KYIV. Oct 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Foreign students inject $504 million a year into the Ukrainian economy, with each of the 63,000 foreign studentsin the country paying on average at least around $2,000 for education every year, Deputy Education and Science Minister of Ukraine Oleh Derevianko said at the 3rd Business and Universities national forum on Thursday.
“Under today‘s exchange rate, this is around UAH 11 billion, and this is almost the whole sum of the financing of public higher education in Ukraine,” he said.
The deputy minister said that in general, the state provides UAH 16 billion a year to finance higher education.
However, revenue from foreign students could be higher: according to the assessment of the Center for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Development, the number of foreign students in Ukraine in 2013-2014 totaled almost 70,000 or 4.1% of the total number of students (1.724 million).
At the forum organized by the Center for CSR Development the role of partnerships between businesses and universities in developing innovations was discussed at a panel.
Derevianko said that education could be considered as an economic category and a sector that has an export potential. The attraction of a large number of foreign students could bring more funds to the country‘s economy directly, not only via the training or development of human capital.
Deputy Finance Minister of Ukraine Oksana Markarova said that the Finance Ministry is ready to promote the development of education. The ministry has started decentralization reform in the sector: the Education and Science Ministry and universities could be more autonomous and responsible for their funds. She said that this would separate good universities from bad ones and would provide financial aid to the former.
Derevianko said that the rapid development of universities would start with the change of their status from budget-funded institutions to profit-making organizations, which would introduce new principles of financing.
He said that the number of universities in the country should be cut to no more than 60-70 educational institutions (today 317) which would focus on research. In addition, the creation of a three-level 12-year high school and the increase of prestige of high occupational education are among the top-priorities. Some UAH 100 million has been allocated to the development of schools.
According to the Center for CSR Development, Ukraine is 74th in terms of cooperation between universities and businesses on research, 29th in the number of scientists and engineers, and 50th in the number of applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) procedure (3.6 applications per million of population). Ukraine is 33rd in the 2015 Bloomberg innovative countries ranking.
Ukraine is 79th in the competitiveness index in 2015-2016 (out of 140 countries), and 64th in the Global Innovation Index (out of 141 countries) in 2015.
Expenses on education in Ukraine totaled 6.7% of the country‘s GDP, and expenses on research work – 0.8% of GDP.
KYIV. Oct 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Germany have signed an agreement on the establishment of the Ukrainian-German Chamber of Commerce, President of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce Eric Schweitzer said at the opening of the Ukrainian-German business forum in Berlin on Friday. “Today, we celebrate the establishment of the Ukrainian-German Chamber of Commerce,” he said. According to Schweitzer, this move will strengthen cooperation between Ukrainian and German businesses. The Ukrainian-German Forum in Berlin is being held on Friday and Saturday. The Ukrainian delegation is led by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk. It also includes Deputy Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko, Deputy Head of Presidential Administration Dmitry Shymkiv, Board Chairman of Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev and Head of State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, as well as four other ministers The forum’s program includes several panels: on the ongoing situation in Ukraine, the reforms in the country, industry and energy, transport and logistics, the agrarian sector and processing, and the hi-tech and IT-sector.
KYIV. Oct 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – On Tuesday, October 20, at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant NPP) EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski officially handed over worth EUR 14 million in state-of-the-art equipment purchased by the EU to the National Training Centre to be commissioned in 2016 at the Zaporizhia NPP, the press service of the Delegation of the EU to Ukraine has reported.
“Co-financed between the European Union and the Ukrainian Government, this National Training Centre is a state-of-the-art nuclear power unit maintenance training facility. It is equipped with a full-scale simulator of a VVER nuclear unit,” reads the report.
When opened for full operation in 2016, it will deliver maintenance trainings based on best international practice to maintenance personnel from the National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom’s fleet of VVER nuclear power units, which are located at four nuclear power plants across Ukraine.
The training centre’s first of a kind simulator of a nuclear power unit will facilitate training and qualification of maintenance staff utilizing a variety of full scope equipment models, in simulated environmental conditions. This will ensure maintenance actions to be carried out on installed operational equipment, and being implemented to the highest standards of safety for both the maintenance personnel and equipment to be maintained.
In addition to maintenance training, the project has established a management training system within Energoatom. The management training, which is also based on international best practice, emulates management principles and practices employed by international nuclear operators that are considered to be the best in class.
According to the report, the combined results of these two key elements will provide Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom with the means to support the safe implementation of the country’s energy strategy regarding electricity generation from nuclear power.
“The European Union and Ukraine see this unique Training Centre as a very important corner stone in our long-lasting cooperation on nuclear safety. With this Centre, the EU and Ukraine demonstrate their joint commitment to a stronger nuclear safety culture worldwide,” Tombinski said.
The event was as well attended by Oleksandr Svetelyk, Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine and Yuriy Nedashkovsky, President Energoatom.
KYIV. Oct 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The German company Kromberg & Schubert, which owns Kromberg & Schubert Ukraine LLC (Volyn region), plans in early 2016 to begin production of cable systems for Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes cars at the second production site in Zhytomyr region.
According to a report on the website of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration, with reference to its head Serhiy Mashkovsky, investment in setting up a new company will amount to about EUR30 million.
To assist investors in solving problems with the supervisory authorities and establishing cooperation between the government and businesses, a memorandum of cooperation with Kromberg & Schubert Ukraine was signed at a meeting of the council for attracting investment at Zhytomyr Regional State Administration.
“Our plan is the second enterprise in Zhytomyr, which will employ about 3,000 people. New projects in Zhytomyr are components for new car brands that will enter the market in 2017: Audi Q2 and BMW,” Technical Director of Kromberg & Schubert Ukraine Slawomir Kaczmarek said.
Kromberg & Schubert Ukraine was established in 2005. According to Volyn Regional State Administration, this is the first plant of the German company in the CIS, in which it invested EUR11.5 million.
The plant produces onboard cable systems for passenger cars. The plant’s capacity is about 1,000 sets of electric cables per day, the main consumers of its products are Daimler AG, BMW, Volkswagen.
IVANO-FRANKIVSK. Oct 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that construction of new high-quality roads in Ukraine with the involvement of funds of foreign partners is essential for the country.
“We’ve forgotten how to build roads, asphalt plants stopped and do not operate, there is no asphalt, stones. They forgot how to hold tenders, as they worked only if it was possible to steal money. We should see new contractors who can show both good quality and terms and the competitive price,” the president said during his visit of the section of the Mukacheve-Lviv (H-09) highway in Ivano-Frankivsk on Wednesday.
He said that Ivano-Frankivsk region should become the proving ground of how to build roads in Ukraine.
“Later, you know that now roads are being built in Zakarpattia and in Lviv region, we would speak about Central Ukraine and we will restore infrastructure of Donbas and build roads there, including using the funds of foreign partners,” the president said.
KYIV. Oct 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A first production line to recycle mercury-containing light bulbs in Ukraine was launched in Lviv at the city’s combined heat and power plant on October 20, 2015, the press service of Lviv City Council has reported.
According to the report, the launch of the production line is foreseen in the project on the creation of the municipal electric and electronic equipment waste disposal system in Lviv which is being realized with the financial support of the EU.
It is planned to provide EUR 1.3 million of financing for the project, and the mercury-containing light bulb recycling line cost EUR 700,000.
Sweden’s MRT System International AB supplied the equipment for the production line.
“Only two persons will work at the line, as it is fully automated, and two persons have been already trained,” Project Coordinator Oksana Viytyk said.
According to the report, the capacity of the production line is 500 tube mercury-containing light bulbs or 800 compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) per hour, which would allow providing the services to the whole western Ukraine. Almost all elements received after bulb recycling can be used as recycled materials.
Waste bulbs will be collected from households using two mobile pick-up centers which have already been bought.
