Belarus and Ukraine may increase mutual commodity turnover to $5 billion in 2018, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko said. “Positive dynamics of trade and economic relations between our countries was observed in the past few years. We have managed to stop the fall that was in 2013 and resume growth,” Lyashenko said at a plenary session of the first forum of Belarusian and Ukrainian regions in Gomel on Friday.
The amount of bilateral trade reached $4.6 billion in 2017 and went up 20% against 2016, he said.
“We project commodity turnover at $5 billion this year [an 8.7% increase from 2017],” Lyashenko said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko have decided to bring mutual commodity turnover to at least $8 billion in 2019.
Not only the governments of the two countries, but also the regions need to contribute to achieving this goal, Lyashenko said.
BELARUS, COMMODITY, GENERAL ELECTRIC, INFRASTRUCTURE, PROJECTS, TRANSPORTATION, TURNOVER, US
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority plans to double dredging works at Ukrainian ports in 2019, bringing the volume of projects to 16.335 million cubic meters, the press service of the authority reported after Dredging day 2018 held in Odesa. “This figure reflects the amount of work that the Sea Port Authority plans to start in 2019 compared to the amount of work that was planned to start in 2018,” the press service of the authority told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the authority said that the consolidated data on the implementation of the dredging plan for the current year are now being collected, work on individual facilities is proceeding as part of the plan, and for some of them even ahead of schedule.
The plans for 2019 include the continuation of dredging at the ports of Chornomorsk and Yuzhny (both Odesa region), including work to dredge the first boot basin of the Sukhy estuary of the Chornomorsk port in the amount of 1.1 million cubic meters with a planned period of four months, as well as in Yuzhny port (second and fourth launch complexes) in the amount of 6.339 million cubic meters with a planned implementation period of 21 months.
To maintain the passport depths, it is planned to carry out work in the amount of 8.88 million cubic meters in the ports: Kherson, Reni, Izmail, Odesa, Berdiansk, Mariupol, as well as on the Buzko-Dniprovsky-Lymansky canal; Kyiv, Kamianske, Kaniv, Kremenchuk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dniprovske and Kakhovka water reservoirs.
The volume of technical assistance raised by Ukraine for the healthcare projects in January-June 2018 totaled $103.8 million, Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry has reported. The entire sum was sent to implement 23 donor projects in the healthcare sphere and this is 3% of the total volume of technical assistance attracted by Ukraine over the period (not taking into account the Chornobyl Shelter Fund).
As reported, Ukraine in January-June 2018 raised $0.4 billion more international technical assistance compared with January-June 2017: $3.5 billion for 467 projects, not taking into account the Chornobyl Shelter Fund.
Japan is ready in the future to provide Ukraine with loans for the implementation of projects for generating electricity from waste, Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Shigeki Sumi has said.
“Japan is very interested in having a system through which energy will be generated from waste,” Sumi said at the conference “New Waste Management Policy is a Way to a Circular Economy” dedicated to the implementation of the National Waste Treatment Strategy until 2030 in Kyiv.
He noted that last year Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) developed a program for Ukraine and at the moment Japanese experts have visited three cities (including Kharkiv and Kyiv), where they conduct research for the possible further financing of relevant projects.
“In the future, the Japanese government will be ready to issue loans to the government of Ukraine to implement such a system for generating electricity from waste,” Sumi stressed.
As reported, in May JICA proposed Kyiv City State Administration to assess the potential of landfill No. 5 in the village of Pidhirtsi (Kyiv region) for energy production.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a list of 477 investment programs and regional development projects for the total amount of over UAH 4 billion, which will be financed by the State Regional Development Fund in 2018.
“We have approved the first list of investment programs and regional development projects that will be financed from the State Regional Development Fund in 2018. Now 477 projects for a total of more than UAH 4 billion are approved,” the press service of the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine reported with reference to the decision of the government on Wednesday.
Some 80 educational facilities (regular schools and kindergartens) for the amount of UAH 1.3 billion will be built in the regions at the expense of the State Regional Development Fund, 95 facilities of public health and social protection – UAH 804 million, 78 sports facilities – UAH 740 million, 36 water supply and sewage facilities – UAH 200 million, 25 facilities of road and transport infrastructure – UAH 334 million, and 26 cultural facilities – UAH 397 million.
The draft resolution on financing at the expense of the State Regional Development Fund includes projects that have been submitted to the Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regional administrations and Kyiv City Administration.
Ukraine seeks to take part in several projects in Egypt, in particular projects on modernization of a steel works and reconstruction of a coke-oven battery for a company, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said. “Ukraine is ready to undertake several projects in Egypt. The first one is modernization of Helwan steel works worth some $200 million and reconstruction of a coke-oven battery for El Nasr for Coke & Chemicals worth some $80 million,” Kubiv wrote on his Facebook page after a meeting with the minster for state-owned companies of Egypt who visited Ukraine with the purpose of attracting Ukrainian specialists to construction and modernization of Egyptian state-owned enterprises.
Kubiv also said that last year goods flow between Ukraine and Egypt reached almost $2 billion, and trade with services grew by 62% in 2017 compared with 2016.
BATTERY, COKE-OVEN, EGYPT, MODERNIZATION, PROJECTS, RECONSTRUCTION, STEEL WORKS
