Israel’s Spacecom, a leading world operator of AMOS communications satellite made by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), has held talks in Kyiv with the head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) on creating a Ukrainian national satellite communications system (UNSCS). According to an announcement on SSAU’s website, the talks on the status of the UNSCS project were held between SSAU head Pavlo Dehtiarenko and CEO of Spacecom CEO David Pollack in Kyiv at the end of February.
“Israeli representatives expressed interest in a successful launch into orbit of the [Ukrainian] Lybid satellite and activating it with the aim of using it jointly,” the press service said.
During the meeting the positive experience of cooperation between Spacecom and the state-owned Ukrkosmos enterprise was noted, namely the rent of the AMOS 7 satellite under the Strana TV project, the press release said.
As earlier reported, the creation of UNSCS in cooperation with Canada and Russia foresaw the creation and launch of the Lybid satellite, which would operate at a geostationary orbit beaming in three directions: European-Ukrainian, Western-African and Indian, capable of transmitting up to 900 television stations.
The satellite was created under a contract signed by SSAU and Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. A loan worth $254.6 million was raised from Export Development Canada (EDC) against government guarantees to build the satellite on the Express 1000NT platform, developed by Russia’s Information Satellite Systems – Reshetnev Company. Since summer 2014, the satellite has been in safe custody at the Russian developer, as was instructed by the Canadian general contractor.
The implementation of the project was under a threat of a failure due to the annexation of Crimea and the loss of land infrastructure involved in the project by Ukraine. Taking additional financial liabilities, Ukraine has overcome force majeure: in 2014-2015 a new spacecraft control center was built on Ukraine’s mainland.
Ukraine’s government in October 2017 supported SSAU’s proposal for additional financing of the project in the amount of $17 million, taking into account increased costs. SSAU in November announced plans to use the satellite in the second half of 2018. The satellite will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using a Zenith-3SLBF carrier rocket. The project was jeopardized by the bankruptcy in 2017 of Diamantbank (Kyiv), one of the clients and creditors of Ukrkosmos, which ordered the satellite.
The volume of sold industrial products (goods, services) in January 2018 stood at UAH 204.197 billion, which is 28.1% more than in January 2017, in particular the volume sold abroad was worth UAH 59.119 billion (an increase of 48.1%), the State Statistics Service has reported. According to the agency, in January 2018 compared to January 2017 the index of turnover of sold production in mining and quarrying grew by 7.7%, in processing industry by 33.8%.
In the total volume of sales, the largest share accounted for the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (25.7%), metallurgical production (18.9%), production of food, beverages and tobacco goods (17.7%), and mining and quarrying (14.2%).
As reported, in 2017 industrial products (goods, services) worth UAH 2.153 trillion were sold, which is 21.9% more than in 2016.
The adoption of the draft law on currency developed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will facilitate the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, Oleh Churiy, the deputy head of the central bank, has said.
“We believe that the adoption of this law will certainly promote such an inflow, since we will first of all bring our legislation in correspondence with European standards, it will fully comply with these principles and this will indicate that we are finally moving towards free capital movement, removing many restrictions that are currently ineffective and inhibit the inflow of foreign investments. I think this will be a very positive factor in terms of inflow of not only foreign investments but also from the point of view of even domestic investments,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv.
Churiy also said that the entry into force of the law on currency would not affect the situation in the market.
“Regarding its influence on the balance of payments: we have our simultaneous process – it is currency liberalization. Of course, this should not affect the market situation, since when we lift restrictions, we will also be guided by our plan for currency liberalization. At the same time, if the law is passed, we will be able to immediately remove the norms that affect the business climate. That is, after the adoption of this law, I think the situation will improve much in terms of effectiveness of currency legislation on the one hand and, on the other hand, there will not be any negative impact on the market situation,” he said.
Enterprises of the aerospace sector in Ukraine increased production by 26.3% in 2017, to UAH 4.6 billion.
Sales last year grew by 24% and export – by 8.1%, according to a report of the head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) for 2017 posted on the agency’s website.
According to the report, in 2017, the sector enterprises produced and sold products for over UAH 4.6 billion. Total volume of gross products was over UAH 5.4 billion.
SSAU currently manages 26 enterprises and organizations of the aerospace industry.
The national budget for 2017 announced UAH 2.91 billion of financing the aerospace industry, or 14.2% less than in 2016. In the total amount of financing, 61.5% of the funds from the national budget’s general fund are envisaged for paying on debt obligations on previously attracted loans for the implementation of international industry projects.
Germany’s abrasives manufacturer Klingspor plans to relocate some production processes from France to Velyki Mosty in Lviv region in 2018, the press service of Lviv Regional Administration has reported.
“In the past four years alone, the company has invested more than EUR 7 million in the plant in Lviv. The company has built production, warehouse and administrative premises with a total area of 6,700 square meters in the town of Velyki Mosty, employing more than 200 people. It is planned to move some of the production processes from France to Ukraine,” the administration said.
According to the regional administration, the company produces more than 50,000 articles for treating surfaces and cutting materials.
Klingspor was founded in 1893 in Germany. In Ukraine, Klingspor LLC began its operations in 2008.
