Business news from Ukraine

Fund for Reconstruction, Development of Ukraine plans to supply 52 full-fledged mobile hospitals to country

Together with partners, the Charitable Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Ukraine is planning to supply 52 full-fledged mobile hospitals equipped for surgeries and laboratory diagnostics in the immediate vicinity of active hostilities to the country.

As Artem Honcharenko, President of the Fund, said during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday, the first hospital has already been committed to the Ministry of Defense and provides medical assistance to the military and civilian population in the area of active hostilities.

“The first hospital helps where there are active hostilities and heavy losses are possible. It is still the only one on the entire front line and is already saving lives. It is 52 hospitals that will help provide quick assistance along the entire front line in those places where quick assistance is needed,” he said.

Honcharenko specified that the number of hospitals was determined after consultations with military experts, including NATO ones. However, hospitals may have different specifications.

“The price at which such a hospital is offered on the market is $360,000, but in negotiations with manufacturers, we came up with a price of EUR 232,000 plus additional transportation costs,” Honcharenko specified.

At the same time, he added that by now an advance payment of $40,000 had been made – “under my personal word of honor,” and the hospital had been brought to Ukraine, but fundraising continues. Currently, the flow of patients served by it is 100-150 people a day – both military and civilian, who are in gray zones and places of de-occupation. Medical care in the hospital is provided by military doctors, who have already been joined by civilians.

“The hospital can operate in 300 km of the border zone, where the aggressor’s missiles reach. This is a full-fledged hospital on wheels,” Honcharenko said.

He noted that the hospital can be deployed and start working within 15 minutes, it is completely autonomous, equipped with a generator and has the ability to connect to external power. The Fund is currently exploring the possibilities of assembling hospitals in Ukraine.

The second hospital, according to the head of the charitable organization, the Fund plans to transfer to the clinic and medical center of the western region – “this is the so-called Lviv hospital.”

“We have signed a memorandum with them. We planned to transfer the first hospital to them, but we were asked to transfer it for special operations, so the first hospital operates where active hostilities are taking place,” Honcharenko specified.

According to Ukraine’s Armed Forces soldier Danyil Honcharenko, who has three wounds, due to the change in the operational situation at the front, the need for mobile hospitals capable of providing full-fledged medical care directly on the front line has increased significantly.

At the same time, another participant in the press conference, lawyer and serviceman Serhiy Petkov, noted their importance not only during active hostilities – after the victory they can continue to work in the aftermath of man-made disasters, accidents and terrorist attacks.

“If such a mobile hospital were in Dnipro on January 14, then more people could be saved before they were sent to hospitals, providing them with timely assistance on the spot,” he stressed.

Olena Kreknina, representative of the Dnipro Reconstruction and Development Foundation, spoke about cooperation with entrepreneurs.

“Raising funds for mobile hospitals is the most important area for us. We are engaging the business community, including the window business in Dnipro and companies such as AXOR, which has already joined. I urge all business representatives to join in saving lives, those who bring our victory closer,” she said.

According to the information announced during the press conference, the partners of the mobile hospitals project were the PR-agency Be my media, the Club of Experts, the Association of Science and Education of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, NGO Culture and Heritage of Ukraine, the International Technology Transfer Association (ITTA), the National University of Construction, the Physical culture and sports society Dynamo Ukraine, the licensed online school Focus, PATprofi – IT, Donbasenergo, the Amor Ukraine Health Organization, and NGO Ukrainian Diabetic Federation.

, , , , ,

EGYPT TO LAUNCH MOBILE TRAVEL APP

Egypt will launch a mobile application for tourists that will help them plan their holidays more efficiently, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt Khaled El-Anany told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Accommodation, transport services, and offers for a wide variety of recreation: museums, activities will be combined on one platform,” the minister said.
According to him, the mobile application meets the trends of post-visual reality, when people prefer to relax in a more secluded way and independently plan their pastime, choosing and paying for services using the platform.
The minister said the mobile application will be launched within three months.

, ,

VODAFONE ESTIMATES INVESTMENTS IN 4G PROJECT AT UAH 4 BLN

The mobile network operator Vodafone Ukraine estimates investments in the 4G project in the 900 MHz (LTE 900) band at UAH 4 billion.
“If we talk about investments in general, according to our estimates, only the LTE 900 technology project will take about UAH 4 billion. This is a lot of money. At the same time, we are increasing the network capacity in large cities. We are investing in transport. And this is only the LTE 900 figures,” CEO of Vodafone Ukraine Olha Ustinova said at a briefing on Tuesday.

, , , ,

UKRAINIAN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS OPERATOR KYIVSTAR HAS 13.2% RISE IN REVENUE IN 2018

Net revenue of JSC Kyivstar in 2018 totaled UAH 18.719 billion, which is 13.2% more than in 2017. According to a report of the VEON parent company, revenue of the operator from providing mobile communications services grew by 13.6%, to UAH 17.412 billion, and from the provision of fixed-line communication services – by 6.5%, to UAH 1.206 billion. In addition, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) last year rose by 14.2%, to UAH 10.529 billion, and EBITDA margin – by 0.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 56.2%.
Kyivstar’s capital expenditure in 2018 (not including the cost of licenses) increased 18.4%, to UAH 3.1 billion. The number of mobile operator’s subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2018 decreased 0.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2017, to 26.4 million, while the number of fixed-line subscribers increased 11%, to 0.9 million.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the operator’s income increased 16.6%, to UAH 5.009 billion. Of these, UAH 4.671 billion was revenue from mobile services (a rise of 17.2%), and UAH 311 million – income from fixed-line services (a rise of 9.1%). EBITDA over this period increased 12%, to UAH 2.793 billion, EBITDA margin decreased 2.3 p.p., to 55.8%. Capital investment in the fourth quarter of 2018 amounted to UAH 749 million, which is 40.4% more than in the same period of 2017. According to the operator, mainly the funds were sent to the development of the 4G network, improving the quality of services.
In the last quarter of last year, the ARPU (average income per subscriber) grew by 18.2%, to UAH 58, while MoU (minutes per user) decreased 1%, to 584 minutes.
According to the Kyivstar’s press release, in the fourth quarter of 2018 the number of mobile Internet users increased 18.2% compared with the same period in 2017, to 14.8 million, the consumption of data traffic increased by 152.4%, to 2.753 GB per subscriber. “The 2.5-fold increase in the consumption of data traffic, the increase in the number of mobile Internet users influenced the ARPU indicator: in the fourth quarter, this figure increased 18.2%, to UAH 58,” the company said.
In addition, Kyivstar also reminded that in recent years, the need for subscribers to use several SIM cards at the same time has been decreasing in the mobile market of Ukraine. Last year, the operator transferred taxes and other payments totaling UAH 10.5 billion to the national budget, including more than UAH 4 billion for licenses to develop new communication technologies in the country.
Kyivstar is a Ukrainian mobile communications operator. VEON international group (earlier VimpelCom) is the shareholder in Kyivstar. The group’s shares are listed on NASDAQ (New York).

, , ,

MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS’ BASE NARROWS BY 0.75% IN 1Q

The number of mobile communications subscribers in Ukraine in January-March 2018 totaled 55.323 million, which was 0.75% down on the previous, fourth quarter of 2017, the State Statistics Service has reported. The number of households buying mobile communications services (private clients) shrank by 0.82% in the first three months of 2018 to 50.977 million people. Private subscribers accounted for 92% of the total number of mobile communications subscribers.
The number of cable TV subscribers in the first quarter of 2018 fell by 4.1%, to 2.242 million people.
The number of Internet access users as of April 1, 2018, was 23.836 million people, which was 0.86% up from the previous quarter. Private users accounted for 89.7%.
In the first quarter of 2018, broadband Internet access was available to 22.9 million subscribers (a 1.3% up on the fourth quarter of 2017).
Fixed Internet access services in the first three months of 2018 were provided to 5.16 million subscribers, wireless Internet services were available to 17.16 million subscribers.
Landline telephone communications services were provided to 5.938 million households in urban areas and to 802,500 households in rural areas.

, ,