Bulgaria will be pleased to participate in the restoration of Ukraine, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has said.
“As for your proposal to Bulgaria to participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine, we will be more than happy to do so. We have many cities with many Bulgarian-speaking Ukrainians, and Bulgaria will be pleased to take a constructive part,” Petkov said at a press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday.
The head of government said Bulgaria can also help Ukraine with the help of the trans-Balkan gas pipeline.
“When we talk about energy security, Bulgaria can help Ukraine through the use of the trans-Balkan gas pipeline, through which we can supply gas from LNG terminals in Greece and Turkey to Ukraine, which will give both our countries a lower price and the possibility of deliveries,” he said.
In addition, Petkov said Bulgaria supports Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
“It is very important for Bulgaria that Ukraine sees a clear path to the EU. It is time for us to say that Ukraine belongs, is part of the European family, and we must give a clear sign and a clear path as soon as possible. You have a strong voice for Bulgaria when we meet with many European colleagues,” he said.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested EUR1 billion in the Ukrainian economy in 2021, bringing its three-year investment in the country to EUR3 billion.
“True to its ambition to become a majority green bank by 2025, some 45% of bank financing in Ukraine was in support of greater sustainability and energy and resource efficiency. Examples included a EUR140 million EBRD loan to modernize district heating and hot water supply in the capital, Kyiv, and a EUR50 million loan for Kyiv to renew the rolling stock of its metro network and support the shift from private cars to modern, efficient and environmentally friendly public transport,” the bank said.
“The bank also attracted a EUR5.5 million grant from the E5P to complement an earlier EUR25 million loan to refurbish, for greater energy efficiency, about 100 public buildings in Dnipro. Dnipro and Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv decided to accelerate their investment in green solutions by joining EBRD Green Cities, a flagship urban sustainability program, following in the footsteps of Lviv, Kyiv, Mariupol, Khmelnytsky and Kryvy Rih. Ukraine has more cities taking part in the program than any other economy in which the EBRD invests,” the report says.
“In the private sector, the bank teamed up with Kernel Group to help strengthen the company’s climate corporate governance. It is also supported the development of low-emission sustainable property by backing the real-estate portfolio of Dragon Capital, an investment firm,” according to the document.
“The bank joined forces with the European Union in extending grants to innovative Ukrainian firms seeking to improve climate resilience. The beneficiaries included a producer of recycled plastic The Good Plastic Company, architecture studio Ekodar, yeast producer Enzym, engineering firm Dominion, water and rainwater management company Viva Victoria and The Laboratory of Advanced Jet Propulsion, an institution focused on rocket and spacecraft technologies,” it says.
“The EBRD’s efforts to advance the sustainability of Ukraine’s economy were encouraged by the country’s newly reviewed Nationally Determined Contribution. The EBRD helped to develop the policy document and stands ready to help set out a low-carbon and climate-resilient pathway for the power generation sector in Ukraine,” the bank noted.
“In addition, the EBRD invested $ 75 million in a $825 million eurobond placed by Ukrenergo, the state-owned electricity transmission system operator, in a bid to resolve the payments crisis gripping the country’s renewable energy sector. The first ever sustainability-linked bond issued by a Ukrainian company, it helped restore the credibility of the Ukrainian renewable energy sector, paving the way for much-needed investment to support the country’s green transition. In the infrastructure sector, the EBRD approved a new EUR190 million loan tranche for further improvements to the country’s roads. This follows efforts by Ukravtodor and the Ukrainian authorities to implement a comprehensive anti-corruption program,” it says.
“This is part of the EBRD’s broader work to promote corporate governance reform in state-owned enterprises and to strengthen their supervisory boards. In a further move to promote greater private-sector participation in the development of infrastructure, the bank joined forces with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on a new advisory engagement with the Ministry of Infrastructure to help structure private-public partnerships in the road sector and to prepare the concession of selected terminals at Chornomorsk port,” it reads.
“Standing by its long-time partner, the city of Lviv, the bank provided emergency funds to ensure that the vital infrastructure is safe and functioning during the ongoing pandemic. As social distancing measures remained in place, the EBRD supported companies that facilitated remote entrepreneurship and helped people to stay in touch, such as state-owned postal service Ukrposhta and its privately owned peer, Nova Poshta, as well as Datagroup, a provider of fibre infrastructure and digital services,” the report states.
“Recognizing the importance of better access to credit and trade finance, the EBRD channeled EUR357 million to seven local lenders: Ukrgasbank, Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine, Ukreximbank, OTP Bank, ProCredit Bank, Credit Agricole and Bank Lviv. Backed by EU investment incentives, the bank increased lending for small and medium-sized enterprises via partner banks under the EU4Business-EBRD credit line,” it reads.
“It also delivered record volumes of trade finance as part of the Trade Facilitation Program. Furthermore, the bank financed successful Ukrainian companies such as car importer Winner, Kokhavynska Paper Factory and gas trader ERU Trading. It also teamed up with USAID and the American Chamber of Commerce to develop an action plan for the consolidation of infrastructure for the capital and commodities markets,” according to the bank.
In 2022, Ukraine will begin the reconstruction of 48 regional multidisciplinary hospitals, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“We have repaired 600 rural outpatient clinics and 200 emergency departments. And next year we are starting the reconstruction of 48 regional multidisciplinary clinical hospitals for both adults and children, as well as 24 rehabilitation centers for veterans,” he said, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada with an annual address on Wednesday.
Some UAH 100 million has been invested in the reconstruction of the Central Bus Station, Maksym Skliarenko, the director of Ukrpas, said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, a food court, a shopping area, a pharmacy will be located on the first floor of the renovated Central Bus Station, and a food court, cash desks and a waiting area for passengers on the second floor.
“All tenants will go out for repairs after the completion of the reconstruction of the station itself. On the third floor there is already a hotel with three categories of rooms – from a hostel with a place for UAH 450 to superior rooms for UAH 1,500 per day,” Skliarenko said.
As reported, the State Property Fund of Ukraine in the spring of 2020 sold at an auction a state package in the amount of 99.9% of the charter capital of Kyivpasservice. The starting price of the lot was UAH 195.9 million. The winner of the auction was Bastion Group LLC with an offer of UAH 230.89 million.
Kyivpasservice includes the Central Bus Station, the bus stations Podil, Darnytsia, Polissia, Pivdenna, Dachna in Kyiv, as well as 18 bus stations in Kyiv region.
The condition for the privatization of Kyivpasservice is that the investor retains the activities of bus stations in Kyiv for at least five years, in Kyiv region – for at least 15 years.
PrJSC Azot (Cherkasy), part of Group DF of businessman Dmytro Firtash, has launched a 45-day project to modernize the M-6 urea plant, capital investments in which will exceed UAH 165 million, Group DF said.
“The modernization of the M-6 urea production plant will be the largest project for the plant in the last 10 years. The enterprise makes money, the shareholder continues to make capital investments and modernize key industrial sites,” head of the board Vitaliy Skliarov is quoted as saying in a press release.
According to him, the work is aimed at increasing the capacity of the workshop and achieving energy savings.
According to the release, the exact figures for the new capacity of the workshop, which is now 1,000 tonnes per day, will be made public after the implementation of the project and the restoration of the workshop. Group DF Director for Communications Oleh Arestarkhov told Interfax-Ukraine that it is about increasing capacity by about 10%.
It is also assumed that the modernization will improve the efficiency of chemical processes in the shop, improve the reliability and stability of most production processes and have a positive effect on the technical and economic indicators of the shop as a whole.
In particular, it is planned to replace the high-pressure condenser and install a new low-pressure condenser, which has almost twice the working surface, as well as replace the old mass transfer plates in the synthesis reactor with new ones, made by the Swiss Urea Casale, with an increase in their number from 10 to 11.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food is negotiating with companies from Israel, the United States, France and China regarding public-private partnership in the reconstruction of irrigation systems in the southern regions of Ukraine, Minister Roman Leshchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“These are projects with main canals, pumping stations, systems for the sale of both drinking and irrigation water. Now we are negotiating with companies from Israel, the United States, France and China in terms of such a public-private partnership,” he said.
According to Leshchenko, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, during a meeting on the state of irrigation of lands with representatives of relevant ministries on June 9, instructed to prepare relevant projects on reclamation systems.
“The logic of the prime minister is that, given the uniqueness of our irrigation system, we need to scale the corresponding project through the prism of the expertise of world-renowned companies that can offer integrated solutions for both drip irrigation and the use of sprinkler machines, the use of main canals, and also the latest technologies of an intelligent water supply system,” the minister said.
He said that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy is currently negotiating with world leaders in irrigation, but cannot disclose their details yet.
As the minister said, there is an interest in companies with experience and the possibility of expertise in the implementation of large reclamation projects.
