Kharkiv-based JSC Turboatom and Westinghouse have extended a memorandum of understanding in the nuclear energy sphere for one year.
The press service of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom reported that the document was signed on November 7, 2018 by Turboatom Director General Viktor Subotin, Westinghouse Vice President and Managing Director Aziz Dag and Energoatom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky during the international fuel and energy forum held in Kyiv.
“The memorandum of understanding with Turboatom includes cooperation under the Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge Project. According to the memorandum, Turboatom will provide products and services for the turbine part of the project. Yesterday, the expansion of the current memorandum for another year was signed,” Dag told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, Westinghouse within cooperation with Turboatom continues to discuss preparations for the implementation of programs to increase the installed capacity of VVER power units and the capability utilization index, while activation of cooperation is possible when launching the Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge Project.
The government decided to implement the Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge pilot project in June 2015. The project envisages organizing the transmission of power from reactor two of the Khmelnytsky NPP to the EU power grid. The funds received from electricity exports from this reactor are planned to be used to finance the construction of reactors three and four of the Khmelnytsky NPP.
A consortium of companies, consisting of Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB, Polenergia International S.àr.l. and EDF Trading Limited, announced their intention to participate in the project of arranging the Ukraine-EU energy bridge.
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv has met with his colleague from Turkey Ruhsar Pekcan in Istanbul, where they discussed issues of enhancing trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. “Within the framework of Petro Poroshenko’s visit to Turkey, I’ve met with my Turkish counterpart, the Minister of Trade for Turkey. We are talking about strengthening trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey, especially when bilateral trade volumes are constantly growing,” Kubiv wrote on his Facebook page.
“There are also good prospects for cooperation in the digital economy, industry, energy, IT, aviation and many other spheres,” the Ukrainian official added.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of physical culture and sports with the Secretariat of Sports of the Argentine Republic, Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Ihor Zhdanov has said.
“While visiting Buenos Aires, I signed an agreement between the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the Secretariat of Sports of the Argentine Republic on cooperation in the field of physical culture and sports,” the minister wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
He noted that Secretary of State for Sports of Argentina Carlos Javier Mac Allister, who is a member of the government, and his successor, Diogenes de Urquiza, attended the signing ceremony. He starts to perform the duties of his colleague in a month.
According to Zhdanov, the agreement establishes the legal framework of the Ukrainian-Argentine cooperation in the field of physical culture and sports through the central executive bodies and public organizations of physical culture and sports.
“There will be an intensive exchange of experience between coaches and athletes of both countries within the framework of the agreement,” the minister said.
Study visits of specialists, organization and holding of seminars and conferences on issues of the sphere of physical culture and sports with the participation of representatives of state bodies, national federations for sports, sports societies and clubs are planned.
Head of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakiv Smolii positively assesses the course of the negotiations on the possibilities of obtaining the next tranche of financing with the mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that have been held in Kyiv since September 6.
“The negotiations with the IMF are continuing. The mission is finishing its work next week, and we expect a positive decision on continuing cooperation,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the 15th YES forum organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Kyiv.
Asked about the aspects of this cooperation, Smolii noted that the fund’s continued financial support for Ukraine remains an important element of it.
“The replenishment of foreign exchange reserves is the key to macro-financial stability,” the NBU head said.
As reported, the IMF mission headed by Ron van Rooden began work in Kyiv on September 6 and plans to work until September 19 “to discuss the latest economic events and economic policy.”
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.
