33 projects win Sikorsky Challenge contest

The Culture and Arts Center at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute named for Igor Sikorsky was the venue for the closing ceremony of the seventh festival Sikorsky Challenge on October 19. The chairmen of the jury for the tech startup contest Sikorsky Challenge and the contest POLYTECO Ukraine'2018/2019 announced winners and, together with the representatives of investors, presented awards and gifts to the authors of the best projects.

Over the course of seven years of the festival, a certain award tradition has developed. At first, the winners of the startup contest, which gave its name to the festival, would take the stage, followed by the youngest participants who won the contest among schoolchildren, namely POLYTECO Ukraine'2018/2019. They are joined by jurors, and the representatives of foundations and companies who have decided to support the best projects and their authors.

This time, the organizers and members of the International Expert Jury for the startup contest were the first to take the stage. Of 155 startup projects submitted to this contest in 2018, 55 competed in the finals. Ultimately 33 projects won the competition and some of their authors signed memorandums with potential investors, some received awards from the International Expert Jury or the partners of the innovation ecosystem Sikorsky Challenge.

Ukraine isn't magnet for FDI

According to analyst Aleksey Kusch, today Ukraine attracts foreign direct investment (FDI) to the tune of $2-2.5 billion a year. With the deduction of the recapitalization of Russian banks from this measly amount, it turns out to be less than $2 billion.

Funnily enough, the annual target for investment determined by the Poroshenko regime has been ranging between $5 billion and $7 billion until 2014. However, the Ukraine's real potential for FDI is estimated at $15-20 billion that is out of the question today.

Kiev raises poaching fines for elk

Recently, the government of Ukraine has introduced new fines for killing elks entered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species last year. Henceforth poachers will have to pay 130,000 grivnas for one killed ruminant. Moreover, the government ordinance on an increase in the fines covers not only elks, but also other animals entered in the Red List.

The fines imposed in 2017 were more modest: between 20,000 and 80,000 grn for killing an elk and bison, and up to 40,000 grn for poaching a wild horse.

Animal-rights activists claim that the elk population numbers no more than 6,000 in Ukrainian forests today, compared with about 15,000 in the early 1990s.

Ukraine immersed in massive debt

Recently, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has published the disastrous amount of compulsory payments on a huge national debt. In particular, Kiev will have to pay 3.069 trillion grivnas from this year to 2025, including 1.948 trillion and 1.121 trillion grn worth of debt repayment and debt service respectively.

In the first half of this year, the Ministry of Finance paid only 104.725 billion grn in settlement of the enormous national debt. In addition, Ukraine paid the IMF $606.8 million in August as debt servicing.

KPI designers of nanosatellites meet with delegation of Polish Space Agency

Representatives of the Department of Science and Innovation at the Igor Sikorsky Kiev Polytechnic Institute (KPI) and researchers working on the implementation of the University’s Space Program met with representatives of the Polish Space Agency on October 10.

Led by Grzegorz Brona, President of the Polish Space Agency, the delegation included Prof. Krzysztof Wesolowski and Rafal Krenz of the Poznan University of Technology (PUT), among others. In addition, the Polish delegation was accompanied by Oleg Kazanishchev, first secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Poland, and Galina Tsymbal, chief specialist of the Division of International Projects Management at the International Relations Department under the State Space Agency of Ukraine.

As far as KPI participants are concerned, Yuri Sidorenko and Igor Litvinov, deputy vice-rectors for science, Boris Rassamakin, head of the Laboratory of Nanosatellite Technology, Sergey Pukha, chief engineer of the special design bureau Storm, Prof. Sergey Shukayev, head of the International Projects Office of the International Collaboration Department, and others took part in the meeting with the representatives of the Polish space industry.

The participants in the meeting considered some purely technical questions concerning space technology developed at Igor Sikorsky KPI and possibilities for expanding cooperation.

Yevgeni Kovalenko, member of the KPI nanosatellite development, provided the guests with input about the work on these space vehicles and characteristics of those that are already in near-earth orbit as well as those that are being designed and built. In particular, discussions at the meeting focused on the PolyITAN-3-PUT nanosatellite, which is being created in conjunction with the Poznan University of Technology (this is evidenced by the abbreviation for the Polish university used in the name of the new nanosatellite). This vehicle is designed for Earth remote sensing. PUT representatives Krzysztof Wesolowski and Rafal Krenz outlined engineering developments and proposals in terms of its systems and design stages.

Great interest was expressed in the presentation of the KPI concept to form a grouping of microsatellites for Earth remote sensing, which Sergey Pukha showcased at the meeting. This grouping is supposed to consist of six microsatellites weighing up to 100 kilograms, capable of carrying much more payload than nanosatellites (the mass of nanosatellites cannot exceed 10 kg). Compared with their existing counterparts, the microsatellites developed by KPI experts will have several considerable differences, capable of performing a wider range of tasks, especially when operating as a part of the grouping.

SPF plans to receive 17.1 billion grn from sale of state assets

This year the government of Ukraine planned to receive 21.3 billion grivnas from the sale of state assets. Of this sum, however, the State Property Fund (SPF) has steered only 50 million grn worth of privatization revenue to the national budget, which accounted for about 0.2% of the plan.

According to acting SPF chairman Vitaly Trubarov, the problem to sell state-owned property in 2018 can be explained by the fact that the Supreme Council, Ukraine's parliament, has long been procrastinating on a new bill of privatization. Notwithstanding the document was ready for adoption as recently as last year, the new law has taken effect from May 2018 only. For this reason, the SPF failed to sell any “serious” state property.

Mr. Trubarov believes nothing can get in the way of selling state assets in the amount of some 17.1 billion grn next year.

Russia is top supplier of wheat

According to experts' estimates, among major players on the global wheat market in the 2017-18 season have been Russia (23% of total wheat exports), the United States (14%), the European Union (13%) and Canada (12%). Ukraine ranks fifth globally with 10% share. At the same time, Ukraine is the fourth largest supplier (13%) in the global corn market while the top three positions are shared by the U.S. (42%), Argentina (16%) and Brazil (16%).

Exact sciences aren't popular with Ukrainian entrants

This year the largest number of applications for admission to Ukraine's higher educational institutions was submitted by entrants into such "popular" professions as philology, law, management, tourism, computer science and software engineering. At the same time, the exact sciences like physics, chemistry and mathematics had few entrants.

According to experts, as a result of this imbalance, most philology, management and law graduates may well face serious difficulties in finding jobs in their own profession. To increase their chances in the labor market, citizens of Ukraine can receive further education, whereas 68% of them are not very keen to do so yet.