On Friday, December 10, the European Investment Bank (EIB) allocated EUR 50 million of loans to Ukraine, which will be used to finance coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination program in the country, in particular, to purchase a sufficient amount of vaccines against COVID-19.
According to the EU Delegation to Ukraine press service on Friday, the loan will support the health system and increase Ukraine’s viability in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
“This financial transaction is part of Team Europe’s overall initiative to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the EU Delegation to Ukraine said in a statement.
To make vaccines more affordable for Ukrainians and strengthen the country’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and overcome its devastating consequences, the EIB has repurposed part of the funds of the current financial agreement.
“This is the Ukraine Municipal Infrastructure Programme (UMIP), signed between the EIB and Ukraine in 2015 in the amount of EUR 400 million. The EIB has allocated EUR 50 million under this agreement to finance the COVID-19 response. The agreement on the repurposing of the EUR 50 million loan was ratified by Ukraine in October 2021,” the office said.
According to Head of the EIB Resident Representation in Ukraine Jean-Erik de Zagon, the EIB is pleased to support the efforts of the Ukrainian government in the fight against COVID-19.
The banker said that to raise funds more quickly, the EIB managed to amend the already approved and existing loan. EUR 50 million repurposed for this aim will be used for the prompt procurement of vaccines. This is a necessary step to tackle the health and economic challenges of COVID-19, and to ensure a better future.
The procurement of vaccines against COVID-19 for funds provided by the EIB will be conducted by Crown Agents, previously approved by the Ukrainian government.
OTP Group plans to buy the Albanian subsidiary of Greek-based Alpha Bank for EUR55 million in the second quarter of 2022, the press service of the Ukrainian OTP Bank said.
According to the report, after the financial close of the deal, which is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory approval, in terms of total assets, the market share of OTP Group in Albania will exceed 11%, and the size of the loan portfolio will increase by 1.5 times.
Alpha Bank is reported to be the eighth largest bank in Albania with a total market share of nearly 5% in terms of assets.
The UK will allocate an additional GBP 1 billion in support for Ukraine, which will go towards investment, trade and security, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“Great news from London: UK will allocate an additional GBP 1 billion in support for Ukraine. That means new investments, trade, security. As a result of my negotiations with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last year, the total volume of British support increases to GBP 3.5 billion,”- Zelenskiy said on Twitter on Wednesday.
The National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) at a meeting on December 1 approved a plan for the development of the electricity distribution system for Ukrzaliznytsia for 2022-2026, which provides for an investment of UAH 2.9 billion.
According to the plan, 76% of the UAH 2.9 billion should be invested in construction, reconstruction and technical re-equipment of power grids and equipment.
The main consumer of electricity, which is transmitted by the grids of Ukrzaliznytsia, as the operator of the distribution system, is transport. Over the past four years, the share of transport in the total structure of electricity consumption transmitted through the distribution system of the company was 80-83%.
Ukrzaliznytsia predicts an overall growth in demand for electricity in the next five years at the level of 0.45% annually.
At present, the total installed capacity of renewable energy installations (RES) connected to the grids of Ukrzaliznytsia is 143.35 MW.
According to the issued technical specifications, it is necessary to connect renewable energy generation facilities for another 301.93 MW to the distribution system of the company.
As reported, on September 30 Ukrzaliznytsia bought more than 4.9 million MWh of electricity at an auction from Energoatom state enterprise at a price of UAH 1,105/MWh, which the company should receive by the end of 2022 and use exclusively for its own needs.
China’s Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment Co. has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, demanding %4.5 billion in compensation for the violation, in its opinion, of the Sino-Ukrainian intergovernmental agreement of October 1992 on protection of the company’s investment in Motor-Sich shares, the Chinese publication Global Times reported, with reference to Skyrizon.“Chinese investors have suffered significant losses both in Ukraine and in China due to five years of unfair treatment and continued use of illegal measures in Ukraine,” the newspaper reports.At the same time, information about the claim is not yet available on the website of the Hague Arbitration.Earlier it was reported that Skyrizon and other Chinese investors in Motor-Sich shares notified Ukraine of their intention to submit to international arbitration in early September 2020, and sent a direct request to the court in early December as there was no compromise with Kyiv. The initial amount of claims was %3.5 billion. The interests of the Chinese plaintiffs were represented by the international law firms WilmerHale, DLA Piper and Bird & Bird.PJSC Motor-Sich is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of engines for aviation equipment, as well as industrial gas turbine units. It supplies products to more than 100 countries around the world. Last year, Motor-Sich received UAH 906.65 million in net profit against UAH 703.18 million in net loss in the previous year. The company’s revenue increased by 14.1% – up to UAH 11.432 billion.According to a source in the Ukrainian government, currently about 75% of Motor-Sich’s shares are already owned by a group of Chinese owners, and some part of the disputed block of shares acts as a pledge for financing provided, among other things, by China Development Bank.
Ukraine intends to retain the half of $2.7 billion received in August 2021 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during SDR distribution as a buffer against future risks, according to the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies of Ukraine signed with the IMF, published by the IMF and the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday.”While the deficit has remained in check, given large gross external financing needs including a significant amount of debt maturing that was issued at concessional rates, we have used about half of the recent general SDR allocation,” the government said in the memo. The government said that this will help to buttress our external stability objectives.
