking into account the requirements of the law on localization.
According to him, two models are now localized in Ukraine: the Prestij SX intercity bus with 30 seats and a school bus based on this model.
“Today the first serial batches of these models are at the final stage of production and will be available for ordering from April,” Gaidamakha specified.
He added that large contacts with Ukrainian manufacturers of components have already been signed for the implementation of the production program.
As specified the head of the company’s sales department Alexander Butenko, among the Ukrainian components in the bus are seats, double-glazed windows, autonomous heating systems, elements of interior arrangement.
“Now there are negotiations with a Ukrainian company to install the Smart Bus system, which is also a warning system that can find the nearest shelters, and even allows parents to see the children in the bus,” Butenko specified.
Gaidamakha in turn emphasized that the company is currently developing a large investment project and plans to protect it in order to start production in Ukraine of all buses of the model line Temsa .
“In particular, yesterday we received the first updated model of tourist bus for 55 seats, we attract engineers to study the product, and we will look for ways to localize it here,” he said.
In addition, the possibility of creating a school bus with an electric motor is under consideration, the project of which is planned to be realized in the near future.
According to him, the Temsa school bus is significantly more expensive than the models of domestic manufacturers, its cost is 4950 thousand UAH.
“But we do not set the task to compete on price. The main goal that we have set with our partners is not so much the development of production as the transfer of experience and standards operating in the world to Ukraine. We want to show by our example that such transportation is more expedient and change the existing market in Ukraine,” Gaidamakha emphasized.
He expressed the opinion that Ukraine, when forming the state transport strategy, should understand how much cheaper and certain savings in purchases will turn into overpayment in the future, when it will be necessary to replace the equipment that meets European standards.
Gaidamaha pointed out that today in Ukraine many tenders for the supply of electric buses for the funds of European financial institutions remain without bids and are postponed because manufacturers cannot fulfill the conditions of the customer.
In addition, in his opinion, the bottleneck in the law on localization is the inability to cover the existing demand in Ukraine for the supply of tourist buses for government agencies.
“Given the closed skies in Ukraine, we often receive requests from government agencies for tourist buses with 55 seats for transportation of employees abroad, but such transport is not mass produced in Ukraine, and such production requires large investments, experience and technological base. It is difficult to localize it, and as a result we are forced to refuse such clients,” Gaidamakha said.
The head of the company’s sales department Christina Bratchikova, in turn, noted that in January, Temsa buses have already taken 11% of the market (according to Ukravtoprom) with the registration of 13 buses.
“The share of Temsa speaks of consumer confidence and that business is looking towards transportation with Euro 6 ecostandards.” Today the bus market is concentrated around school buses, but in general the demand for buses is greater than the supply and we have requests for large tourist buses and even electric vehicles. Therefore, we believe that this year there will be an increase in the market,” she said.
In turn, Temsa’s vice president for sales and marketing Hakan Koralp noted that the company sees great prospects in the Ukrainian market and pays great attention to it.
“We started negotiations with Auto-Region in 2021 and signed a representation agreement in 2023. We are actively studying the requirements of the localization law, and we are pleased that Auto-Region has received Temsa’s permission to perform work on the completion of unfinished vehicles, such as Prestij SX, in Ukraine, and we are confident that this is just the beginning,” he said.
Hakan Koralp noted that today Temsa has a wide model range from 7-meter to 14-meter city and tourist buses, has a significant share in the U.S. bus market and more than 10 thousand buses operating in the European market.
Vitaliy Pasichny, deputy director of the company, reminded that Auto-Region officially represents in Ukraine, in addition to Temsa bus equipment, the Korean brand of trucks and special vehicles Daewoo Trucks and Indian car manufacturer TATA.
“This year we plan to expand the model range of these brands, and if in 2023 in Ukraine was delivered 65 cargo pickup trucks Tata Xenon, in the current year plans about 350. In addition, we plan to sell about 300 Daewoo Trucks, and more if there are orders. We have already imported a medium-duty Daewoo with GVW of 10 tons, and by the end of the year something will appear in TATA as well,” he said.
Pasichny noted that cooperation with Daewoo began in 2020. Utility, commercial, and firefighting vehicles were supplied. By now, according to him, more than 200 projects have been realized, and more than 2.5 thousand cars of this brand are already running in Ukraine.
He named the price/quality ratio and the most affordable price for pickup trucks on the Ukrainian market as the main advantages of TATA pickup trucks. At the same time, Pasichny specified that there are no plans to produce pickup trucks in Ukraine.
Viktor Kovbyk, head of the technical department of Auto-Region, said in turn that the company has a service network in Ukraine and plans to sign up to 20 service contracts.
“We could do more, but the obstacle is martial law and a number of other factors,” he said.
At the same time, Kovbyk noted that the partners with the onset of full-scale war did not stop cooperation. “And already in April 2022 resumed our orders, began to implement projects even without prepayment, which speaks of confidence in us,” he emphasized.
According to him, the company’s warehouse of spare parts for three brands with an area of more than 1 thousand square meters allows to provide three months of uninterrupted work without additional supply.
In addition, the company has three mobile brigades to work in remote areas, and repairs equipment for the Ukrainian military at service stations free of charge.
Speaking about the company’s problem in connection with mobilization, Pasichny noted that Auto-Region is currently submitting documents for inclusion in the list of critical infrastructure enterprises for the possibility of reservation, as the company services vehicles for utility workers and the military and has contracts with the military.
At the same time, he added that last year Avto-Region managed to increase the number of employees by 30%, primarily by attracting young specialists.
Answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine, Pasichny noted that in 2022-2023, 90% of the company’s sales were state purchases, as business is not yet ready to invest money and “mostly buys cheap or used”.
It was noted that long-term forecasts of the car market in Ukraine in the company does not take to build because of the war.
“There is a pent-up demand for cars, and the forecast is still complicated because of the war, but after the victory we predict a significant breakthrough and hope that Ukraine will repeat the results of the car market in 2006-2007,” – summarized Kovbyk.
Auto-Region LLC with authorized capital of 230 thousand UAH was registered in 2004 in Kiev. It specializes in the supply of special vehicles, trucks, buses for urban, intercity and tourist transportation. It has 10 official service centers in Ukraine.
The owner of 100% of the company is Dmytro Gaidamakha, who is currently serving in the AFU.
According to the data of the Сlarity system, in January-September 2023 the company increased its net profit 11.6 times to the same period of 2022 – up to UAH 75.3 mln, while net income grew 3.2 times to UAH 1 bln 234 mln.
In 2022, the company’s net income grew 3.8 times by 2021 to UAH 656.2m, with net profit of UAH 41.3m compared to UAH 0.88m.
Vodafone will have another code with a “five”. Vodafone is adding +380 75 to the list of mobile network codes available to its subscribers. Vodafone received this permission today by the decision of the National Commission.
The company is starting to implement the new numbering resource in all internal systems and services. By the end of the year, subscribers will be able to choose a number starting with 075.
Vodafone already has four numbering codes at its disposal: 050, 066, 095, 099. The additional numbering resource significantly increases the choice of the desired combination of numbers for new and existing subscribers.
Recently, many people have been forced to change not only their homes but also their lifestyles. Some volunteer, some raise money, some try to speed up the Victory in other ways. Sometimes new initiatives are connected with getting a new or additional phone number. For some people, the number means a lot – it should be easy to remember, should be similar to another number, or simply be associated with something important, such as the date of an event.
Vodafone customers can choose a number among those available at points of sale or by visiting the Choose a Number (https://www.vodafone.ua/gold-number) page on the Vodafone website. The service allows not only to choose but also to reserve the desired number that meets the required criteria:
– Selection by mask: a constructor that allows you to flexibly set the search parameters (for example, specify 5XXXX111 and get numbers with exactly those digits)
– Match by date: all variants of numbers that coincide with the date of an event
– Favorite number: 3-4 identical or non-identical digits standing side by side anywhere in the number, for example, all variants of 123
– Similar number: a pool of numbers that are similar to the one proposed by the user
– Exclude digits: numbers that do not contain specific digits
– Word in the number: allows you to “encode” your favorite word in the number: to do this, you need to write it in Cyrillic or Latin as on the keyboard of an old push-button phone
– All numbers: the system itself offers the most beautiful number plates, you do not need to specify any parameters
The number matching service also allows you to restore your deactivated number. If such a number is not offered on the service page, you need to click the “Restore number” button and follow the instructions to create a request for number restoration. Vodafone supports the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine to reserve mobile numbers of the fallen or missing defenders of Ukraine. Taking into account the different circumstances and situations in which the company’s customers may be: at the front, in the temporarily occupied territory, in other regions of Ukraine or abroad, and in order to protect their interests, taking into account the security and privacy requirements of electronic communications, the company decided not to use all deactivated numbers for 2 years without additional requests from users of such numbers.
Only those numbers that have been deactivated for 2 years or more will be used for sale in stores and on the website.
Vodafone Ukraine is a leading Ukrainian telecommunications company providing 3G and 4G high-speed Internet, fixed-line communications and Internet services. Vodafone’s investments in the period of active construction of high-speed networks in 2015 – Q3 2023 exceeded UAH 40.6 billion. These record investments have enabled the company to ensure technological leadership and develop new technological services, including the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart City technologies and solutions, big data analytics, fintech services, and cloud services. Vodafone services are used by 15.2 million customers in Ukraine. Since December 2019, Vodafone Ukraine has been a part of NEQSOL Holding.
Ukraine’s international reserves in February, according to preliminary estimates of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), decreased by 3.8%, or by $1.47 billion – to $37.052 billion.
“Such dynamics is due to the NBU’s currency interventions to maintain exchange rate stability and the country’s debt payments in foreign currency, which were partially offset by receipts from international partners,” the NBU explained on its website on Wednesday.
Among other factors determining the volume of reserves, the NBU named operations in the foreign exchange market: in February, the regulator’s net sale of foreign currency amounted to $1.51 billion, which is 1.4 times less than in the previous month.
The National Bank noted that in February, $1.34 billion was transferred to the account of the Cabinet of Ministers in the NBU, while $1.13 billion was paid for servicing and repayment of state debt.
The central bank also indicated that the current volume of reserves was positively affected by the revaluation of the value of financial instruments, adding $199.5 million.
“The current volume of international reserves provides funding for 4.9 months of future imports,” the regulator stated.
As reported, the NBU in January lowered the forecast of Ukraine’s international reserves at the end of 2024g to $40.4 billion from $44.7 billion and to $42.1 billion from $45 billion at the end of 2025. For more details on the economy in Ukraine and around the world, see the video from the analytical project Experts Club – https://youtu.be/byJnfmie7bM?si=nWnf5J2CUrqaXF-j
Subscribe to Experts Club channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
