The Cabinet of Ministers has provided funding for the state-owned enterprise National Project Air Express to stop the implementation of a project of passenger railway communication between Kyiv and Boryspil airport. According to an explanatory note to the document, this will minimize Ukraine’s losses associated with the termination of credit and commercial agreements concluded between the SOE National Project Air Express and the China National Complete Engineering Corporation together with the Export-Import Bank of China.
It is expected that as a result of the resumption of negotiations and termination of agreements, about $73.7 million can be returned to the Ukrainian side.
The explanatory note also states that at the moment the SOE National Project Air Express is not solvent, and in order for the enterprise to be able to terminate the contracts under the mentioned project, it is necessary to pay off debts on salaries and payments to the state budget, as well as accumulate funds for participation in litigation.
In particular, the state-owned enterprise National Project Air Express has arrears in wages – UAH 831,000, in payment of personal income tax – UAH 341,000, in military fee – UAH 28,500, and in single social security tax – UAH 222,000.
As reported, in Ukraine for a long time there was an unrealized national project Air Express – railway passenger communication Kyiv-Boryspil International Airport, construction of other infrastructure facilities in Kyiv region. For its implementation in 2011, under state guarantees, a loan agreement was concluded with the Export Import Bank of China in the amount of $372.3 million. CCEC was appointed as a general contractor for the turnkey construction works.
In June 2015, it became known that Ukraine and China were ready to discuss the possibility of redirecting credit funds provided for Air Express to other projects, and in March 2016, the Ministry of Infrastructure received the consent of Chinese partners to reformat the Air Express project.
On November 30, 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia launched an express train to Boryspil airport with a floating schedule of 21 to 30 voyages per day. To this end, about 4 km of non-electrified track was added to the existing railway infrastructure, including a 272 m long railway overpass over the M03 Kyiv-Kharkiv highway. Two passenger platforms were built. For operation on the route Central Kyiv Railway Station-Boryspil Airport, Ukrzaliznytsia repaired five rail buses manufactured by Pesa Bydgoszcz SA previously purchased for operation on other routes.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with President of World Bank Group David Malpass an increase in the World Bank role in the stability of Ukraine’s financial sector and thanked for the provision of $350 million in financial assistance.
“Discussed with David Malpass the increasing role of the World Bank in the stability of Ukraine’s financial sector. The World Bank President noted economic stabilization, land reform and infrastructure projects in Ukraine. We are grateful for $350 million in financial support,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter on Saturday while in Munich.
The United States does not intend to send its military to Ukraine, but provides financial assistance, U.S. President Joe Biden has said.
“We will not send troops in to fight in Ukraine, but we will continue to support the Ukrainian people. Some $460 million in aid: from Javelin missiles to ammunition. Also, $100 million is humanitarian aid and economic support for Ukraine,” Biden said during a press conference from the White House on Friday.
He added that earlier the United States had announced $100 million in guarantees a week earlier.
“Thus, the United States will provide assistance to the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksiy Chernyshov and Swiss Ambassador to Ukraine Claude Wild have launched a new Ukrainian-Swiss project UCORD (Ukraine’s Cohesion and Regional Development) with a budget of CHF 18 million (about EUR 17.2 million), aimed, among other things, at the improvement of public infrastructure in Ukraine, which is critical for the environment.
On the official Facebook page of the Swiss Embassy in Ukraine, it is specified that the UCORD project is synchronized with the adopted State Strategy for Regional Development until 2027, is designed for 12 years, and its total budget is CHF 18 million.
The key areas of support will be the institutional strengthening of the Regional Development Agencies, the improvement of environmentally critical municipal infrastructure (water supply, sanitation and waste management), as well as cultural initiatives to improve community cohesion.
The UCORD project will work both at the national level, supporting the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, and at the level of regions and communities.
At the initial stage, the UCORD team will prepare a detailed project document and select target regions. The first four-year implementation phase will begin in September 2022.
Ukraine expects to receive the first tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 600 million in late March-early April, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has said.
“The first tranche of such assistance will amount to EUR 600 million and is unconditional. We hope to receive these funds at the end of March or beginning of April this year,” Marchenko said, speaking from the parliament rostrum during an hour of questions to the government on Friday.
“Ukraine will receive the second tranche after the parties approve short-term measures regarding the introduction of structural reforms, which the teams of the European Commission and the Ministry of Finance are currently working on,” the minister added.
He called the allocation of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine unprecedentedly fast.
“The Ministry of Finance is also negotiating with the government of Japan regarding the formation of a mechanism for involving the Japanese international cooperation agency JICA in a new ‘green’ program with the World Bank on a development policy loan, the so-called green DPL,” Serhiy Marchenko said.
He explained that the possibility of attracting from $500 million from the World Bank and up to $300 million from the Japanese government was being discussed.
Earlier, the European Parliament voted in favor of the proposal of the European Commission to provide Ukraine with new macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 1.2 billion.
