The largest state-owned bank PrivatBank (Kyiv) launched the Apple Pay service on Thursday.
“Apple Pay in Ukraine! Today PrivatBank launched this globally popular payment service,” Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk wrote on his Facebook page. He said that this is the indicator of the attractiveness of the Ukrainian market for global innovative companies.
PrivatBank said in a press release that a credit or debit card of the bank Visa or Mastercard should be connected via Privat24 or Wallet applications to use the new payment service.
“One can use iPhone SE, iPhone 6 and later models of iPhone, as well as Apple Watch to pay in stores,” the bank said.
PrivatBank Board Chairman Peter Krumphanzl later at a briefing said that the arrival of Apple Pay in Ukraine means in practice a breakthrough in the state cashless program.
“This is a big step for Ukraine, on the one hand, from the point of view of innovation, and on the other hand, from the point of view of the state cashless program. This is a big step forward. I think this is very important for Ukraine,” he said.
The head of the retail business at PrivatBank, Oleksiy Shaban, added that the arrival of one of the world’s leading mobile payment technologies to the Ukrainian market is becoming a decisive incentive for large and small businesses to actively switch to cashless technologies. “We expect that for the first month of Apple Pay work in Ukraine a significant increase in the share of mobile payments by our customers will be seen,” he said.
Shaban said that at present more than 2 million customers of the bank are users of the Privat24mobile application.
According to Country Manager of the representative office of Mastercard Europe in Ukraine Vira Platonova, the number of payments using a mobile phone in Ukraine in 2017 increased 14 times, and this resulted in the arrival of Apple Pay to the country.
“Ukraine is a very developed market in terms of contactless payments. In the world in 2017, the number of payments with a mobile phone quadrupled, and in Ukraine it increased 14 times. It is therefore not surprising that Apple Pay came to Ukraine – one of the first countries in our region,” she said.
Platonova said that Ukrainians often pay with the help of mobile devices in retail networks, in transport, in restaurants and at gas stations.
“Payments using a mobile phone are absolutely safe, the level of fraud in these transactions is almost a nil,” she said.
Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei believes that Sino-Ukrainian cooperation in the scientific sphere should reach a new level. He stressed the importance of developing scientific, technical and innovative cooperation between the two countries. “At the moment, China’s development has entered a new era, so Sino-Ukrainian cooperation should also enter a new era,” he said during a solemn celebration of the Day of Science at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on Friday.
The Chinese envoy said development of scientific, technical and innovative cooperation is very important. During the event, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine awarded prizes for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
As reported, on May 11, the Cabinet awarded five government prizes of UAH 200,000 for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
Pharmacy sales in Ukraine in January-April 2018 in money terms grew by 41% compared to the same period in 2017, to UAH 30.14 billion. Sales in physical terms increased by 8% in the four months, to 543.575 million packs, the Business Credit company told Interfax-Ukraine. According to the company, in particular, retail sales of medicines in money terms increased by 44%, UAH 24.914 billion, sales in physical terms grew by 21%, to 374.345 million packs.
The weighted average price of goods in the so-caled “pharmacy basket” for the four months of 2018 was UAH 55.45 for the package, the average price of medicines was 66.55 UAH for the package.
In April 2018, pharmacy sales amounted to UAH 7.178 billion, which is 35% more than a year earlier, medicines sales increased by 38%, to UAH 5.938 billion.
The volume of sales of services by telecommunications and postal communications enterprises in Ukraine in January-March 2018 amounted to UAH 17.3 billion, which in absolute prices is higher than the level of Q1 2017 by 12.3%, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. According to its data, the volume of services provided to the population amounted to 59% of the total volume of services sold.
At the same time, in comparable prices compared to Q1 2017 the volume of services sold as a whole increased by 4.1% and in terms of providing services to the population grew by 1.2%.
In particular, in absolute prices in Q1 2018 the volume of sales of postal and courier services grew by 39%, to UAH 1.37 billion, of which services rendered to the population amounted to UAH 987 million.
The volume of sales of mobile communications services in Q1 2018 grew by 10.2%, to UAH 9.17 billion, of which services provided to the public amounted to UAH 8.32 billion.
The volume of sales of Internet services in Q1 2018 also rose by 15.1% and amounted to UAH 2.97 billion, of which the population was provided with services worth UAH 2.578 billion.
The Health Ministry of Ukraine could design an action plan to resume national production of immunobiological preparations and approve it by the end of 2018. According to the draft resolution of the government on the approval of the strategy for the development of the National Program for Immunological Prophylaxis and Protection of the Population from Vaccine-Controlled Infections until 2022 and the plan for its implementation, posted on the website of the Health Ministry, proposals for the resumption of production can be developed and approved in the third quarter.
Together with the Health Ministry, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the National Academy of Medical Sciences will also be involved in the designing of the plan.
If the strategy and the plan for its implementation are adopted this year, the ministry will also audit the legislation on registration and re-registration of immunobiological preparations and in the first quarter of 2019, following the audit, will prepare changes to the relevant procedures and submit them for approval by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
In addition, in 2018, the issue of limiting the access of unvaccinated children (in accordance with the vaccination schedule) to groups of children will be resolved, and the vaccination will be revised to optimize the vaccination calendar, storage, transportation and registration of immunobiological preparations.
The plan provides for the improvement of the system for the procurement of serums, antitoxins, introduction of incentives for health workers for increasing the level of vaccination, as well as a number of measures to build awareness of the value of immunization among the population and health workers, and the improvement of the surveillance system for vaccine-preventable infections.
Board Chairman of the Sikorsky Kyiv international airport (Zhuliany) Denys Kostrzhevsky predicts that transportation by air in Ukraine would grow by 7-10% a year in coming 10 years. “My forecast is optimistic. I think that in coming 10 years growth in the number of flights will be seen in coming 10 years by 7-10% every year. This is even more than the IATA’s forecast,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. He said that Master-Avia that manages the airport ordered the study of the market with the depth of up to 2052. The study confirms that in the coming two years the explosive growth of the Ukrainian aviation market – by 20-30% a year – would be seen. According to the company’s forecasts, then the growth will be 5-7% until 2052.
Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) is located in the business center of the capital, seven km from the city center. It is the second largest airport in Ukraine in terms of the number of flights and passenger traffic. The airport has three terminals with a total area is 21,000 square meters. Terminal B is separate facility for business-class service, it is part of the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) system. The airport’s runway is able to handle B-737 and A-320 aircraft.
