Page 52 - UKRRptOct18

respectively. Winter wheat and triticale will account for 85.8% of winter grain crops to be sown this year, the share of winter barley will be 12.1% and that of winter rye will be 2%, experts said. The past winter was the most successful for winter crops in Ukraine over the entire history of records. The loss of winter crops was less than 0.1%, Ukraine's Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry said.
9.1.7 TMT sector news
Ukraine’s potential for solar, wind, hydro, and biomass energy would allow the nation to move to a fully renewable energy supply by 2050 , according to a study by Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology. Such a transition would almost cut power bills in half, to €54/MWh. To get there, Ukraine would have to invest heavily over the next three decades in battery storage for electricity and water reservoirs for hydro. On Tuesday, the California Legislature approved a bill that, by 2045, electricity production in the state must come completely from clean energy sources.
Kyiv’s UNIT.City technopark essentially doubles, to 47 hectares, with a City Council vote to lease 22 hectares for a 170,000 square meter housing project for tech workers. The site is on Sim’i Khokhlovykh Street, 8, adjacent to the technopark, and midway between the Dorohozhychi and Lukianivska stations on the Green Line. A project of developer Vasily Khmelnitsky, UNIT.City is to house 300 companies and R & D labouratories on 25 hectares by 2025.
Highlighting Ukraine’s TV digital divide, Kyiv’s move last month to turn off analog television broadcasting nationwide cut off as many as 2.4mn rural households from TV , Oleg Chernysh, member of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, tells UNIAN. While most of Ukraine’s 44mn people have access to internet, mobile telephone service and digital broadcasting, large swaths of this France-sized country do not. Ternopil estimates that 40% of its region does not receive digital TV. Rivne sued its local provider to keep analog broadcasting. Earlier this year, Zeonbudu, the national digital provider, was ordered to erect 47 more signal repeaters. Chernysh said it failed to do so, cutting off as much as 15% of the population from TV.
9.1.8 Tourism sector news
Construction of a new yacht marina in Odesa is part of a $250mn plan to develop yachting tourism on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast , reports IBI Plus, a news site for ‘marine industry professionals.’ Reporter Eugene Gerden writes: “The Ukrainian government is conducting talks with investors in China and the EU, and it is envisaged that building works for a new marina could begin before the end of this year.”
The number of Ukrainians vacationing abroad this summer increased by 20-25% over last summer, says Vladimir Tsaruk, director of Ukraine’s Tourism Development centre. Top destinations were: Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Bulgaria and Spain. Domestic summer tourism continues to redirect from Crimea. Berdyansk received 1mn tourists; Kherson region - 3.5mn; Odessa city and region - 5mn. Talking to reporters, Tsaruk noted a growth in tourists from Poland and Belarus. He said: “Foreigners have already realized that Ukraine is not a dangerous country, that there are normal conditions here, comfortable
52 UKRAINE Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com