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9.1.4 ​Construction & Real estate sector news
Construction in March fell 13% y/y, accelerating a decline that started with February’s drop of 4% y/y.​ During the first quarter, construction in Ukraine totalled $1bn, down 5.5% from Q1 2019, says the State Statistics Service. Residential construction in March was down 25% y/y. Among the big cities, all kinds of construction was down q-o-q in Kyiv by 8%, to $240mn, and in Odesa by 28%, to $56mn. In Lviv, construction was up by 15%, to $75mn.
Prime office rents will decline, CBRE Ukraine predicts. ​As of the end of March, 44% of companies planned to negotiate rental discounts with their landlords. Only 12.5% planned to continue under the conditions of their current leases.
President Zelenskiy is looking for $3bn to restore Ukraine’s bridges -- ​the same amount as this year’s massive road construction budget. As he spoke, a tractor trailer loaded with steel pipes crashed through a bridge built in 1954 over an arm of the Kakhovka Reservoir, in Dnipropetrovsk Region. “The structure collapsed exactly during the statement of Vladimir Zelenskiy at a press conference about plans to repair the bridges,” Nashe Misto reported from the scene. “Locals are outraged by the collapse of the only crossing. A highway of national importance is paralyzed.”
International and interregional bus travel was restarted on May 20​, Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy says on Telegram. Exceptions are regions with high rates of coronavirus infection, such as Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne. Intercity -- and possibly international -- rail travel is to start June 1.Through June, people entering Ukraine have to go through 2-week self-quarantine, enforced by monitoring through the smartphone Diia app.
9.1.6​ Agriculture sector news
As low rainfall becomes the new normal in southern Ukraine, investment in irrigation will give big payoffs by boosting yields in some of the nation’s “best quality land.​. Today, irrigation only covers 300,000 hectares, barely one tenth of the 2.5mn hectares irrigated in Soviet Ukraine, which included Crimea. “The state sees this as a priority for development which will create an enormous amount of jobs in the south,” the government said. Experts propose holding regional referendums on foreign land ownership. Under the current farmland rental system, foreign companies are reluctant to make major investments in irrigation in Ukraine.
61​ UKRAINE Country Report​ June 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com