State-owned enterprise (SOE) Spetstechnoexport is boosting defense cooperation with India and opening its second representative office on the largest defense market of the South Asian region. The press service of the company reported on Tuesday that the representative office of Spetstechnoexport opened in October in Nashik, India, will provide operational and effective cooperation with Indian partners, including the implementation of the new arrangements in the defense cooperation sphere signed by Ukraine in 2018 with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
According to the report, the new arrangements with HAL foresee expansion of defense cooperation in the aviation cluster, in particular, the supply of defense systems for Indian helicopters, joint research and the developments, establishment of production of specific aviation systems in India.
Spetstechnoexport engages Ukrainian defense enterprises in cooperation with the HAL, in particular the Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant, the Odesa Aviation Plant, SOE Institute for scientific research Storm, SOE Kharkiv Machine-Building Plant FED, the Kharkiv Aggregate Design Bureau, SOE Novator, Radionix LLC and others.
The possibility of closer communication with foreign partners allows increasing the volume of cooperation, the company said. This year, Spetstechnoexport has almost tripled the volume of supplies of defense products to the needs of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited aircraft division compared to the level of 2016.
Spetstechnoexport has an opportunity to take part in tenders for joint modernization of radars P-18 and ST-68, as well as air defense systems, such as ZSU-23-4 Shilka, P-125 Pechora and others under new arrangements with BEL.
The press service said that during the DefExpo 2018 international defense exhibition in India, Spetstechnoexport signed new contracts in the aviation sector with the total cost of about $20 million.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Port Authority in January-October 2018 increased dredging works using own fleet by 13% year-over-year, to 1.3 million cubic meters (mcm). “However, the volume of works to be carried out is larger. Only in 2018 we announced tender to select subcontractors in the ProZorro e-procurement system under seven projects with a total volume of over 5.5 mcm,” the press service of the authority reported.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority plans to double dredging works at Ukrainian ports in 2019, bringing the volume of projects to 16.335 million cubic meters.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority is a SOE that oversees the operation of 13 seaports on the territory of Ukraine. Founded in 2013, it owns strategic facilities for port infrastructure, which include seaport areas, hydraulic structures, berths and public infrastructure such as approach roads and utility networks.
The SOE provides for the functioning of seaports, charges port dues and provides general maintenance services. Each port has a branch of the authority, which acts as the administration of the port. 80% of the authority’s revenue is denominated in U.S. dollars, whereas in expenditures the hryvnia component dominates.
Chateau Chizay winemaking company LLC (Berehove, Zakarpattia region) in 2019 would boost wine sales by 15% compared with 2018, to 1.38 million bottles.
“In 2019, we intend to sell about 1.38 million bottles, despite the fact that the plans for 2018 are to sell about 1.2 million bottles,” Director of the company Anatoliy Poloskov told Interfax-Ukraine.
In 2017, the wine company grew and processed 1,500 tonnes of grapes, in 2018 it reached almost 2,000 tonnes. Due to the good yield, the company plans to sell some wine materials this year.
“Earlier, we didn’t have our own vineyards. We bought grapes in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Crimea, and produced and bottled 7-10 million bottles a year. Now we make wine exclusively from our own grapes, therefore, we have enough capacity,” Poloskov said.
At the same time, he said that Chateau Chizay faces with logistical difficulties due to the fact that the company’s two plants are located 25 km far from each other.
According to him, Chateau Chizay has 272 hectares under vineyards in three districts of Zakarpattia region.
He said that now the wine company is working on obtaining a land parcel.
Poloskov said that the company is mulling the possibility of resuming production of sparkling wine.
He said that 15% of wine is exported. The key markets are the United States, Canada, Australia and Israel.
“Today we are present on many continents. We also sent wine to Nigeria, but we don’t cooperate with the EU. Nobody is waiting for us there. I am talking about Ukrainian wines in general. Nobody wants us to bite off from their wine-making pie. And yet we now hope for Poland, we are actively working with it. We are mastering Asia, but so far there have not yet been supplies there. Also Sweden has become interested in our wine,” Poloskov said.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukraine and Israel will sign a free trade area (FTA) agreement at the end of November, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said after a meeting with new ambassador of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lion in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“The document will significantly expand our economic cooperation and will increase trade, which now amounts to $1 billion a year,” the head of government said on his Facebook page.
Groysman also said that this month in Kyiv there will be a Ukrainian-Israeli innovative summit, the participants of which will be representatives of about 50 enterprises working in the field of high technologies.
“We consider cooperation in the sphere of innovations to be one of the most promising,” the Ukrainian prime minister said.
As reported, Ukraine and Israel completed negotiations on signing a FTA agreement in April and intend to sign it by the end of 2018. Early August, the sides finished a legal reconciliation of the text of the FTA agreement. The next step in preparing the agreement for signing is the translation of the agreed text into Ukrainian and Hebrew.
From the moment the document enters into force, Israel intends to abolish 80% of duties on industrial goods, as well as a number of agricultural products – within quotas. Import duties on the agricultural products specified in the agreement will be completely canceled during the transition periods for three, five and seven years. Partial liberalization is envisaged for a separate category of goods.
Ukraine, in turn, intends to open 70% of the industrial goods market for Israeli producers, as well as abolish duties on a number of agricultural products immediately after the entry into operation of the agreement, for some of them within three or five years. In particular, Ukraine plans to reduce tariffs for certain seasonal vegetables and fruits from Israel.
Israel will be the 46th country, with which Ukraine signs the FTA agreement.
