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.
Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) plans to invest UAH 1.2 billion in production development in 2020, which is 30% more than last year, and also increase the number of staff. According to the company’s press service, with reference to executive director of Farmak Volodymyr Kostiuk, in 2019 investments for these purposes amounted to UAH 900 million.
“In 2019, we invested about UAH 900 million in the development of production, in 2020 we plan to invest UAH 1.2 billion. The expansion of production leads to an increase in the number of personnel,” he said.
According to Kostiuk, the issue of personnel remains acute for the company.
“We create the most comfortable working conditions for specialists and provide competitive wages. Today we compete with European companies in terms of wages in relation to the average check in a particular country. In 2019, wages at Farmak increased by 14%,” he said.
The top manager also said that in 2019 Farmak expanded its cold, allergological, neurological, gastroenterological product portfolios and is working on complex drugs that it plans to bring to the market in 10-15 years.
The main areas remain cold, endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological portfolios.
Vagif Aliyev, the founder of PrJSC Mandarin Plaza, the investor and developer of Kyiv-based Lavina shopping center, on November 20 launched the first stage of the Blokbuster Mall shopping and entertainment center in Bandery Avenue in Kyiv, investing $400 million in construction. According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, only a Silpo supermarket has started working in the facility. The rest of the stores will be launched on a fan-based basis as they are ready, the founder of Nai Ukraine, the project broker, Vitaliy Boiko, said.
According to him, the cost of investments in the construction of the Blokbuster Mall shopping center was $400 million. The total area of the first stage is 200,000 square meters, the leased area is 110,000 square meters. After the launch of the second phase, which is at an early stage of construction, the total area will be 300,000 square meters, the rental area some 200,000 square meters. The facility is located on a plot of 30 hectares.
“Vagif Aliyev’s pipeline now contains projects for EUR2.9 billion (12 projects of shopping and entertainment centers). This is the second largest indicator in the world in terms of development of retail real estate. Westfield is the first developer in the world with EUR8 billion, and the third one is one of the largest European investors with EUR2.5 billion. The uniqueness is also that all Mandarin Plaza projects are located in one city – Kyiv,” Boiko said at a briefing.
