“Ukrtelecom, Ukraine’s largest fixed-line operator, laid almost 11,000 km of optical lines in 2022-2023, the company’s press service said on Friday.
“During the full-scale war, Ukrtelecom built almost 11 thousand kilometers of optical lines. During this time, the company has provided hundreds of thousands more households in all regions of the country with the opportunity to use modern services,” the statement said.
Most fiber-optic lines were laid in Odesa, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, and Dnipro regions.
The optical infrastructure is being expanded by laying new lines, replacing old copper networks with fiber optics, and restoring the network in the de-occupied territories, the company said.
“Despite the challenging operating environment, Ukrtelecom continues to provide Ukrainians with access to high-speed optical internet. The company, in line with its pre-war strategy, has decided to continue ambitious projects to build optical networks across the country and optical modernization of copper infrastructure,” the company’s press service quoted Ukrtelecom CEO Yuriy Kurmaz as saying.
He emphasized that uninterrupted high-quality Internet is critical as it allows citizens to instantly receive information about the security situation, increases the sustainability of business, and serves as the basis for the sustainability of educational processes and continuous interaction between government agencies.
“In 2024, Ukrtelecom will continue to build a modern optical network by investing in the development of GPON, a non-volatile Internet technology, Kurmaz added.
Ukrtelecom said that in 2023, more than 150 medical and 185 educational institutions connected to the company’s optical infrastructure. The company has access to high-speed optical Internet in 1.25 thousand medical and 1.7 thousand educational institutions.
The settlements where the operator is building fiber-optic networks can access the Internet at speeds of up to 1 Gbps, which in turn allows them to use the full potential of digital services in the public and private sectors, the telecom operator’s press service said.
IP-based services, including interactive TV in HD and 4K quality, video conferencing and Internet telephony, have become available to the public, the company said.
“Ukrtelecom is the largest fixed-line operator in Ukraine. A large part of its customers are government agencies, educational, administrative and medical institutions, and emergency services. The company is a provider of high-speed fixed-line Internet with the widest coverage. Ukrtelecom’s Internet access is available in almost 4,000 settlements across the country and is available in 90% of them. Ukrtelecom is also the sole shareholder and founder of TriMob LLC, a provider of UMTS/WCDMA mobile services.
In 2013, the company joined SCM’s business.
The Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (SUP), the Polish Confederation of Leviatan (KL), and the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (PUIG) welcome the efforts of the Polish and Ukrainian governments to unblock the border crossings between the two countries and look forward to its real results. This should be accompanied by the development, in cooperation with the European Union, of a viable program to address the key economic causes that lead to such terrible events. Despite the differences in views and challenges in our cooperation, the current problems of any economic or social group cannot be solved by blocking borders and key transportation routes.
Therefore, it is in the best strategic and security interests of both countries and the entire European community to stop further destruction of our common political, economic and social relations, which have been elevated to a historically high level over the past two years following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. In fact, Russia – the aggressor country – is the only party that benefits from this development.
As representatives of the business communities of both countries, we would like to emphasize the economic consequences of the border crisis, including
– direct losses in trade, which has been growing very rapidly over the past two years, with benefits for all partners and a positive balance for the Polish side;
– the rapidly growing loss of trust in mutual economic relations, which is already leading to refusal to participate in new or even open violation of long-term contracts between our companies that already exist;
– the gradual deterioration of the business climate, which raises questions about the future of a mutually beneficial partnership in the reconstruction of Ukraine, including possible Polish investments;
– undermining Ukraine’s efforts to successfully negotiate its rapid accession to the European Union.
Allowing the current events on the Polish-Ukrainian border to get out of hand risks exacerbating the problems and spreading them to other areas, then gradually eroding the trust in the mutual relations gained over the past two years, and ultimately jeopardizing the chances for a prosperous future relationship between our countries. We have no doubt that the present and future generations of Polish and Ukrainian entrepreneurs, as well as the vast majority of our societies, would never forgive us for this serious mistake!
Leviatan Confederation, Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, UKRAINIAN ENTREPRENEURS
Ukraine intends to create an Investment Attraction Agency as a single entry point for investors in the Ukrainian private sector, First Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Sviridenko said on Facebook.
“To ensure that all investors wishing to invest in the private sector in Ukraine have a single point of entry, we are working on the launch of a single institution – the Investment Attraction Agency,” she wrote following a visit to London, where she discussed its creation, including with the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
According to her, during the meeting, LSE specialists assured that they are ready to provide their expertise and help build this institution.
Sviridenko said she also met with British International Investment, which last summer at a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in London said it was ready to allocate GBP250 million to finance the private sector in Ukraine, mainly for post-war reconstruction.
“These funds will be available from April through the Co-investment platform. What can we do together with the private sector already now to get this funding? Prepare quality projects. For this purpose we also attract partners to jointly do feasibility study, “- First Deputy Prime Minister said.
She added that attracting investment and financing to Ukraine was also the main topic of negotiations with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the London Stock Exchange and TheCityUK, UK Export Finance (UKEF).
“We are working with UKEF to attract investments in the defense sector. We have also opened a GBP3.5bn limit for Ukraine. Several companies have already received insurance, one of them yesterday during our visit to London. We plan to expand cooperation, in particular, we discussed the possibility of insuring suppliers of equipment in the field of military demining,” Sviridenko wrote, in particular.
The Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) has started accepting applications for special credit guarantees for exports to Ukraine since March 1. The total limit of guarantees according to the country’s budget for 2024 is SEK333m ($32.1m at the current exchange rate).
According to EKN, this became possible after the Swedish government adopted a relevant decree on February 29.
In addition to the new export credit guarantees, the government also decided to open a trade secretary’s office in Kiev and appoint a new trade secretary, the press release said.
“The export credit guarantees and the opening of a new trade office in Kiev will make it easier for Swedish companies to invest in Ukraine. It is also a concrete example of how the government is working to increase synergies between aid, trade and business promotion,” the statement quotes the Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell as saying.
It is indicated that guarantees will be provided for exports that can contribute to the development and welfare of Ukraine.
On Monday, March 4, light rain is expected in the western regions of Ukraine, with sleet at night in some places, and no precipitation in the rest of the country, the Ukrainian Weather Center reports.
Southeast wind, 7-12 m/s. Temperature at night from 2° C to 3° C, during the day 5-10° C, in Transcarpathia and Prykarpattia at night 1-6° C, during the day 10-15°.
No precipitation in Kyiv on Monday. Southeast wind, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night will be around 0°, during the day 6-8° Celsius.
According to the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory, on March 4, the highest daytime temperature in Kyiv was 16.1° in 1995, the lowest nighttime temperature was -21.1° in 1987.
On Tuesday, January 5, there will be no precipitation in Ukraine, only in the western regions there will be light rain.
The wind is east, northeast, 5-10 m/s. Temperature at night from 2° C to 3° C, in the western regions 0-5° C; during the day 5-10° C, in the south and west of the country up to 13°, in Transcarpathia and Crimea 12-17°.
No precipitation in Kyiv on Tuesday. East, northeast wind, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night will be around 0°, during the day 6-8° Celsius.
As of the end of February of the 2023/2024 marketing year, which started on July 1, Ukraine has already exported more than 29.1 million tons of grain, legumes and flour, Danylo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, said on Telegram.
He clarified that in terms of major crops, 15.8 million tons of corn, 11.5 million tons of wheat, and 1.6 million tons of barley were supplied to foreign markets.
“Compared to the same date last year, there is a lag of almost 2.6 million tons (although, for example, wheat was shipped a quarter of a million tons more than last year),” the head of the parliamentary financial committee said.
Mr. Hetmantsev explained the slowdown in grain exports by the fact that for a month and a half, in July and the first half of August last year, when sea exports were forced to pause due to Russia’s withdrawal from the Istanbul grain initiative, Ukraine had to develop an “alternative grain corridor.” In August 2023, thanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it became available, and in the first months, foreign shipowners were restrained and cautious, looking closely at whether the new route was really safe, he recalled.
“In November 2023, some ‘friends and neighbors’ began to create obstacles for us on the land border under artificial and far-fetched pretexts, and these processes are still ongoing,” Hetmantsev wrote.
The chairman of the parliamentary committee expressed confidence that Ukraine would soon completely close the current gap.
He emphasized that in recent months, Ukraine has returned to almost pre-war export volumes, 90% of Ukrainian grain is shipped to foreign customers by sea, and dependence on the land corridor on the western border is decreasing.
“Thus, Ukraine will continue to play the role of one of the guarantors of global food security, while at the same time replenishing the treasury with serious foreign exchange earnings (in the near future, agricultural products will remain a key item of Ukrainian exports),” Hetmantsev summarized.
