ODESA. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Moldova have agreed to establish a working group to design and commission a railway section on the Berezyne (Ukraine)-Basarabeasca (Moldova) route.
According to Deputy Chairman of Odesa Regional Council Yuriy Dymchohlo, the agreement was achieved at a meeting on the issue of restoring the rail section on the route in Chisinau on August 2.
As reported, Ukraine and Moldova agreed to resume railway traffic from Odesa region to Moldova bypassing Transdniestria in October 2015. Restoring traffic on the Berezyne-Basarabeasca section will open a direct way from Moldova to the ports of Velyka Odesa.
It is planned within the project to organize traffic of at least six pairs of trains per day. In addition, it is planned near Berezyne to open an international rail checkpoint.
According to Ukrzaliznytsia, in 1999 due to lack of traffic and the poor condition of the track on the Berezyne-Basarabeasca some 20 kilometers of track in the territory of Ukraine (Odesa Railways) and almost 1.5 km in the territory of Moldova were dismantled.
KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Direct flights will be launched between Odes and Germany’s Paderborn in 2017. The Odesa airport and Paderborn city signed relevant memorandum, Odesa regional governor Mikheil Saakashvili has said.
“The final phase of negotiations with Air Berlin is underway,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Saakashvili said that Paderborn is located in the center of Germany and it is easy to get to Berlin, Dusseldorf, Dortmund and Amsterdam from it.
He added that he promised to attract 1 million of tourists to Odesa in 2016. He completed the task in advance.
As reported, Bravo Airways (Kyiv) started flying on the Kyiv-Odesa route from July 15 and Belarus’ Belavia increased the number of flights on the Minsk-Odesa route from 12 to 14 a week from August 1, 2016.
Today the Odesa airport is building a new terminal that would be finished by late 2016. It is planned to reconstruct the runway.
The airport services flights of aircraft of around 20 Ukrainian and foreign airlines flying to 60 countries.
Air Berlin is the second largest airline in Germany. It carries over 30 million passengers every year and services flights to 147 destinations.
KUALA LUMPUR. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at a meeting with representatives of Malaysian business has reported on his country’s success on the way of key reforms.
“The vision of the country development strategy, which we named “Ukraine 2020,” focuses on the four key areas: structural reforms, security of the state, citizens and business, responsibility and social justice, a proper place for Ukraine in Europe and the world,” the president said at a meeting with businessmen during his official visit to Malaysia.
He noted Ukraine has managed to restore macro-economic stability, there are signs of economic growth, inflation is slowing down, the national currency has stabilized, and the National Bank reserves have been replenished.
“We halved the number of taxes and fees, as well as the number of licenses for doing business. The number of scheduled and unscheduled inspections by the State Tax Service almost halved in 2015 compared with 2013,” Poroshenko said.
The president noted Ukraine and the EU had launched a deep and comprehensive free trade area, which offers great opportunities for investors.
“And we would like to invite you to take advantage of this. Ukraine could become a gateway to the EU market for Malaysian businesses,” Poroshenko said.
KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The flow of tourists from Ukraine to Turkey for the six months of 2016 increased by 46% compared to the same period in 2015, to 414,994 people.
“Ukraine entered the top ten leading countries in terms of tourist traffic to Turkey in January-June 2016, which is 46% up, and ranked fifth, going ahead of the Netherlands, Greece, the United States, Azerbaijan and France,” the cultural affairs and information department of the Turkish Embassy in Ukraine said.
The report stresses in the six months of 2016 the largest number of tourists came to Turkey from Germany (1.503 million people), Georgia (1.038 million people), Bulgaria (783,429 people) and Britain (693,081 people).
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Turkish Republic, 160,938 Ukrainians visited the country in June 2016, which is 74% more than in June 2015.
The Turkish ministry stressed the most popular destinations among Ukrainians are Antalya, Istanbul and Mugla.
KYIV. Aug 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian government is studying the creation of a special fund aimed at financing Ukrainian-Iranian projects, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk said at a meeting with Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian in Tehran.
The Energy and coal Industry Ministry reported after the meeting on Tuesday that the parties discussed participation of Ukrainian state-run enterprises in building thermal power plants (TPPs) and modernization of power lines in Iran.
Nasalyk said that Ukrainian enterprises have experience in designing, building, maintaining and upgrading power plants, including Iran’s Ramin and Isfahan TPPs.
Chitchian invited Ukraine to participate in state-funded programs of Iran on development of energy infrastructure. He assured the Ukrainian minister that joint Ukrainian-Iranian ventures would receive financial and technical support from the Iranian government.
KYIV. Aug 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia intends to use the same cars to form night and day trains and will buy 13 transformer cars from Kriukov Car Building Works (KCBW, Poltava region).
“In the night mode four lower and upper benches of the compartment will be used as comfort sleeping couchettes. In the day mode lower benches will be easily transformed into comfortable seats,” the press service of Ukrzaliznytsia reported on Monday.
The press service said that the cars will be delivered by late 2016 under a contract on supply of 21 passenger cars.
The company is confident that the transformer cars would increase efficiency of car use and increase their average daily run.
The press service said that it is likely that the cars will service the new route Kyiv-Lviv-Ivano-Frankivsk with the night express train and the Intercity train in the day mode.
“The schedule has been formed so that the route will be extended to Vorokhta and Yaremche on the days of peak demand,” the press service said.
