Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has announced withdrawal next week from the “red zone” of the epidemiological danger for Kyiv and five regions.
“According to our forecasts, Lviv, Kyiv (any day), Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Odesa and Poltava regions will get out of the red level during the next week,” Liashko wrote on his Facebook page on Friday evening.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Kyiv Metropoliten have signed a loan agreement in the amount of EUR 50 million for the purchase of 50 new metro cars.
According to the website of Kyiv City State Administration, Kyiv City Council and the EBRD signed the necessary guarantee agreement.
“Today we are signing a loan agreement between the EBRD and Kyiv Metropoliten and a guarantee agreement between Kyiv City Council and the EBRD. And I hope that by the end of this year we will conclude a contract for the purchase of new cars for Kyiv Metropoliten. Under the terms of the loan, the city will receive an installment payment plan from the EBRD for 12 years,” Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said.
He also said that now Kyiv is building two new metro stations in Vynohradar residential area – Mostytska and Prospekt Pravdy.
“We plan to open them by the end of the year. Today, more than 700 meters of 1.3 km of tunnel underground have been developed in the direction of the Syretska metro station. A tunnel is being built between the future stations Mostytska and Prospekt Pravdy. Therefore, these cars will serve the Syretsko-Pecherska line of the metro,” Klitschko said.
According to the EBRD, improving communication with the Vynohradar residential area by opening two new metro stations will help reduce the use of private cars and improve air quality.
The Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv), thanks to the decision of Kyiv City Council to sell a land plot to the pharmaceutical company, plans to develop an R&D cluster project.
According to a press release on the company’s website, on February 11 this year, Kyiv City Council, by an absolute majority of votes, decided to sell the company the land on which the production facilities of Farmak plant have been located for 95 years.
The intended use of land defined by the document is the operation and maintenance of a complex of buildings and structures.
“Farmak expresses gratitude to the deputies for supporting the development of a virtuous and transparent business. Production facilities, research facilities, the laboratory and technical complex of the enterprise are internationally certified and meet the high requirements of European standards. Now, thanks to the positive decision of the city council, we will be able to implement another ambitious project – the creation of a pharmaceutical R&D cluster to build up scientific and technical potential,” executive director of the company Volodymyr Kostiuk said.
He recalled that over the past 25 years, Farmak has invested more than $ 300 million in the modernization of the enterprise.
Technical director of Farmak Andriy Goy, in turn, emphasized that the creation of the R&D cluster will be a step forward towards the development of biomedical research and development in Ukraine and an important step towards the transformation of Kyiv into the capital of the European level.
“The main capital of Kyiv should be precisely an intellectual product,” he said.
The company is confident that the emergence of an R&D cluster will contribute to an increase in revenues to the city budget from knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy.
Ukraine has obtained permission from Turkey to operate a flight with passengers of SkyUp Airlines from Zanzibar to Antalya, after which it will fly to Kyiv, Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said.
“I would like to inform you about the problem of the departure of the SkyUp aircraft from Zanzibar. We received the necessary permission from the Turkish side to fly to Antalya and further to Kyiv. We will return everyone soon,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.
As reported with reference to SkyUp, flight PQ 6972 Zanzibar-Kyiv did not take off on February 13 due to technical reasons. Within a few hours, the plane was technically ready to fly, but to complete it, it was necessary to make changes to the route, take into account the rules regarding the working hours of the crews, and also obtain the necessary permits from the countries whose borders are crossed.
The airline said that from February 13 to 15, its representatives were in talks with the country’s aviation authorities to obtain permission to fly in their airspace. The State Aviation Administration of Ukraine also joined the negotiations to speed up the resolution of the issue.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, about 180 Ukrainian tourists were stuck in Zanzibar due to this incident.
European Travel Insurance (Kyiv) in 2020 collected insurance premiums in the amount of UAH 182.440 million, which is 43% less than in 2019.
According to a press release from the insurer, if in 2019 the company insured 1.805 million tourists for the first time, then in 2020 some 825,328 people used its services. The net profit of the insurer after taxation according to the IFRS system in 2020 amounted to UAH 24.497 million.
According to the press release, 2020 has changed the attitude towards travel insurance and its individual types. Thus, there was an increased demand from both tour operators and individual tourists for insurance of financial risks in case of travel cancellation or interruption. If in 2019 such risks were insured by 22% of tourists, then in 2020 some 38% of the total number of insured.
In 2020, the company registered 8,924 insurance events with tourists, the total amount of insurance payments was UAH 68 million. In 2020, the ratio of events with tourists registered by the company also changed towards an increase in the share of requests due to the occurrence of an insured event due to cancellation/interruption of travel.
The total amount of payments in connection with cancellation/interruption of travel in 2020 stood at UAH 19.543 million, in 2019 – some UAH 15.673 million. In total, over the past year, 840 payments were made in connection with the cancellation or interruption of a trip, 498 such payments were in 2019.
The company also notes that the tourism industry is reporting a more than 70% reduction in tourism in 2020. Almost the same drop in international passenger air transportation (approximately 72% of the volume of 2019) is noted by the Ukrainian aviation business.
Kyiv will adhere to additional strengthened quarantine restrictions in order to save lives and prevent a possible collapse of the medical system, mayor of the capital Vitali Klitschko has said.
“Kyiv, where the incidence rate remains high, is forced – whether we like it or not – to comply with a lockdown. Yes, the economic consequences of quarantine will be disappointing. We understand how difficult it is for business now … But today the main thing is the health and life of each of us, our relatives and friends, our friends, the health and lives of Ukrainians. It is very important to prevent a possible collapse of the medical system,” Klitschko wrote on his Facebook page.
The Mayor of Kyiv recalled that many other countries had previously introduced strict restrictions, and today they have also extended them.
