KYIV. May 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The mayors of Zhytomyr, Ternopil and Hlukhiv (Sumy region) have invigorated efforts to attract foreign investors to implement investment projects in their cities.
“We are well aware that during this [crisis] time it is impossible to count on any significant financial investment on the part of the state, therefore another option is to work with foreign investors,” Ternopil Mayor Serhiy Nadal said at an investment conference in Kyiv.
Zhytomyr Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn said the city plans in 2016 to raise $50 million for implementation of different small projects.
“$50 million is very little for us. These are the projects that allow Zhytomyr to survive. Unfortunately, we are not talking about large-scale infrastructure projects,” he said.
According to him, in particular, this is the construction of four thermal plants using biofuel: two of the projects, funded by Austrian and Swedish investors, are to be implemented in 2016. In addition, Chinese investors are interested in the projects: a framework agreement on cooperation has been signed with them. The project of building a hydroelectric power plant is being implemented together with Swedish investors in the current year. In addition, there are projects to construct four boiler rooms in schools for a total of $500,000.
According to the Zhytomyr mayor, loan and grant agreements worth EUR65 million have been signed over the past year and a half, of which EUR28 million was used for the development of heating systems and EUR26 million for water supply systems.
At the same time, he said the budget for the development of Zhytomyr for this year is $10 million, which is very little for a city with the population of 272,000 people.
KYIV. May 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and state-controlled Ukrgasbank have agreed on a joint project in the field of “green” financing, providing easier access to funding for companies that intend to implement renewable and energy efficient technologies.
The relevant agreement was signed by the chief global coordinator of the program of cooperation with financial institutions on sustainable financing and Ukrgasbank Board Chairman Kyrylo Shevchenko.
Head of the IFC regional office in Ukraine and Belarus Rufat Alimardanov noted the IFC in 2015 invested more than $2.2 billion in “green” projects around the world.
“Today we are signing an agreement on cooperation with state-run Ukrgasbank. This is an important step for us. Jointly with the bank team and the government of Ukraine we will more actively work to expand access to finance for those companies that want to develop “green” economy,” he said.
Shevchenko, in turn, said that starting this program in the banking sector of Ukraine, Ukrgasbank opens a new page in its development and intends to become bank number one in environmental financing in the country.
TALLINN/KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Former Estonian sportsman and hammer thrower Juri Tamm wants to open luxury electric cars production facility in Ukraine in a couple of years if he finds an investor who will be ready to invest EUR 4 million in the project, Postimees publications said on Monday.
Tamm is the co-owner of Ukraine’s Electric Marathon International that designed a prototype of Syncronous car on the basis of auto parts bought on the global automobile market.
Tamm said that the first batch the company intends to make will consist of 20 electric cars.
According to Electrocars, a total of 693 electric cars were registered in Ukraine as of middle of February 2016, including 485 Nissan Leaf cars and 45 Tesla cars.
KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some UAH 85 million or 18.79% of the planned volume (UAH 452 million) has been saved via the ProZorro public procurement system in the medical sphere. This is almost 6% higher than average figures in the system.
Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the Tribune. Poltava’s Independent Print Media portal, 17,517 of 55,942 tenders that passed the auction stage were organized by medical institutions from 23 regions.
The largest number of tenders (9,166) were carried out in Kyiv (18.97% were saved) region, as well as in Dnipropetrovsk region with 4,111 tenders and 19.14% saved funds.
Other regions also saved much money via the ProZorro electronic procurement system. Chernihiv region conducted 907 tenders and saved 16.64%, Mykolaiv – 701 (21.31%), Volyn 561 (19.51%), Odesa – 442 (17.43%), Donetsk – 360 (18.75%), Rivne – 241 (16.59%), Poltava – 211 (18.86%), Zhytomyr – 97 (19.55%), Ternopil – 94 (13.83%), Chernivtsi – 90 (6.93%), Luhansk – 89 (22.56%), Zaporizhia – 86 (16.92%), Kharkiv – 77 (22.47%), Kirovohrad – 73 (12.64%), Cherkasy – 68 (11.89%), Lviv – 62 (16.12%), Sumy – 39 (18.68%), Volyn – 32 (15.65%), Ivano-Frankivsk – 18 (14.3%), Zakarpattia – 13 (7.62%), and Kherson – 6 (29.96%) regions.
The most popular goods were medical equipment – 4,956 tenders. Some 16.26% of funds were saved of almost UAH 132 million planned. Medical institutions bought foods at 3,812 tenders and saved 21.68% of UAH 118 million planned, medicines were bought at 1,655 tenders and almost 14% of UAH 46 million was saved.
The largest funds were saved when medical forms and enrollment books were bought: UAH 1.85 million of UAH 3.67 million (50%).
A total of 282 hospitals, 140 assistance centers, 64 early treatment centers, 60 out-patient hospitals, 57 boarding schools, 27 healthcare departments, 26 recreation centers, 16 care homes, 15 blood centers, nine AIDS centers and nine military hospitals organized electronic trading via the ProZorro platform.
KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry initiates the halving of the term for getting a permit to enter river ports by ships with foreign flags from 10 to five days.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that Deputy Minister Yuriy Vaskov gave the information at the international conference entitled “Freight Traffic on Dnipro River” on Monday.
“We included the proposal to the bill on the domestic water transport. The measure has been on the parliament’s agenda for around six months and it has not yet been put on the voting agenda,” he said.
Vaskov said that the legislative work will continue until the bill is passed.
Ten days to issue the permit is not violation of law, but this is an example of inefficient legislation.
KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) intends to invest about EUR800 million in projects in Ukraine in 2016, while in future mulls the annual funding of up to EUR1 billion for the country, EIB Senior Corporate Banker Jean -Jacques Soulacroup has told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the fourth international investment conference New Ukraine in Kyiv.
“Last year we provided loans worth EUR1.2 billion, this year, I believe, there will be about EUR800 million. We work with the European Commission to see whether it is possible to expand the portfolio and reach a figure of EUR1 billion per year and maintain this volume,” he said.
According to him, about 60% of lending falls on public sector – development of transport infrastructure, energy, energy efficiency projects, municipal projects, environmental projects, and 40% is aimed at lending to small and medium-sized enterprises through local partner banks.
According to the banker, the EIB’s total portfolio of loans in Ukraine is EUR4.3 billion.
