Page 49 - UKRRptJuly18

9.1.3 Transport sector news
National transport strategy launched. The Ministry of Infrastructure, in partnership with the EU project Support to the Implementation of the Association Agreement and of the National Strategy of the Transport Sector in Ukraine (AASISTS) have officially launched the country's national transport strategy "Drive Ukraine," with support from a team of European experts and the Reforms Delivery Office, the EU Neighbours portal reported. The elements for the next 12 years include: ?onstructing 10 highways and functional roads around Kyiv and other major cities; modernizing railway lines; building new river transport infrastructure; building new deep-sea ports infrastructure; increasing the number of operating airports from 19 to 50 and launching flights to new destinations; renewing and modernizing transport means, prioritizing passenger transport; expanding the use of innovative solutions in transport.
Odesa (and Kyiv) to be linked with Gdansk by motorway . Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has announced that Ukraine will build a section of the motorway linking Gdansk and Odesa, with a branch connecting to Kyiv. His Polish counterpart, Minister Andrzej Adamczyk, has confirmed this. "Minister Omelyan told me...that the Ukrainian side...would soon start to implement a large-scale road project to connect Lviv and Odesa with a branch to Kyiv. It will be a motorway. We hope that the project will provide an opportunity for linking Odesa with the ports of Trojmiasto [Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot]," Adamczyk said, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
UAH90bn to be invested in modernization of Ukrainian infrastructure in 2018. Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Kistion announced this at the Ukrainian Ports Forum 2018, the Government portal reports. The sea ports play a vital role in the development of the Ukrainian economy and provide up to 45% of export-import operations of the country’s foreign trade, he said. The total revenue generated by the services they provide amounted to $1.7bn, equal to 2% of the country's GDP. It is planned to implement 46 projects to develop the seaports with the involvement of investors from now until 2030, the aggregate value of which is almost UAH44bn, Ukrinform reports.
Four massive grain silos, with a combined capacity of 26,000 tons, have been completed at Olvia, a specialized seaport, 25 km south of Mykolaiv. The silos are the first phase of a project by BT Invest Ltd. that should nearly double the cargo capacity of the Black Sea port, which opened in 1992 as Oktyabrsk. The BT Invest terminal will have a capacity of handling 4mn tons of cargo a year, and the daily unloading of 300 grain trucks and 200 rail cars per day.
Ukrainian Railways will close about half of its 177 grain loading stations in an effort to optimize costs , Yevhen Kravtsov, acting chairman of the railroad, tells the European Business Association. Of the closures, 27 will be permanent and 65 will be temporary, during the July–December peak harvesting and grain transportation season. Dragon capital writes: “Closing its inactive grain loading stations and optimizing its grain transport business otherwise is important for [Ukrzaliznytsia], as recent growth in grain exports from Ukraine revealed the company’s weaknesses in providing quality service and meeting demand from farmers in a timely fashion.”
Cargo handled by Chornomorsk increased by one third through May,
49 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com