Ukrtelecom together with Iskratel, the Slovenian telecommunications company, and SID Bank, the Slovenian development bank, signed a new agreement on the development of fiber-optic Internet networks (GPON) in rural zone of Ukraine, Ukrtelecom said on Monday, Mach 23.
According to the company, the new project is designed for two years and includes more than 200 settlements in 13 regions of Ukraine. Total investments in the network construction project will amount to about UAH 200 million.
“The new project is the continuation of a long-term cooperation between Ukrtelecom and Iskratel in the development of high-speed optical access networks. Within its implementation, more than 2,000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines will be laid and modern switching equipment assembled in Slovenia at Iskratel production centers will be installed,” reads the statement.
According to Ukrtelecom, as a result of new network construction, hundreds of thousands people of the villages of Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Odesa, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Rivne, Kherson, Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Luhansk regions will get access to the Internet at speeds to 1 Gbps, to digital interactive television and other services of the company. This type of connection will allow communities to implement the full range of digital services.
The project includes settlements in most of which it was previously not possible to connect to wire Internet.
“Ukrtelecom as a national infrastructure telecoms operator of Ukraine has a unique opportunity to involve European financial and production partners in programs to bridge the digital divide in Ukraine,” Yuriy Kurmaz, the director of the company, said.
At this stage, the construction of the network is conducted according to the plan, namely work has begun in Kharkiv region.
The company said that the situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic did not affect the planned work.
The RDS road construction group invested almost UAH 170 million in the upgrade of its machinery fleet in 2019 and ready to enter the road construction markets of Poland and Romania, the co-owner of the group, Yuriy Shumakher, has said.
“The acquisition of modern machines, mechanisms and vehicles cost the company UAH 167.16 million. For several years now, we have been investing annually about $8 million in the renewal of our fleet of road machines,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, in 2019 the company’s fleet was expanded with 114 units of road machines and equipment.
Shumakher said that RDS uses its own funds, funds borrowed from Ukrainian banks and leasing companies to upgrade its fleet. Also, part of the equipment is bought through financing of manufacturing companies such as Wirtgen and Zeppelin.
The co-owner of the group said that RDS purchases mainly foreign equipment from leaders in modern engineering.
“We have ambitions to participate in tenders abroad,” Shumakher said.
According to him, unlike Ukraine, tenders in Europe have very strict criteria and a mandatory requirement, in particular, is experience in the European Union for at least three to five years.
“We participated in tenders in Moldova several times, but having no experience, we lost. Now, we are trying to analyze the market and participate in tenders in Moldova and Romania. We also plan to try to enter the Polish market as a subcontractor,” the RDS representative said.
According to him, one of the options for entering a Ukrainian company working in the field of road construction a foreign market is to buy a company abroad.
Shumakher said that RDS has been participating in international tenders for five years, working at facilities in Ukraine, which are funded by international institutions.
“We are already taking part in tenders in Ukraine for the money of international institutions. Today, a contract has been signed for the construction of the M-03 road for $12 million provided by the World Bank,” he added.
The Ukrainian group of companies RDS includes Kyivshliakhbud and Rostdorstroy. The core business is construction, reconstruction and maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of airfield complexes.
The company is building concrete road H-14 Kropyvnytsky-Mykolaiv. As part of the reconstruction of the H-31 Dnipro-Reshetylivka highway in Poltava region, RDS is building an overpass over the railway and the section of the first concrete road in Ukraine. In 2019, the company won a World Bank tender for work on the first category highway M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky.
As of January 2020, the company operates in seven regions of Ukraine and has ten production bases.
The ultimate beneficial owners of RDS are Ukrainian citizens Yuriy Shumakher and Yevhen Konovalov. The charter capital of the company is UAH 5.13 million.
Head of Luhansk Regional State Administration Serhiy Haidai has met with Ambassador of France to Ukraine Etienne de Ponsen in Kyiv to discuss financing opportunities for the railway communication in Luhansk region.
“The meeting with the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of France to Ukraine had good results for our region. We agreed on several issues and our French partners will provide financing for them. The amount of investment is estimated at more than EUR 100 million,” the press service of Luhansk Regional State Administration quoted Haidai as saying on Wednesday.
The funds will be spent on the construction of the railway communication to connect the Lantrativka – Kondrashivska-Nova section with the national railway system.
In addition, the sides agreed on the electrification of the railway network in the region and on the implementation of a project on cleaning the water supply system.
“The dialogue with Head of Luhansk Regional State Administration Serhiy Haidai regarding the priorities of the region’s economic development was very productive,” the ambassador said.
China expects Ukraine to provide state guarantees for investing $600 million in the construction of a new unit at Sloviansk thermal power plant (TPP, PJSC Donbasenergo), Liu Jun, the adviser for trade and economic issues at the Embassy of China in Ukraine, has said.
“The Chinese side is ready to invest more than $600 million in this project, provided that the Ukrainian side provides state guarantees,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Jun recalled that the investment agreement between Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEIC) and Donbasenergo for the joint implementation of the project was signed in December 2018.
“The construction of the sixth power unit is a new serious potential joint project between Ukraine and China. I am sure that its implementation will bring great benefits for both the Ukrainian people and Chinese enterprises,” he said.
As reported, the contract between DEIC and Donbasenergo provides for the construction of power units Nos. 6A and 6B of 330 MW each at Sloviansk TPP using CFB technology (burning solid fuel in a circulating fluidized bed).
The contract price is $684.296 million. Financing for the reconstruction foresees 70% of funds of a credit from a Chinese bank.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s international partners and business representatives to become involved in the implementation of infrastructure and social projects in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions affected by the armed conflict. During his speech at the Ukrainian Lunch in Munich, the head of state said that a global fund had been created to restore the Donbas infrastructure in Ukraine.
“It combines two ‘windows’. The first is for international partners, organizations and foundations. The second is for the Ukrainian fund, which will attract funds from the private sector and individual donors,” the head of state said.
According to the president, the key priorities of the fund are large infrastructure projects, work with local business and its affordable crediting, care for the least protected groups of the population, overcoming the consequences of the war – with a focus on youth, women, children and veterans.
“For the first time such a fund is administered jointly by the World Bank, the Office of the President and the Government of Ukraine,” Zelensky stressed.
In addition, the head of state told about the plans to establish the Ministry of Reintegration and Restoration of Donbas.
“I urge our international partners to join and start fundraising for the reconstruction and reintegration of Donbas together with me,” the president summarized.
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.
