Germany’s low cost bus operator FlixBus (Berlin) has signed an agreement of cooperation in Ukraine with Gunsel company, according to which starting from August 19, 2019 three joint bus lines will be serviced, FlixBus Managing Director in Poland and Ukraine Michal Leman and Gunsel Group General Manager Kocak said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.
Leman said that, in particular, in cooperation with Gunsel, the following lines will be added to the FlixBus network: Kyiv-Warsaw (via Lublin, daily), Kyiv-Wroclaw (via Zhytomyr, Rivne, Lviv, Krakow, Katowice, three times a week), Kyiv-Prague (via Zhytomyr, Rivne, Lviv and Hradec Králové, three times a week).
“The new lines that will be added to our network will allow Ukrainian FlixBus passengers to get access to several hundred of our European destinations, thanks to transfers that can be made at FlixBus hubs in Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw and Prague,” Leman said.
He added that currently FlixBus services five routes from Kyiv in conjunction with the Euroclub company (Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow and Paris). At the same time, FlixBus plans to open routes from Odesa, Kharkiv and Dnipro by the end of 2019.
“I am very glad that today the Ukrainian company Gunsel became a FlixBus partner in Ukraine. This is only the beginning of the journey… I had a conversation yesterday with the new governor of Kyiv region, Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, and he is very interested in meeting with FlixBus and launching internal trips in Kyiv region. I am interested to hold a meeting of your office [FlixBus] with Kyiv carriers,” Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan said at the press conference.
Production of natural gas in Ukraine in January-July 2019 increased, according to recent data, by 1.8% (by 216.3 million cubic meters) compared to the same period in 2018, to 12.188 billion cubic meters, according to data from JSC Ukrtransgaz.
According to the calculations of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, gas production by Ukrgazvydobuvannia amounted to 8.868 billion cubic meters (0.3% more compared to January-July 2018), by PJSC Ukrnafta to 672.7 million cubic meters (10.2% more), and other companies to 2.648 billion cubic meters (5% up).
In July 2019, gas production amounted to 1.697 billion cubic meters (4.1% less compared to July 2018), in particular by extraction by Ukrgazvydobuvannia totaled 1.207 billion cubic meters (7.4% less), Ukrnafta some 97.1 million cubic meters (7.8% more), and other companies some 392.9 million cubic meters (up by 4.7%).
A world-wide Russian-language channel will be created in Ukraine to strengthen the position of the state in the informational struggle, said Deputy Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, such a channel is needed so that Ukraine could fight both for the minds of Ukrainians in the occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea, and for the minds of Russians in the territory of the Russian Federation. “We have developed a launch option for the Ukrainian Russian-language channel, with which we will be able to cover the Russian-speaking population all over the world,” said Tymoshenko.
According to him, the team of President Volodymyr Zelensky wants it to be a state channel. “But we are negotiating with private channels about the handover of rights to use their coolest content,” Tymoshenko said.
The position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on negotiations with Ukraine on the resumption of funding remains the same: the Fund is awaiting the formation of a new government and wants to see priorities of its policy.
IMF Spokesperson Gerry Rice said at a press briefing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that the IMF team was ready to return to Kyiv to continue discussions after the parliamentary elections as soon as the new government is able to decide on its policy priorities.
Ukraine and Georgia could create a medical tourism cluster to promote medical services in the markets of Eastern countries, in particular, China, Paata Ratiani, the head of the Georgian Medical Tourism Council, has said.
“Georgia, together with Ukraine, can open some directions in China, open a joint clinic, or Ukrainian and Georgian clinics can be combined into one cluster,” he said.
According to Ratiani, such a cluster can be formed together with the Ukrainian Association of Medical Tourism, as well as with individual clinics.
“We can occupy our niche in all directions. Most importantly, we should work together and develop precisely those directions that have an advantage in their region. In this case, the flow of medical tourists will be enough for both Ukraine and Georgia,” the expert said.
Commenting on the development of medical tourism in Georgia, he said that in order to attract foreign patients, six large private clinics in his country created the Medical Tourism Council.
“Georgian private clinics teamed up to make Georgia a regional hub for medical tourism,” he said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting with the Mexican businessman, CEO of Principal Standard Group Peter Foyo has stated that he was ready to support establishment of cooperation between his company and Ukraine if it could help provide Ukrainian state or private enterprises with contracts.
“We are open to everything that creates new business in Ukraine and jobs for our citizens,” Zelensky said, noting that he considers any investment project important, regardless of whether it is an investment of a million or a billion.
According to the presidential press service, at a meeting with Foyo and his partner, Vice President of UTG (Ukrainian Trade Guild) Ihor Melnyk, Zelensky stressed that the state is ready to protect “any clean, real investment in Ukraine.”
The president said that, despite rather busy work schedule, he is always ready to find time for projects useful for Ukraine and sit down at the negotiating table for a substantive conversation.
Foyo, in turn, thanked for the meeting and noted that it was a great honor for him to be in Ukraine, since his wife is Ukrainian and he lives with his family in Mexico and in Ukraine.
The businessman said his specialization is telephony and telecommunications services, which is relevant in the context of development of mobile communications in Ukraine and preparations for the launch of 5G. He said the position of President Zelensky on building constructive cooperation on the principles of openness was important for him.
