President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez discussed areas of cooperation between the countries, including energy, infrastructure, digitalization and cybersecurity.
“Energy, infrastructure, digitalization, cybersecurity – there are many areas in Ukraine for cooperation with Spain. I am glad to speak with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, our mutual understanding is a step towards warm and effective relations between the two countries. I wish you health! I will be glad to see you in Ukraine!” Zelensky wrote on his Twitter page.
The interlocutors noted the importance of holding the fourth meeting of the Ukrainian-Spanish Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Economic and Industrial Cooperation this year in Kyiv, the presidential press service reported.
The leaders also discussed the development of trade and economic cooperation between the two states.
“Spain is one of Ukraine’s main trading partners in the European Union and maintains its position as Europe’s largest importer of Ukrainian grain. We are ready to continue being a reliable strategic supplier of grain products to Spain,” the Ukrainian President said.
The Spanish Prime Minister said that he would assist Ukraine in obtaining the vaccine both at the level of bilateral relations and at the EU level.
In addition, particular attention was paid to the signing of the Common Aviation Area Agreement between the European Union with Ukraine. “I am grateful to the Spanish party for its efforts and willingness to facilitate the signing of this long-awaited and mutually beneficial agreement. I expect a positive decision from the EU in the coming weeks,” Zelensky said.
The State Agency for Infrastructure Projects (Ukrinfraproekt) and the Norwegian company Q-Free ASA have discussed the prospects for cooperation in 2021 regarding the installation of Weigh-in-Motion (WiM) complexes.
“Today we’ve met with representatives of the Norwegian company Q-Free ASA, who are interested in the development of a project for Weigh-in-Motion complexes in Ukraine. We discussed the prospects for cooperation in 2021 on the establishment of such complexes,” Head of Ukrinfraproekt Kyrylo Khomiakov said on Facebook.
At the same time, he noted that in 2020 Ukrinfraproekt installed 20 WiM complexes, in 2021 it is planned to install 28 such complexes.
Q-Free ASA (Trondheim) is a Norwegian company founded in 1984. It has offices in 16 countries of the world, the number of employees is about 380. Since 2002, it has been listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker QFR.
EU4Energy has launched a project of technical assistance for Ukraine to implement EU Regulation 347/2013 for the development of energy infrastructure, according to the website of the Energy Community Secretariat.
“On March 10, EU4Energy launched a technical assistance project to assist Ukraine in the transposition of Regulation (EU) 347/2013, which aims to facilitate investments in energy infrastructure,” the report on the website of the agency reads.
“Representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection of Ukraine and Energy Community Secretariat experts discussed ways to put the new project in motion. The draft legislation will be developed with EU4Energy assistance by the end of April 2020 and is to rely on the findings of the legal analysis of the current regulatory framework of Ukraine developed by the Secretariat’s experts in 2019,” according to the document.
“The Regulation prescribes establishing a national competent authority, setting procedures for the permitting process and defining the methodology and criteria to be used for evaluating investment in electricity and gas projects and the risks incurred by them,” it says.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed that $2.9 billion, which NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy received from Russia’s Gazprom as the execution of the award of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, are sent for the implementation of infrastructure projects and healthcare development.
“We plan to additionally provide funds for road construction. This is our infrastructure priority, other infrastructure projects, the medical sector and energy efficiency. Among the plans is to build more than 200 medical aid stations across Ukraine,” he said at a meeting with representatives of the Cabinet ministers and the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, the press service of the head of state reported.
Zelensky invited the government to prepare the necessary draft documents within two weeks.
Astarta agricultural and industrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has invested $71 million in the development of grain infrastructure under the Grain of Astarta investment program launched in 2014. According to a posting of the company on its Facebook page, over the past two years Astarta build four silos in Poltava region and bought Krasyliv silo in Khmelnytsky region.
“The grain infrastructure development program, launched by the company in 2014, has so far been implemented in the form of seven modern (both newly-built and modernized) silos with a total capacity of 550,000 tonnes, as well as its own fleet of 200 railway cars,” the agricultural holding said.
In general, since the beginning of the program, the company has invested $71 million in this direction.
“Starting Grain of Astarta as a program for expanding facilities for our own needs, we have reached the level of providing services and developing eco-systems that are formed around our infrastructure facilities. And we do not stop there. We see great prospects for development and are considering new partnership projects in Chernihiv and Poltava regions,” Astarta Executive Officer Valeriy Sokolenko said.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agribusiness holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. The holding includes eight sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 243,000 hectares and dairy farms, a biogas plant and a soybean processing complex in Poltava region.
Nova Poshta group of companies plans to invest $100 million in infrastructure development in 2020, co-owner of the company Volodymyr Popereshniuk wrote on his Facebook page. “We plan $100 million investment in the development of Nova Poshta for 2020. For us, this is an unprecedented amount, but we need to start sometime. I already said that Nova Poshta had not yet developed, but only trained. Now we are starting!” he declared.
This year, the company plans to launch the second phase of Kyiv Innovation Center, increasing the capacity to 50,000 parcels per hour (with a prospect of up to 60,000).
It is also planned to build four large innovation centers with an automated sorting system in Brovary, Dnipro, Odesa, and Kharkiv.
“The capacity of each will be up to 20,000 parcels per hour. We will also build, update and equip dozens of other terminals in Ukrainian cities with modern equipment,” he said.
In addition, Nova Poshta plans to build the first cargo terminal with a robotic system for sorting pallets and bulky goods, to modernize branches and introduce new equipment to increase the speed of customer service.
“We plan to purchase scooters, pickups, minibuses and intercity containers,” the co-owner of the company said.
According to him, most of the investment will be used for information technology and the development of mobile services.
