Ukraine and Serbia are holding talks to launch the Belgrade-Kyiv regular flight, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said.
“We have started the negotiations… on the launch of a new regular flight between Belgrade and Kyiv,” Vucic said after the talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Belgrade on Tuesday.
He said that the launch of the flight would help to establish business and cultural ties between Ukraine and Serbia.
Vucic said that last year over 10,000 tourists from Ukraine visited Serbia.
“We believe that this tourist flow would grow more,” he said.
The Serbian president showed the interest that citizens of Serbia travel to Ukraine.
Minister of Social Policy Andriy Reva has said that more than 3.2 million Ukrainian citizens are employed abroad on a permanent basis. “More than 3.2 million Ukrainian citizens work abroad on a regular basis,” Reva said at the launch of the project to improve the management of the labor market dubbed “Inclusive labor market for jobs in Ukraine” in Kyiv. He also noted that labor migration is currently seasonal. “According to our estimates, up to nine million Ukrainian citizens take part in this process,” the minister added.
According to Reva, at the moment one of the actual problems of the labor market is the unemployment rate among young people and the inability to find a large number of internally displaced persons. In addition, a large shadow employment and a disproportion between the supply and demand for skilled labor are the current problems.
Trilateral negotiations of the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine on Russian gas transit via Ukraine after 2019 may begin in early July, according to European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. “Time is a precious commodity. I hope to start working with Russia and Ukraine on the trilateral gas agenda in early July,” he wrote on Twitter. “Complex negotiations ahead,” Sefcovic wrote. He said in late May that the objective of these negotiations will be to determine details of gas transit via Ukraine after 2019 and guarantees of such transit.
Ukraine today has used slightly over one third of funds from the financing, which the group of the European Investment Bank (EIB) obliged to provide, EIB Resident Representation for Ukraine Jean-Erik de Zagon said at a press conference in Raiffeisen Bank Aval in Kyiv. In 2014-2016, the EIB group successfully met its commitments to support projects in Ukraine and obliged to provide the financing of $3 billion, he said. Now over one third of the funds have been used, de Zagon said.
He added that the group’s commitments are in effect.
Some of the financing is provided under the framework agreement, and some conditions are to be met for using these funds, while the $3 billion commitments are remain in force, and the financing must be provided, he said.
As reported, the EU Summit early March 2014 approved the assistance package for Ukraine worth EUR 11 billion. The EIB obliged to provide EUR 3 billion under this package.
Norway’s Scatec Solar seeks to build a solar power plant with the installed capacity of 25 MW in Kamianka (Cherkasy region), the press service of the Cherkasy Regional Administration has reported. Scatec Solar has built solar power plants with a total capacity of 322 MW in different countries. The company is in the process of building plants with the capacity of 434 MW. Scatec Solar operates in the Czech Republic, South Africa, Ruanda, Honduras and Jordan.
BUILD, CHERKASY REGION, SCATEC SOLAR, SOLAR POWER PLANT, UKRAINE
Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes and AB InBev have received all required regulatory approvals to combine their businesses in Russia and Ukraine, have signed binding transactions agreements and expect to complete the deal in March, Efes said. Anadolu Efes also disclosed the structure of the deal. Its subsidiary Efes Breweries International N.V. will transfer is 99.999% owned subsidiary Moscow Efes Brewery (MEB) to its wholly owned new subsidiary AB InBev Efes B.V. Then AB InBev Western European Holding will contribute its Russian and Ukrainian assets to this company in exchange for new shares in AB InBev Efes.
After the issue of new shares, Efes Breweries International and AB InBev Western European Holding will each own 50% of AB InBev Efes.
AB InBev’s Russian and Ukrainian assets have been valued at $1.002 billion-$1.233 billion for the deal, based on the discounted cash flow method, while the assets of Efes were valued at $962 million-$1.145 billion. The combined business is expected to result in annual cost synergies of about $80 million-$100 million. The merger of operations in Russia and Ukraine will strengthen the competitive position of both companies’ brands, with potential for future growth, Efes said. The combined business will aim to lead the Russian and Ukrainian beer markets, the company said.
