UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin thanked Kyiv city for the high level of organization of hosting UEFA Champions League 2018 finals, the press service of Kyiv City Administration has reported.
“I would like to thank Kyiv and Mayor Vitali Klitschko for the excellent organization of the final matches of the Champions League. It should not be forgotten that this is the largest sport event of a global level that is not easy to organize. Yesterday, and in previous days, there was not a single mistake. Thank you for your hospitality, I am convinced that at least half of the fans will return to Kyiv again,” he said at a meeting with Klitschko on Sunday.
Ceferin said that after the Champions League final, Kyiv will be able to organize any event of this scale.
Klitschko, in turn, said that everything went “very well.”
“Yes, we were worried because Kyiv and Ukraine had not hosted such events before, but we did our best, we prepared carefully, and we managed to do this,” the mayor of Kyiv said.
He thanked the law enforcers for coherent and professional work. “I thank the top officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police and the Security Service for their work during this big event, and thank each law-enforcer who provided order in the city. This was extremely important,” Klitschko said.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has met with President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Suma Chakrabarti, the presidential press service has reported.
“We have a great history of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. Today, the Beskydsky tunnel was opened – the largest infrastructure project in Ukraine, implemented with the help of international partners, including the EBRD. I am sure that every year we can jointly implement a number of major projects in different spheres,” the president of Ukraine emphasized.
The two discussed the state and prospects of Ukraine-EBRD partnership development. The Ukrainian president called on the president of the EBRD to double the funding of the projects and expand the scope of their implementation in Ukraine.
The presidents paid special attention to the implementation of reforms in the banking, energy and energy efficiency spheres.
They noted that the meeting of the National Investment Council to be held on May 25 should be an important event for presenting the results of the reforms to foreign investors and attracting investments for Ukraine’s economic development.
The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expressed willingness to continue supporting Ukraine on the way of implementation of structural reforms in the economy.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will hold on May 11 a meeting with Slovenian President Borut Pahor, who will make an official visit to Ukraine at the invitation of the head of the Ukrainian state. “The leaders of the two states will discuss joint efforts to counter Russian aggression and exchange views on a wide range of topical issues of bilateral and international cooperation, including in the context of Slovenia’s further support for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine,” the press service of the presidential administration reported on Monday.
The report says that a number of bilateral documents are to be signed after the meeting between the presidents.
“Pahor’s visit will be his first visit to Ukraine after re-election as Slovenia’s president in November 2017,” the report says.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill on the ratification of the Guarantee Agreement (a draft access to long term finance project) between Ukraine and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) passed by the Verkhovna Rada on April 5. “The agreement creates a legal framework for the development of cooperation between the parties, involving long-term investment resources in the economy of Ukraine in the amount of $150 million under state guarantees. The document calls for Ukreximbank to receive loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to provide Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with medium and long-term financing for production needs: investment lending and working capital financing,” the press service of the President of Ukraine said last week.
The implementation of the access to long term finance project will have a positive impact on the development of SME, expansion of production capacities of the real sector, preservation of existing and creation of new jobs.
New containment facility at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant is planned to be put into operation this December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said. “A new safe confinement is planned to be put into operation in December… Installation of equipment and systems is currently being completed there,” the president said at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko says that the reforms implemented in Ukraine are aimed at improving the investment climate. “We are resolutely implementing reforms to improve the investment climate significantly. The evaluation of the World Bank can be more trustworthy than the words of the president. In the Doing Business rating, Ukraine got from the 137th place, before my presidential term, to the 76th place – last year. No country has shown such dynamics. And we do everything possible to get to the top 50 shortly,” Poroshenko said in an interview with the German Handelsblatt business newspaper, quoted by the presidential press service on Monday.
According to Poroshenko, there was a thorough reform of the tax industry in Ukraine, reform in the education, medical and pension sectors, as well as energy sector in terms of state procurement and privatization, which the IMF did not initially believe in. Ukraine also carried out a revolutionary reform of the banking sector. “All these are very unpopular, yet required steps,” he said.
The president added that following the results of the competition for obtaining licenses for the use of 4G communications by mobile operators, Ukraine got UAH 8 billion instead of the expected UAH 5 billion.
“The most important thing is the opinion of investors, and many influential companies have come or returned to Ukraine,” the president said.
