Belgians plan to develop freight shipping on the Dnipro
The Belgian stevedoring company Agro-Maas NV plans to invest 125 million euros in the development of freight shipping on the Dnipro, said the company’s CEO Ronnie Maas during the signing ceremony of agreements on cooperation between Ukrainian and Belgian businessmen in Kyiv on November 23. “Within the framework of ‘The Dnipro is Ukraine’s Mississippi’ project we want to return to the use of barges to transport goods. During its active navigation era the Dnipro was used to transport over 100 million tons of cargo a year, while now it is only used to transport six million tons. We’re going to invest in 18 barges, 10 tugs, two floating cranes and other vessels to be used for export purposes,” he said. At the same time, Mr. Maas stressed that the vessels will be used for transporting not only agricultural products, but also fertilizers, steel and cement. “The total cost of the project is about 125 million euros. We plan to invest these funds over the next three to four years. But before we do this, we want to enlist the support of the government. We need licenses, permits, and we know that legalization is very difficult,” he said.
Concern Nauka to produce nanostructures
The Scientific and Industrial Concern Nauka plans to launch the production of nanostructures in March-April 2011. This was announced at the 9th International Industrial Forum by the Deputy Minister of Industrial Policy Vitalii Nemylostyvy. “The concern Nauka... will implement the investment project, having already brought some equipment that will enable Ukraine to produce nanostructures,” said the deputy minister. In his words, these technologies have, at present, only been mastered by six countries in the world. Nemylostyvy added that the concern has already signed contracts with foreign companies to use its production capacity. He also noted that Ukraine is now developing infrastructure for the production of light-emitting diodes, to be used in lighting appliances, and expressed hopes that this work will be completed next year. Overall, according to the deputy minister, in 2010 the state program of development of high technology received some ten percent of planned financing, or 37 million hryvhyas. This is due to the fact that the 2010 state budget was only adopted in April, and the funds for the program’s implementation were received by the Ministry of Industrial Policy only in August.
Ukrainians believe the Euro-2012 will be held successfully
According to the results of a survey conducted by the sociological group Rating in October 2010, only 17 percent of respondents do not believe Ukraine’s hosting the European Soccer Championship Euro-2012 will be a success. Twenty-one percent are not decided on this issue, reports the press service of Rating. Compared with August of last year, the citizens’ assessments of Ukraine’s readiness to hold the Euro-2012 have improved. Respondents were given a possibility to assess this index based on the five-grade scale, where 1 point meant low readiness, and 5 points signified complete readiness. Thus, while in August 2009, the average value was “2+” (2.4), in October 2010, it was a solid “3” (3.0). The number of people who gave the grade of “4” increased the most — by three times. Both in August last year and in October this year Ukrainian citizens first of all connected the Euro-2012 with the country’s prestige (42 percent) and new jobs (42 percent). This event will also mean improving the quality of roads, airports, and hotels (34 percent), and a possibility for the country to earn additional revenue (31 percent). During the year the feeling that the Euro-2012 will develop host cities decreased (from 30 to 27 percent), as did the feeling that this is a possibility to show the better side of Ukraine to Europe and the world (from 33 to 27 percent). Twenty percent of respondents still believe that the Euro-2012 is an impetus for sports development in the country, and 14 percent suppose that it means more chances for the country to join the EU. Most importantly, only 3 percent of respondents believe that the Euro-2012 is not important for the country (in August last year 9 percent thought so). Compared with last year’s results, the number of respondents who saw the economic crisis among the key problems, which can hinder the successful holding of the Euro-2012 in Ukraine, decreased from 61 to 46 percent, and the number of those who see corruption in the government as the biggest problem decreased from 51 to 35 percent.
