Kyiv to receive animal welfare hotline
The municipal enterprise Center of Animal Identification will install a hotline on March 1, 2011, to provide a rapid response to Kyivites’ proposals and appeals for help. This way the center’s specialists will have an opportunity to respond to citizens’ inquiries and solve animal welfare and safety issues as soon as they appear. Installing a separate hotline for animal-related issues has become necessary due to, on the one hand, a large number of inquiries addressed to the Kyiv city state administration and other institutions, and on the other hand, the need to introduce a system of public control, which would facilitate the identification of those who violate animal welfare and safety regulations, and prevent the tragic consequences of such violations, reports the center’s press service. The hotline call number is 332-12-34, active Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. By calling this number, citizens will be able to get advice or clarification, or to file a complaint related to the city’s animal welfare regulations or cases of these regulations being violated. They will also be able to access information regarding issues of animal safety, cases of animal cruelty, or the procedure for acquiring custody of homeless animals. Advice and explanations will also be provided online, complaints will be processed in the legally prescribed manner, and applicants will be given written replies.
Chinese company ready to finance Kherson oil refinery reconstruction
The Chinese oil and gas company China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) is ready to finance the Kherson oil refinery’s reconstruction, provided that the Ukrainian government will give it state guarantees, said the plant’s co-owner Ihor Yeremeiev at a meeting of the Kherson regional reform committee. In turn, the owners may invite the government to purchase a share of the refinery’s capital or transfer their shares to the government as security for a loan. Yeremeiev argues that if funding becomes available, the refinery may be reconstructed in four years time. It was reported that the Kherson oil refinery’s owners repeatedly declared their intentions to attract investors to modernize the plant, with the costs assessed at 800-850 million dollars. It is expected that after its modernization is complete, the refinery’s capacity will reach 4.5 million tons of oil annually. Yeremeiev also declared his readiness to transfer 50 percent of the company’s shares to the government in exchange for the latter’s participation in the modernization of the enterprise.
Ukraine will buy two Czech-produced double-decker trains
JSC Skoda Vagonka (Czech Republic) intends to deliver two double-decker dual-system inter-regional trains to the Statutory Territorial Industrial Association “Southern Railway” in the second quarter of 2012. As reported by the press service of the State Administration of Railway Transport of Ukraine Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways), the trains may be available for such routes as Poltava-Kharkiv and Kharkiv-Kupiansk. Each train will carry up to 620 passengers in six carriages. We remind that on January 12, Skoda Vagonka signed a contract on supplying Southern Railway with two double-decker dual-system trains, with a price tag of 39.9 million euros for the pair.
