Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv), part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, and division of U.S. Boeing – Aviall Services, Inc., which reached an agreement on partnership under the program to manufacture modernized Ukrainian next generation regional jets An-148/158/178 at Farnborough 2018 in London in July, plan to complete the designing of a cooperation scheme step by step during the implementation of the general agreement on cooperation.
Commenting at the request of Interfax-Ukraine on the plans Antonov State Enterprise announced in Western media to resume mass production of the planes with the assistance of Boeing already by the end of 2019, the company’s press service said: “The general agreement signed at Farnborough 2018 with Aviall does not have the terms of the start of the mass production of the aircraft with participation of the U.S. company, since the U.S. company is not involved directly in the production process.”
“The signed agreement is the basic one, and fixes agreements on the organization of work with Aviall Services, Inc., which will ensure the procurement and supply of the Antonov state enterprise with a wide range of components for the mass production of new aircraft,” the press service said.
“The document also includes the plans of the parties for the creation of a licensed warehouse by the Antonov state enterprise in its territory, where Aviall will supply the components. The products supplied by the U.S. company will be paid by Antonov State Enterprise as far as the chain of purchases for filling the warehouse is secured. As the media mistakenly interpreted, there is also no provision in the signed general agreement that Boeing participates in the creation of the warehouse,” the press service said.
The press service of Antonov State Enterprise reported that the creation of a scheme for prospective cooperation with Aviall Services Inc. was not completed at this stage: “Details of this process will be specified at each stage of cooperation,” the official representative of the enterprise said.
“Details of the prospective partnership between Antonov State Enterprise and the Boeing division under the program, which has the conventional name An-1X8 NEXT in the signed general agreement, can be announced after the signing of the contracts for the supply of components and the transition to the practical phase of cooperation under the project,” the press service said.
France’s Alstom, the producer of rolling stock and infrastructure solutions, is interested in cooperation with public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia, Managing Director for Western and Central Asia at Alstom Bernard Peille said during the presentation of the first freight electric locomotive for Azerbaijan Railways in Astana (Kazakhstan), an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.
“We recently held talks with Ukrzaliznytsia. According to them, they will need about 210 locomotives of four different types in the next five years. Basically, as we know, they are freight locomotives. We are ready to do this, but everything depends on financing, as well as on what percentage of localization is required,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
Peille also said that Alstom is actively seeking various options for financing supplies of traction to the Ukrainian railways.
Prima T8 AZ8A freight electric locomotive presented in Astana on Wednesday is made under a contract signed by the company and Azerbaijan Railways for supply of 50 locomotives, including Prima M4 AZ4A passenger locomotives.
Ukraine is ready to broaden cooperation with G7 member states on many issues, ranging from security to gender equality, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman told Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland at a meeting. “We are grateful for the support for Ukraine at talks with international partners and for measures to counter the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project,” the government’s website cited Groysman as saying.
Groysman and Freeland met on the sidelines of the second Ukraine Reform Conference in Copenhagen during the Ukrainian prime minister’s visit to Denmark. The sides signed a bilateral energy cooperation document, in particular, with participation of Canada’s ICORE NFP.
The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) and the European Commission (EU) signed the Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement formalizing plans to develop cooperation under the Copernicus Earth observation programme.
The EU delegation to Ukraine said that under the Arrangement signed in line with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and Eastern Partnership, SSAU would provide full, free and open access to space monitoring data from its Earth remote sensing satellites, as well as to geophysical and meteorological data of regional observatories to the Copernicus programme.
According to the document, it is planned to boost cooperation between SSAU, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) in the sphere of collection and use of data of space monitoring from European Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus programme.
Under the Arrangement, the sides would promote cooperation in processing space monitoring data for joint use in the following areas: long-term management of natural resources, monitoring of marine and coastal zones, water resources management, the impact of climate change and adaptation to them, disaster risk reduction, food security and rural development, and health management issues.
Each side will fund its own activities under the programme and adhere to the principle of ‘no exchange of funds.’ The National Center Of Space Facilities Control And Test would coordinate the programme in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is confident that Ukraine will continue cooperation with international financial institutions (IFIs).
“It is clear that the achievement of macroeconomic stability has become possible, first of all, thanks to cooperation with international financial institutions. I am firmly convinced that we will continue cooperation in the future, because we are the only team in Ukraine’s history that ensured the implementation of six consecutive memorandums with the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. Before that, they promised, they took money and forgot to carry out reforms,” the head of state said at a meeting of the National Investment Council in Kyiv on Friday.
At the same time, he added that the IMF funds are sent to the country’s forex reserves, which in the past four years grew 3.5-fold, to $18 billion.
“Despite the fact that Ukraine paid more than $4 billion this year, forex reserves now amount to $18 billion. Compare with the situation that was late 2014 – early 2015: forex reserves – $5 billion, and you had to pay $8 billion. How could we avoid default? They believed us, and today the most difficult period also passed, and in these four years the forex reserves grew 3.5-fold. This is the answer where are the funds of the IMF. They are carefully preserved in the forex reserves of the country,” Poroshenko said.
Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei believes that Sino-Ukrainian cooperation in the scientific sphere should reach a new level. He stressed the importance of developing scientific, technical and innovative cooperation between the two countries. “At the moment, China’s development has entered a new era, so Sino-Ukrainian cooperation should also enter a new era,” he said during a solemn celebration of the Day of Science at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on Friday.
The Chinese envoy said development of scientific, technical and innovative cooperation is very important. During the event, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine awarded prizes for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
As reported, on May 11, the Cabinet awarded five government prizes of UAH 200,000 for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
