On October 17, 2024, a solemn diplomatic reception was held in Kyiv, organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Ukraine on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the country’s independence. The event was attended by numerous diplomats, government officials and distinguished guests, including Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Yevhen Perebyinis.
In his speech, the Ambassador of Indonesia to Ukraine, Mr. Arief Muhammad Basalamah, thanked the Ukrainian partners for their support and expressed his deep conviction in the importance of further development of bilateral relations between the two countries.
“We deeply value our friendship with Ukraine, which has been developing for over three decades. The importance of our diplomatic ties is emphasized by the growth of bilateral trade, which reached 443.2 million US dollars in the first eight months of 2024,” the ambassador said.
He also emphasized the symbolic significance of celebrating Indonesia’s Independence Day in Kyiv, which underscores our common commitment to freedom and peace. According to the Ambassador, the Republic of Indonesia, which unites more than 17 thousand islands, is an example of unity in diversity, which resonates with Ukrainian values.
The Ambassador paid special attention to the achievements of Indonesia under President Joko Widodo, emphasizing infrastructure reforms and economic achievements of the country.
“President Widodo has begun the transformation of Indonesia, in particular through large-scale infrastructure projects, including the construction of new roads, bridges, and airports. These efforts ensure the long-term development of our economy and facilitate its integration into global markets,” he emphasized.
Mr. Basalama also focused on the country’s digital transformation strategy: According to him, Indonesia’s digital economy is developing rapidly, opening up new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship. The country is committed to building a knowledge economy that will allow our nation to remain competitive in the global world.
The ambassador also touched upon the issue of the new capital of Indonesia – Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN), which is being built in the province of East Kalimantan. The IKN project is a response to the challenges of the future. The new capital symbolizes the Indonesian people’s desire for sustainable development and decentralization, and will become a model of a “green city” based on the principles of sustainable development.
In addition to economic and infrastructure projects, the ambassador noted cultural and educational initiatives that deepen ties between the two countries. He emphasized the importance of cooperation in education and culture.
“Our exhibition “Indonesia through the Lens” in Lviv and Ukrainian universities, as well as the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between universities, testify to our common goal of strengthening mutual understanding between our peoples,” Arif Muhammad Basalama emphasized.
Indonesia recognized Ukraine’s independence on December 28, 1991, and diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Indonesia were established on June 11, 1992.
Arif Muhammad Basalama, Embassy of Indonesia, INDONESIA, UKRAINE
The board of Polish Getin Holding and Serhiy Tigipko’s TAS Group signed a purchase and sale agreement for Idea Bank on Friday, with the base amount of the deal amounting to $34 million, according to a press release from the group on Friday and a stock exchange announcement from the holding.
According to the statement, the buyer of 100% of the shares is Alkemi Limited (Cyprus), a member of the TAS group, and the transaction is subject to the approval of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine, and is governed by English law and the requirements of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Idea Bank Ukraine operates in the retail banking segment and focuses on servicing individuals. The bank’s main products are cash loans, credit cards, deposits, current accounts and debit cards. As of August 1, 2024, total assets of Idea Bank amounted to UAH 11.72 billion, ranking it 27th among 62 Ukrainian banks. Its equity capital as of that date amounted to UAH 1.74 billion, and net profit for the first seven months of this year was UAH 417.3 million.
TAS Group is one of the largest financial and industrial groups in Ukraine, which is represented in banking, insurance, railcar building, metallurgy, packaging materials, logistics, agriculture, food industry and real estate.
The group owns Universal Bank and TAScombank with assets of UAH 134.34 billion and UAH 36.62 billion, respectively, ranking 9th and 16th in the market by this indicator. The agreement stipulates that if the closing date is later than December 31, 2024, Alkemi Limited will pay Getin Holding an additional $0.8 million for each full calendar month starting from January 2025.
Idea Bank (formerly Plus Bank) was founded in 1989. In June 2020, the deal to sell Idea Bank to Ivan Svitek, former CEO of Alfa-Bank (Kyiv), and Ukrainian investment company Dragon Capital was terminated: the parties failed to agree on its commercial terms within the timeframe set by the agreement. Later, Dragon Capital and Svitek managed to buy Unex Bank from Vadym Novynskyi’s Smart Holding before the war.
In late February 2022, Getin Holding announced that it had failed to sell Idea Bank for the second time. The agreement on the terms of sale of its 100% stake to Rinat Akhmetov’s First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB, Kyiv), signed on November 10, 2021, was terminated due to the failure to meet all the conditions for the transfer of ownership by February 25. Following the termination of the agreement with FUIB, Getin Holding abandoned its plans to sell its Ukrainian subsidiary amid Russia’s ongoing military aggression against Ukraine.
On March 27, 2023, the National Bank of Ukraine recognized the business reputation of both the Polish holding and its main owner, Czarnecki, as impeccable. In this regard, the Ukrainian regulator temporarily deprived Getin Holding of the right to vote on 100% of Idea Bank’s shares and set a one-year deadline for the holding and its main owner Leszek Czarnecki to eliminate the violation, and a year later refused to return the voting rights to the holding. In addition, the NBU approved Jacek Piechota, President of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, as a trustee of Idea Bank.
In Poland, as a result of the decisions of the Bank Guarantee Fund, the Polish Idea Bank became part of Pekao Bank, while Getin Noble Bank was also put into rehabilitation, changed its name to VeloBank and was sold to the American fund Cerberus Capital Management LP at the end of March this year.
At the end of April this year, the NBU gave Getin Holding six months to sell its 100% stake in the authorized capital of Idea Bank. In addition, a similar demand was made of Mr. Charnetsky, who was required by the NBU to sell 44.98% of Idea Bank to Getin Holding within six months, offering as an alternative to sell Charnetsky’s stake in Getin Holding or LC Corp BV, which belongs to him, to LC Corp BV, which owns 34.17% of Getin Holding.
The Swiss government will provide 30 million Swiss francs (about $34.7 million) to support the work of the Geneva-based Fondation suisse de déminage (FSD) in Ukraine until 2027, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has said.
“These are players at the forefront. We need a strategy, but above all we need the men and women who do the work and the machines. I believe that with this contribution, the Swiss Foundation will be able to significantly expand its activities,” he said at a conference on Thursday in Lausanne at the Second Annual Ukraine Mine Action Conference (UMAC-2024).
Cassis noted that with this support, the FSD will be more confident in its work, as it knows that Ukraine’s strategic mine action plan will be funded in the long term and therefore it can commit to it.
The Foreign Minister noted that such international conferences often become a catalyst for government decisions to allocate support, and expressed hope that other countries would follow the example of Switzerland, which last year also allocated CHF100 million for demining to Ukraine over four years.
“The purpose of the conference, which aims to strengthen international cooperation and support for humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, is precisely to share knowledge and best practices at the technical level and at the same time at the political level to ensure support, not only moral but also financial and strategic, for the recovery, which is not an easy task,” said Cassis.
He noted that the conference will result in a call to action.
“We don’t need new rules, we don’t need papers, we need action. And it is on this word that we would like to focus the attention of all those present here today,” the Foreign Minister emphasized.
According to him, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression, Switzerland has allocated about CHF3.7 billion to Ukraine, most of which is intended for 65 thousand Ukrainians who have been accepted by the country.
Cassis said that the Swiss government has decided to remain committed to Ukraine for the next 12 years, and expects that the country’s parliament will reconsider its decision and approve the allocation of CHF1.5 billion over the next four years for a program for Ukraine, which includes humanitarian demining, as well as recovery, digitalization, decentralization and other projects.
He added that a program for spending these funds is being prepared, which will provide a general picture of what Switzerland wants to do over the next four years.
“Some things still have to be approved by the parliament. Discussions are ongoing. I am confident that by the end of the year we will have positive decisions to maintain our support for Ukraine,” he concluded.
By the end of 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia’s branch, the Transport Logistics Center (TLC), will receive 120 units of new grain carriers of the 19-8005-U model, the center’s website reports.
“Grain carriers are designed to operate throughout the entire 1520 mm gauge railroad network and have the ability to be switched from 1520 mm gauge type 2 bogies to 1435 mm gauge bogies with screw ties and buffer devices, with a design speed of up to 120 km/h, which eliminates the need to connect coupling cars,” the Center for Transportation Logistics said.
According to the report, the grain carriers with a carrying capacity of 69.5 tons have a body volume of 104 cubic meters, size 02-VM, five loading and six unloading hatches.
Ukrainian businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky’s holding company UFuture has sold LvivTech.City to Western Ukrainian developer VD Group to optimize its portfolio. After reconception, the project will be implemented under the Lviv.City brand, with the first phase scheduled for completion by the end of 2025.
“Innovative parks and integrated projects that are a continuous ecosystem are a global trend that we have brought to Ukraine by creating UNIT.City and scaling the project in western and eastern Ukraine. I am pleased that the Ukrainian developers who became the new owners of LvivTech.City understand the prospects of this model. For me and UFuture, the funds raised from the sale will allow us to reduce the loan portfolio and redirect investments to key projects for the company,” commented Vasyl Khmelnytsky, founder of UFuture.
UFuture told Interfax-Ukraine that under the agreement, the office building B01 and corporate rights in the companies that own the LvivTech.City innovation park project were sold.
VD Group reported that they had changed the project concept, most significantly, changing the class from business to premium segment, respectively, and adjusting the content and materials.
“There is a shortage of high-quality premium housing in Lviv, which is always in demand by a certain audience. All that Lviv offers, calling it premium, is at most a business class. However, Lviv is a metropolis of the West, a logistics hub and a city with the largest number of relocated businesses, more and more Ukrainians are choosing it as their new home, and this trend is only growing over time,” the company’s press service commented.
The project is being adjusted by the team that created the concept of LvivTech.City – achimatika.
There are five phases, 11 buildings with a height of 7-11 floors, a total of 500 apartments, as well as a modern preschool, a hospital, coworking areas, and an extensive commercial component. At the same time, Lviv.City is implementing open planning solutions – a promenade with street retail and a square, the Korsa pedestrian road, will be arranged to connect the city center with Stryi Park. The project will reflect VD Group’s experience in creating panoramic rooftop pools.
The company focuses on the innovation and environmental friendliness of construction solutions. In particular, windows with safe glazing from floor to ceiling, 3.05 m high; warm aluminum, porcelain stoneware, environmentally friendly gypsum plaster, VRF system that allows you to create a personalized microclimate in the apartment, water purification using the world’s leading technologies, a separate ventilation shaft from each apartment, etc. will be used.
As for security issues, the underground floors, in addition to the parking lot, will have two separate shelters with the comfort of an apartment with bathrooms, a kitchen, a pet room, comfortable furniture, water, additional ventilation and a chimney. They will be designed for all residents and guests of the complex, and additional protected space is planned for each apartment.
The energy independence of the residents will be ensured through the use of diesel power plants. All engineering systems of the buildings are connected to uninterrupted power supply: heating, water supply, fire protection systems, communication networks and elevators. Additionally, to increase the level of comfort, flowing water storage tanks are installed in the basements. This solution makes it possible to compensate for the peak load on the water supply system during peak periods in the morning and evening.
According to VD Group, the start of construction work at the site is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024, and preparatory work is underway. The first phase is scheduled to be commissioned in a year, at the end of 2025.
As for the future price, the agency was informed by the pre-booking sales departments that it will be approximately EUR3.2-3.5 thousand per square meter, as they have ambitions to build “the most premium complex in Europe in the center of Lviv”, while all three-room apartments in the first phase have already been booked.
The construction company VD Group (EDRPOU code 39475589) has been operating since 2017, with Vasyl Kavlak as the ultimate beneficiary. The developer is implementing projects in Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv, and Bukovel, 12 of which have been commissioned and three are under construction.
UFuture is a holding company of Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky that unites his commercial and social projects. The company has a diversified portfolio of assets in real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and IT. The value of UFuture’s assets is estimated at $500 million, and the total capitalization of the businesses in which the company has invested is up to $1 billion.
In 2024, Ingo Insurance Company (Kyiv) paid a record UAH 231 million in insurance indemnities to 97% of farmers participating in the MeteoZahyst program from the representative office of the leading agrochemical company Syngenta Ukraine due to the extremely dry and hot season, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, this figure is 10 times higher than the indemnity in the 2023 season and the highest compensation rate for the entire period of the program’s operation since 2016.
The insurance company noted that climate change continues to pose significant challenges for agriculture, as evidenced by crop damage caused by severe drought and heat in Ukrainian farms in the 2024 season. The implemented index insurance program from Syngenta in partnership with Ingo allowed 349 farms to partially reduce losses from adverse weather conditions.
“This season, MeteoZahyst’s coverage has expanded by 88% to 502,000 hectares. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, the amount of compensation increased 10 times, and the average level of compensation amounted to 52%. We support Ukrainian farmers, even in the frontline areas, with agro-technological innovations, services and unique financial products. When purchasing Syngenta products, each customer has the opportunity to apply for participation in our insurance program free of charge,” said Roman Khrypko, Head of Financial Programs and Insurance Solutions at Syngenta.
The company noted that the main crops covered by insurance payments in the 2024 season were corn and sunflower with a total area of 335 thousand hectares and a compensation amount of UAH 225 million. Agricultural producers have insured sunflower and corn crops in 1039 applications, including 1033 applications with 99% indemnification and 386 with 100% indemnification.
According to Khrypko, almost 50% of the total compensation amount was paid to farms in Kharkiv, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
“Thanks to our cooperation with Syngenta and the use of advanced index-based insurance methods, we are able to clearly record risks such as drought and provide farmers with effective tools to minimize losses. Losses are automatically triggered when weather indices exceed predefined thresholds. Therefore, farmers receive insurance compensation faster than in the case of conventional loss settlement,” said Ruslan Zymovets, Head of Agricultural Insurance at Ingo.
“In the 2024 season, MeteoZahyst offered insurance for sunflower, grain, corn and rapeseed crops against three weather risks: drought, heat and rain. The key period of the program’s operation is the flowering and grain filling phases.
Currently, the program authors are finalizing the terms of MeteoProtection 2025 to further support farmers.
Syngenta AG (Syngenta) is a Swiss company, one of the leaders in the production of plant protection products and seeds. The company was formed in November 2000 as a result of the merger of the agricultural divisions of Novartis AG and AstraZeneca Plc.
The company is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. More than 28 thousand employees of the company work in 90 countries.
Ingo has almost 30 years of experience in the market. Since 2017, the main shareholder of the company is the Ukrainian business group DCH. The company is one of the largest insurance organizations in Ukraine in terms of premiums, own assets and insurance claims.
It holds 29 licenses for various types of compulsory and voluntary insurance and provides insurance services to corporate and retail clients.
“Ingo is a full member of the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU), a member of the American Chamber of Commerce (ACC), the European Business Association (EBA), the National Association of Insurers of Ukraine (NAIU) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). On September 21, 2023, the rating agency IBI-rating confirmed the long-term credit rating of JSC IC “Ingo” on the national rating scale at uaAA.
