KYIV. Nov 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation NEFCO signed an agreement on November 29 to create a trust fund for financing renewable energy in Ukraine in the amount of EUR 6 million, the press service of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency of Ukraine reported.
“The Finnish-Ukrainian trust fund facilitates the provision of technical assistance and the allocation of grant funds for the implementation of clean energy projects in Ukraine,” the report said.
To date, NEFCO has already funded about 150 projects in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Ukraine.
KYIV. Nov 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Germany will provide an additional EUR 750,000 for humanitarian projects of the Maltese Relief Service in Ukraine in 2018-2019, the German Embassy in Ukraine has reported.
“The government of the Federal Republic of Germany will continue to provide support to the Maltese Relief Service to continue its humanitarian assistance project with the aim of psychosocial care of persons affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. For this purpose, Germany will allocate about EUR 750,000 in 2018-2019,” the embassy said in a statement on Thursday.
The project provides for the development of skills of representatives of local authorities, humanitarian agencies and support services in the form of training events, as well as providing direct services to support those affected by the conflict in Donbas.
The embassy said that earlier this project received EUR 1.2 million in support from the German government.
The diplomats said that target areas of the measures are Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where mobile teams are deployed to help people in remote areas.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The project to develop high-speed transportation by rail on the Kyiv-Odesa route is economically viable and would require investment of around EUR 540-840 million, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.
“I am sure by 200% that there will be passenger flow,” he said during the infrastructure day in the European Business Association (EBA) on Tuesday.
He said that it would take two hours to reach Odesa from Kyiv. The price of a ticket of UAH 500-700 will be competitive.
Omelyan said that the optimal is the route along the Kyiv-Odesa highway where the state has land parcels.
The minister said that construction of one kilometer of tracks would cost some EUR 1-2 million. This allows assessing the construction of the entire railway at EUR 500-800 million. Omelyan said that one train would cost some EUR 10 million and four trains would be required for organizing normal trips.
He said that it is expedient to organize transportation of freight using this route. Freight dispatchers and potential international operators of ports, with which Ukraine is holding negotiations, are interested in it.
The minister said that later this new railway track could be connected with Lviv and Europe, creating a new high-speed railway route.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Sales of electric cars in Ukraine (new and used ones) grew 3.2-fold in January-October 2017 year-over-year, to 2,225 cars, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
The association said that the share of used electric cars reached 86% of the primary registration market, while a year ago it was 42%.
Residents of Kyiv city bought the largest number of electric cars (528), Kharkiv region is second with 406 cars and Odesa region is third with 405 cars.
According to the report, the most popular electric car is Nissan Leaf (1,855 cars sold), although most of these cars imported to Ukraine were used.
A total of 79 BMW i3 electric cars were sold, 56 Tesla Model S, 54 Ford Focus and 30 Fiat cars were sold.
According to AUTO-Consulting, the total fleet of electric cars used in Ukraine exceeds 4,000, and only in January-August 2017 it doubled.
“If the pace continues, by the end of 2018 the electric car fleet could again double, exceeding 8,000 cars,” the analysts said.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Pivdenne Design Bureau (Yuzhnoye, Dnipro) is preparing for boosting cooperation with the National Academy of Science of Ukraine in the sphere of creation of aerospace equipment in 2018-2022, the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has reported.
According to the report, at a meeting of the coordination council of the Bureau and the National Academy of Science the sides summarized the implementation of a cooperation plan for 2013-2017 and approved a promising plan for 2018-2022.
“The new plan provides for expanding the scope of joint research in the field of rocket and space technology and increasing the amount of funding,” the press service said.
“This shows that at the current stage of space activities, the SSAU and State Enterprise Pivdenne Design Bureau look to the future through the prism of science,” the press service said.
First Vice-President of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies Volodymyr Horbulin, acting Director General of the Pivdenne Design Bureau Oleksandr Dehtiariov and SSAU Head Pavlo Dehtiarenko took part in the meeting.
According to the SSAU, in accordance with the general agreement on cooperation between the Bureau and SSAU signed in 2012, the parties are currently developing cooperation in 10 key areas, including ballistics, aerodynamics and heat exchange; new materials and technologies; the main problems of rocket engines burning solid fuel; liquid propulsion systems; satellite systems and telemetry systems; control systems for rocket and space technology.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The EU-China container train will start running across Ukraine this year, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said during the infrastructure day in the European Business Association (EBA) on Tuesday.
“We received freights from the EU. I hope that the frequency will be at least one train a week next year,” he said.
He added that synchronously the work on the creation of the new route of the Silk Road: Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan and the EU-China route via Ukraine is underway.
Commenting on the current state of affairs with the launch of the Ukraine-Georgia ferry route, Omelyan said that the memorandum signed by Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and CJSC Azerbaijan Railways signed in September 2017 is not enough.
“A private investor is required, preferably Chinese one. This is the guarantee that the freight will reach its destination,” the minister said.
He said that the ferries on the balance sheet of Ukrzaliznytsia are still undergoing repair and are “breaking the berth” at the Chornomorsk port.
“Their commercial exploitation is under large question. We need a private operator with new effective ships,” Omelyan said.
As reported, the first pilot container train on the new Silk Road Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China (across the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea) was launched by the Infrastructure Ministry jointly with Ukrzaliznytsia on January 15, 2016. The dry run of the new container train ended in the early hours of January 31, 2016, on the 16th day of the journey. It had problems with returning home and was not launched anymore.
Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and Azerbaijan Railways on September 8, 2017 signed a memorandum of cooperation on the joint operation of a permanent rail-ferry service for the development of freight traffic along the EU-Ukraine-Black Sea-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea-Asian region states route using ferries of Ukrzaliznytsia.
