EVENT

 Specialists from the United States Agency for International Development — Local Investment and National Competitiveness have finished working out an economic development plan for the Sevastopol port. The project’s expert on port activity Kenneth Karpinski considers that one of Sevastopol’s main problems is its long-time isolation, caused by the deployment of Black Sea Fleet.

In his opinion, the city did not take part in the commercialization of water transport. Moreover, warships take up a big part of the shoreline and exploit piers that could be used for the development of commercial and passenger navigation. Among the expert’s principal recommendations are: seeking opportunities to refund unused property objects that are currently under the contract of the Black Sea Fleet lease; offering two available places for the construction of new cargo handling complexes to issue contracts on public-private partnership with potential investors; initiating the creation and development of a free trade area (FTA) within Sevastopol; encouraging the development of cutter, yacht and marine tourism, and directing efforts to making alterations in national legislation on small ships that arrive under foreign flags. The expert also recommended paying priority attention to the development of the cruise business. 

 A Center for European Information has begun functioning in Zaporizhia, based on the Research Library of Zaporizhia National University (ZNU). This is an informational and educational resource institution, which will provide citizens with free access to information about Europe, the EU and its cooperation with Ukraine. Both the ZNU and the International Renaissance Foundation have joined in on the creation of the Euro-information center. The opening of the center was visited by the Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Kharkiv Jan Granat, Vice-Consul Anita Staszkiewicz, local officials, and students and workers of the university. According to Granat, the opening of such a center is really necessary. Because this institution has “to bring Ukraine closer to Europe,” said the Consul General, “objective and accessible information is what is most important for the citizens.” In addition to that, he stressed that currently 85 percent of Poland’s citizens admit that joining the EU was the best solution for the country, and expressed every possible support to Ukrainians. “I know that Ukraine is preparing to reform its administration. It was the most successful reform for us, and we are ready to share this experience. Because we understand that, according to tradition and history, we have to reach a helping hand to our neighbors,” said Granat. He also noted that Ukrainians are the biggest group among foreign students in Poland, and promised to come to Zaporizhia with a lecture on Ukrainian-Polish relations. Similar Centers for European Information function in 15 other regions of Ukraine. 

 The international space project Cyclone-4 requires about 260 million dollars to be completed, reported the chairman of the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU) Yurii Aleksieiev. “[This is because], at present, about 280 million dollars are completely drawn, and we still need about 260 million dollars [more]. It is vexing, however, that Brazil has contributed 50 million dollars more to the project than Ukraine,” he said. At this, Aleksieiev stressed that full-scale funding should be restored in April. According to him, this will be possible by making changes to the Budget Code of Ukraine. The head of the department noted that due to the delay in financing, it is likely that the first flight within the Cyclone-4 project will take place in the first half of 2013. We remind that the creation of a rocket-space complex Cyclone-4 on the Brazilian subequatorial space launching site Alcantara, to launch space devices on near-circular low and medium orbits and the transiting to geostationary orbit is being realized within the bounds of a long-term agreement on cooperation by the program that Ukraine and Brazil signed in 2003.