Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar and Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Yagmur Guldere have agreed to start negotiations on resuming air travel and tourist trips between the two countries, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine reports.
“Following the meeting, it was agreed to begin procedures related to the restoration of air service between Ukraine and Turkey, as well as the negotiation process between the competent authorities of the two countries regarding tourist trips,” the Foreign Ministry said.
It is noted that Bodnar and Guldere paid special attention to the implementation of the agreements reached during the official visit of Turkish President Recep Erdogan to Ukraine on February 3, 2020, in particular large-scale infrastructure projects in Ukraine and housing construction in Kherson region for internally displaced persons who left the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The diplomats also agreed to intensify the existing consultative mechanisms at the level of the Foreign Ministry and other relevant ministries and departments of Ukraine and Turkey, to ensure proper preparation and holding the next meeting of the Joint Economic Commission, and to begin planning the exchange of visits for the period after the removal of quarantine.
The State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) has announced its intention to overhaul 40 km of the M-05 Kyiv-Odesa road at the expense of funds from international financial organizations, Onur Taahhut Tasimacilik Insaat Ticaret Ve Sanayi A.S. (Turkey) was determined as the contractor with a contract signed for the amount of EUR65.033 million.
The agency said on Telegram the reconstruction of the road section (km 87+442 – km 128+028) will be carried out as part of the project for improving the transport and operational condition of roads on the approaches to Kyiv, which is implemented for credit funds of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
According to Ukravtodor, in particular, the matter concerns three facilities where road, bridge, drainage and other works will be carried out.
“Based on the results of open international tenders in accordance with the principles and rules of the EBRD, Onur Taahhut Tasimacilik Insaat Ticaret Ve Sanayi A.S. was determined as the contractor. A contract was signed with it on January 20, 2020 for a total of EUR65.033 million excluding VAT,” the report says.
According to Ukravtodor, the contractor is currently carrying out preparatory activities. The active phase of the overhaul of the site will begin after the issuance of an appropriate permit for road work by the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate.
Four companies filed documents to participate in the tender for the construction of a waste recycling complex in Lviv, Mayor of the city Andriy Sadovy has written on his Facebook page. “Lviv-based municipal enterprise Zelene Misto Green City received technical proposals from four participants (due to pandemic the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved that this may be online),” the mayor of Lviv said.
According to him, the documents were submitted by the following companies: Eggersmann Anlagenbau GmbH (Germany), Control Process S.A. (Poland), consortium of two companies WTT (Netherlands) and Axis (Lithuania), consortium of two companies MUT (Austria) and Dogusan (Turkey).
“Each of these companies has implemented at least four similar projects. Such experience is a guarantee of quality for us. The plant must be environmentally safe, this is the main criterion when choosing a contractor,” Sadovy said.
According to the mayor of Lviv, preparatory work is currently underway on the site allocated for the construction of the plant.
According to the City Council, the design capacity of the plant should be 240,000 tonnes of waste per year when working on a double-shift basis.
AUSTRIA, COMPANIES, GERMANY, NETHERLANDS, PLANT CONSTRUCTION, POLAND, RECYCLING, TURKEY
The aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to significantly expand regular flights, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure has said.
“Based on the results of successful negotiations at the level of the aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey, regular flights with the Republic of Turkey were substantially expanded. The weekly frequency for passenger transportation on most routes was almost doubled. The limit on the number of flights was removed for the Odesa-Istanbul route. Cargo transportation is also without restrictions,” Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said.
According to him, now 11 cities of Ukraine have the opportunity of direct air communication with Turkey, namely Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Zaporizhia.
“This is an impetus for the development of regional airports. Thanks to the State Aviation Administration for a good work. We are not resting on our laurels. We are confidently stepping west towards the Open Sky,” the minister said.
The minister also emphasized that the expansion of regular international and domestic flights to/from Ukrainian cities is an important part of the integrated development of the aviation industry in Ukraine.
“We liberalize international air transportation, modernize regional airports, create equal conditions for airlines to enter and develop a transparent and competitive market for passenger and cargo transportation by air,” Krykliy said.
Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to update proposals regarding the free trade area (FTA), the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has said.
“Today, a memorandum on the modality of further negotiations will be signed … Today, we have actually agreed to update the proposals of both parties, including in the agreed part,” Kachka wrote on Facebook.
He added that this would make it possible to review the results of negotiations of past years.
“The main thing is to give meaningfulness and mutual benefit to these negotiations,” the trade representative said.
Negotiations on the establishment of a FTA between Ukraine and Turkey began in 2011.
OTI Holding, which includes the Ukrainian tour operator Coral Travel, intends to create the OTI Hotels & Resorts International hotel chain as part of the reorganization of the hotel business. Director of Coral Travel Tetiana Prokopenko told Interfax-Ukraine that by the beginning of the summer season 2020, the network will include more than 20 hotels, and by the end of the year it will expand to 30 hotels in the resorts of Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia.
According to Prokopenko, the network will be developed via renting or buying hotels, taking them into management, and also through franchising – work under an agreement on holding standards related to service, staff training, guest relations, food, drinks, branding, active leisure, sports, animation, children’s events and sanitary standards.
OTI Hotels & Resorts International will include hotels of various levels. They will operate under the new Seven Seas Resorts & Hotels brand, as well as under the well-established brands Otium Hotels and Xanadu Resort.
In addition, Coral Travel plans to expand the flight program from Kyiv and the regions in the 2020 season, as well as increase its own product list in the most popular directions – Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Spain.
The tour operator also plans the further development of its own two franchise networks, Coral Travel travel agency and Coral Elite Service travel agency. By the end of 2020, the latter would have 350 offices in 90 cities of Ukraine.
CORAL TRAVEL, EGYPT, HOTEL CHAIN, OTI HOLDING, TUNISIA, TURKEY
