Ukraine is heading towards economic issues in foreign policy and intends to develop trust and trade relations with Israel, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk said during the third Ukrainian-Israeli Innovation Summit in Kyiv.
“I support the proposal of our President and Foreign Minister about economization of our foreign policy. In our case, this includes such important aspects as the development of investment attractiveness, innovative technologies and trade relations between Ukraine and Israel. These are all real things, but for this we need to develop trust between our nations. We also need to support the agricultural sector, which needs Israeli technologies, irrigation systems, in everything that is aimed at its support and development,” Korniychuk said.
He said that the non-diplomatic trade and innovation mission of Ukraine in Jerusalem will also address these areas.
“This will also be a priority for the embassy in the next 6-12 months. We have already discussed the issue of premises for this mission, but the main question remains who will be involved in the B2B area in the mission,” the diplomat said.
The ambassador also announced his intention to pay more attention to popularizing the investment attractiveness of Ukraine. “Israel for me is a country with which I practiced law for many years, paying attention to supporting foreign direct investment in Ukraine. And I intend to be a lawyer for all Israeli investors in Ukraine and to promote their investments,” he said.
“My mission in Israel begins next week, and after the quarantine, I will have meetings with representatives of the government and parliament. I am looking forward to it,” Korniychuk said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had a phone conversation with President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, during which they highly appreciated the trade and economic cooperation between the countries, discussed further steps to develop mutually beneficial cooperation, the press service of the President’s Office said.
“The President of Ukraine expressed interest in further strengthening trade and economic cooperation with Egypt, our country’s largest trading partner on the African continent and in the Middle East. Zelensky noted the contribution of Ukrainian companies to ensuring food security in Egypt, and stressed the importance of successful implementation of projects of Ukrainian enterprises in this country,” the message reads.
In addition, the topic of strengthening cooperation in the space industry was separately discussed.
“Given the considerable experience and the available industrial and engineering base, Ukraine is interested in resuming mutually beneficial cooperation with Egypt in such areas as satellite production and management, modernization of ground-based flight control base and equipment for testing spacecraft, training and education of Egyptian specialists. I am convinced that our states have a significant potential for cooperation in the use of outer space for peaceful purposes,” the President of Ukraine said.
The presidents also exchanged invitations on visiting the two countries after the stabilization of the situation with the coronavirus.
Nafta RV LLC, a subsidiary of Slovakia’s Nafta, has won an electronic auction to receive a license for developmet of the Vantazhkivske oil, gas field (Poltava region), according to information on the ProZorro.Sale platform. During the auction held last Wednesday, Nafta RV offered UAH 6.846 million for the license compared with Optima Resource private enterprise, which stopped at the starting price of UAH 6.795 million.
After registering the required documents, Nafta RV will receive a subsurface site for geological exploration and further research and development for a period of 20 years.
According to the materials of the auction, prospective gas resources of category C3 at the Vantazhkivske field were estimated at 3.091 billion cubic meters. It is recommended to drill two exploratory wells with a depth of 5,700 meters and 6,300 meters.
Nafta’s main shareholder is EPH holding of Czech businessman Daniel Křetínský.
Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection of Ukraine will develop a new energy strategy of Ukraine, said minister Oleksiy Orzhel. “The energy strategy will be definitely reviewed because we have a strategy, which isn’t fulfilled,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.
In particular, the minister noted among the priorities the increase in gas of own production, as the existing potential is not used enough. According to him, the gas production level in Ukraine corresponds to 1.2% of reserves, while the global trend in the world is 4%-5%.
“There will be legislative initiatives to increase gas production. There will be reforms on the market, we invite everyone to invest,” Orzhel said.
He added that the issue of such investments has been discussed with American partners at the negotiations in Poland that took place on the weekend.
Besides, the minister reminded that Ukraine has recently launched open licensing competitions.
The European Commission (EC) is preparing an international project of assistance to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 25 million for the development of the digital economy and e-government. The issues were discussed at a meeting of representatives of the EC with advisor to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“During the meeting, representatives of the European Commission reported on the preparation of an international project to assist Ukraine in the amount of EUR 25 million for the development of the digital economy and e-government, and also provided their recommendations for the “State in the Smartphone” concept. Key proposals related to the development of citizen identification, the introduction of an effective structure for managing… the implementation of ambitious tasks,” the press service of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
In turn, Fedorov told about plans and prospects: “For us, we have very clear plans for the year and key performance indicators until 2024. The “State in the Smartphone” for me is when a Ukrainian can solve any life or business situation online in one click and preferably from a smartphone, when our citizen will forever forget what an official looks like and where he is, when Ukrainians will be able to actively participate in the development of the state through a smartphone.”
First Deputy Head of the State e-Government Agency Oleksiy Vyskub told EC representatives about the eBaby project, through which parents of newborns will be able to get 10 online services.
According to the press service, representative of the Support Group for Ukraine (SGUA) in the European Commission Frank Paul, representative of the Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine Martin Klaucke and Coordinator of the Public Administration Reform Sector of the EU Delegation in Ukraine Serhiy Ladny took part in the meeting at the president’s office.
The interdepartmental commission organizing and implementing the product sharing agreements (PSA) has received a bid from Poland’s Unimot seeking to participate in a tender to develop the Ivanivske field (Kharkiv region) under PSA, Executive Director of the Association of Gas Producers Roman Opimakh has said on his Facebook page.
“Today [on June 6], the 14th company was registered, which submitted an application for participation in the tender for entering into a PSA for the Ivanivske field. It became the third candidate for this lot, which gives the right to explore and produce fossil fuel in Kharkiv region. This is the Polish concern Unimot selling automotive fuels and such commodities as gas and electricity,” he wrote.
Opimakh said that the procedure of the tender allows the acceptance of applications for participation sent by mail subject to the availability of a mail stamp confirming the sending of the main meeting the deadline – May 28.
He also said that at present, the company has no experience in exploration and production, however, Opimakh said that joint development with some specialized company is not ruled out.
Unimot S.A is an energy company which activities include the import and sale of petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and electricity.
Previously, the company has repeatedly reported about entering the Ukrainian fuel market with the AVIA network of gas stations.