Cashing in on Eurovision

The Kyiv City Administration intends to offer loans to companies that make souvenirs to ensure their work for the Eurovision song contest to be held in 2005 in the capital of Ukraine, said Viktor Bilych, chief of the Main Department for Entrepreneurship at the Kyiv City Administration, as reported by Korrespondent.net. “We are going to offer every support mechanism, including credits”, he stressed. In October the Kyiv Administration is going to institute a soft-loan program to support souvenir businesses. Each business will be able to obtain a loan of up to 5 million hryvnias. Mr. Bilych added that individual entrepreneurs would also be able to receive loans. As reported earlier, Kyiv’s Palace of Sport has been chosen as the venue for the Eurovision anniversary contest, which is expected to attract participants from more than 40 countries of the world and receive press coverage from about 2,000 journalists. In addition, between 30,000 and 35,000 foreign tourists are expected to arrive in Ukraine in May-June 2005 before the start of Eurovision.