Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky said he is determined to create a favorable climate for foreign and domestic investments in Ukraine if elected president. “As concerns business relations, economic relations with the West, they are expecting guarantees, they believe they will have a guarantee with a new president. After all, an appropriate climate should appear for both Ukrainian investments and Western investments,” Zelensky said in an interview shown on the Ukraina television channel.
Ukraine should set up a special institution dealing with economic crimes, Zelensky said.
“The law enforcement agencies, such as the Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the Interior Ministry, must be deprived of all functions of putting pressure on the business sector and influencing the economy,” he said.
Zelensky insisted on “relaunching” anti-corruption bodies and the Anti-Corruption Court, “because two years have passed, and promises still keep being made, but I think we will be able to do all that.”
In Q1 2019, Georgia exported 19.4 million bottles (0.75l) of natural grape wine, a 10% increase year-on-year, according to the country’s National Wine Agency.
Revenue from wine exports (to a total of 37 countries) grew 16% to $47 million.
According to the National Wine Agency, Russia accounted for the greatest share, with deliveries growing 15.4% to 13.279 million bottles (68.4% of total exports).
Other major importers were Ukraine (1.419 million bottles, or 7.3% of total exports), China (1.373 million, 7.1%), Poland (1.032 million, 5.3%), and Kazakhstan (560,460, 2.9%).
There were also increases in exports to the U.S., Belarus and other European countries, and Asian countries. A total of 148 Georgian companies exported wine, compared with 134 a year before.
The most popular wines for export were the semi-sweet red Kindzmarauli (3.7 million bottles), the dry red Mukuzani (1.2 million), the dry white Tsinandali (890,458), and the semi-sweet reds Akhasheni (422,220) and Khvanchkara (226,072).
Georgia also exported 6 million bottles (0.5l) of brandy to 14 countries for $12.4 million, a 1.7-fold increase; 118,000 bottles of chacha (2.7-fold growth), and cognac and winemaking materials. Total revenue from sales was $67.7 million (up 4.5%).
In 2018, Georgia increased its exports of wine 13% to 86.2 million bottles, a 30-year record. It delivered wine to 53 countries, and revenue from sales increased 20% to $203 million. Total revenue from sales of wine products abroad grew 7% to $306.5 million.
The European Commission is ready to cooperate with any candidate elected in the presidential elections in Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, the Deputy Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations at the European Commission, said in a comment to Hromadske. She said it doesn’t matter whether Zelensky [showman Volodymyr Zelensky] or Poroshenko [incumbent President Petro Poroshenko] will be elected, they will work with any of them.
Mathernova said that Zelensky was not known in the political sphere, therefore, the voice of Ukrainian civil society should be especially heard and supported.
If there is Poroshenko’s second term, we know that the second term is still a slightly different mobilization, a new factor for civil society, she added.
Triumph Media Group LLC (Kyiv), developing the Planeta Kino cinema chain, plans to open a first cinema in Ukraine adapted for persons with disabilities in River Mall being built in Dniprovska Naberezhna in Kyiv.
“In the new cinema of the Planeta Kino cinema network in the River Mall there will be the country’s first resource room in a non-specialized establishment, personnel trained to work with all types of disabilities, as well as navigation and improved infrastructure. The name of the project is Planeta Piznykh,” the company said in a press release.
According to the press release, the resource room is a space specially created for the needs of viewers with autism, where they can stay in emotional outbursts. It will be located in the center of the cinema, next to the box office.
In addition, in the halls there will be special places, navigation, improved toilet and changing booths.
The goal of the project is to increase the level of socialization of people with physical and mental disabilities, to train network viewers to communicate with them.
“Our big goal is educational work among all viewers of the Planeta Kino cinema network, which is about 4 million contacts per year,” the company said in the press release.
Dmytro Derkach, the co-owner of the Planeta Kino network, told Interfax-Ukraine that the 10-hall cinema is located on the third floor of the River Mall shopping and entertainment center on the area of 3,300 square meters.
According to him, the cinema includes an IMAX with Laser hall, a 4Dx hall, five halls with Cinetech + branded film technology and three business class halls – the RE’LUX cinema restaurant.
He said that it is planned to open the cinema in April or May.
