KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) expressed hope that the first Ukrainian communications satellite Lybid built in international cooperation with Canada and Russia could be launched in 2017.
The press service of the agency reported that the situation with the implementation of the project was discussed at a recent meeting of the SSAU.
Today the Ukrainian satellite Lybid has been assembled, tested and stored waiting for its shipment to the launch site.
“Due to annexation of Crimea force majeure for the land segment appeared. This resulted in a delay in the project schedule and the increase of the project cost. Force majeure has been reined in and SSAU jointly with the Ukrainian government are doing their best to prepare for the launch of the satellite Lybid in 2017,” the agency said.
The state has already invested $335.4 million in the project, the press service said.
As reported, a contract for the construction of a national telecommunications satellite Lybid was signed by the SSAU and Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. The MDA is the head contractor under this project. The Lybid is based on the Express-1000NT platform, developed by Russia’s Reshetnev ISS.
The Canadian export agency EDS provided a $254.6 million loan under the Ukrainian government guarantees to finance the project in the summer of 2009. Initially it was planned to put the Ukrainian satellite into orbit in 2012, later it was postponed to 2013 and then to April 2014.
Since 2014 the satellite is stored at Reshetnev ISS in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) and the uncompleted launch vehicle Zenit is stored at Pivdenne Machine Building Plant named after Makarov (Pivdenmash, Dnipro).
Today the Canadian partner is holding talks with Russia to get guarantees to launch the satellite.
KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry has said that around 30% of the cost of Ukrainian-made agricultural machinery with the localization level of 50% could be refunded from the budget.
“We want to provide UAH 500 million to support purchase of Ukrainian-made machinery with the localization level of 50%. This would be implemented via the cost refund program. Around 30% of the cost of Ukrainian machinery will be compensated by the state,” Minister Taras Kutoviy said at the Doing Agribusiness in Ukraine 2016 international conference.
He said that the key Ukrainian plants manufacturing agricultural machinery have reached localization of up to 50%.
“We want the localization grow. We tell manufacturers in public, that along with the economic potential they should boost the localization level,” he said.
KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of national energy company Ukrenergo Vsevolod Kovalchuk at a meeting with representatives of international financial institutions (IFIs) in Kyiv on Tuesday discussed the creation of an independent supervisory board in the company and corporate management reform.
The press service of the state-run enterprise said that representatives of the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank, Germany’s bank KfW, top managers of the Secretariat of the Energy Community and representatives of U.S. and British embassies in Ukraine.
The sides also discussed the possibility of creating the strategic advisors group in Ukrenergo consisting of competent experts in the energy sector of the European Union (EU) and other developed countries. A new investment policy concept was also presented. The group is intended to have an independent professional assessment of the processes, first of all in the technical sphere of the company.
The company said that the creation of an independent supervisory board would help to quickly conduct required reforms and the company will meet European requirements to the systemic operators.
“After a recent approval of the procedure for creating supervisory boards by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers we can start creating this body. I would like that Ukrenergo was the leader in the process among all state-owned enterprises. We would like to have an independent, transparent and effective supervisory board consisting of competent foreign managers with impeccable experience of work in foreign systemic operators and of course, representatives of the state,” Kovalchuk said.
The Ukrenergo head also said that the company will switch to the long-term development planning, in particular, for capital investment.
“European systemic operators are working under the ten-year plan, which is the legal and economic ground for drawing up two and three-year investment plans. They know for sure what and how to invest and which year. This is a positive and clear signal both for financial partners, investors and other market players. Everyone knows where the systemic operators are moving,” he said.
Kovalchuk announced a new portfolio of investment projects worth some EUR 1.5 billion. They aim at the complete automation of the power grid and modernization of existing substations. It would help to significantly reduce (up to five-seven years) the terms for the complete synchronization of the Ukrainian power grid with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).
KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Israel is ready to accept 20,000 Ukrainians to work in construction. Employment will be formalized through the Public Employment Service.
“At present builders are the most sought specialists in the labor market. This concerns the market of Europe and Asia. They have headed the job list for many years. But if Poland is ready to pay UAH 20,000 to our builders ($750-760), then Israel twice as much – UAH 40,000 ($1,500-1,600),” Tetiana Pashkina, the expert of the Rabota.ua employment portal, said.
Under the agreement on temporary employment of Ukrainians in Israel, Tel Aviv is ready to give 20,000 work visas to specialists working with building constructions and metal, as well as tilers and plasterers. The selection of workers will be carried out jointly by Israeli and Ukrainian experts on the basis of the Public Employment Service. To obtain work documents can be submitted and exams can be passed in any regional employment center.
In addition, Israeli politicians have announced the next step of cooperation – preparing an agreement on employment of Ukrainian nurses.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on November 16 and the president of Ukraine on November 23 ratified the agreement on temporary employment of Ukrainian workers in certain sectors of Israel’s labor market.
KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Health Ministry hopes to create the national medical insurance system that would finance primary care by summer 2017, acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun has said.
“We hope that by summer national insurance policies will be created, and we will pay to family doctors for each patient through it,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Suprun said that in 2017 Health Ministry seeks to set the tariff for medical services on the secondary market using the Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) principle.
“Since 2018 the services through national insurance will be paid at the secondary level using the tariffs,” she said.
“We will switch to changes at the tertiary level in 2019 when all three levels will work via national insurance,” Suprun said.
KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The National Tourism Organization (NTO) has been created in Ukraine, Director of the tourism and resorts department of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine Ivan Lyptuha has said.
Lyptuha said on his Facebook page that the founding general meeting was held on December 5.
He said that the NTO will be a structure of consolidated business of the tourism sector in Ukraine. It is intended to bring the tourism sector to the most balanced and stable development model.
“NTO’s goal is to create the permanently operating platform uniting regional, town and sector tourism organizations to increase the quality of national tourist product, develop the professional building system and train specialists, as well as the entire marketing complex for the tourist brand of Ukraine on the domestic and global markets,” he said.
According to the report, regional and town tourism associations of Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Ternopil and Kharkiv, companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine International Airlines, Amadeus, Google, InterContinental, GST Group, Plaske, Premier Expo, some sector associations and organizations (Kyiv National trade and Economic University and Scientific-Research Institute of Medical Rehabilitation and Balneology) took part in the founding general meeting.
