London Fashion Week February 2011

London Fashion Week February 2011 is underway once again, presenting an innovative and diverse schedule with emerging talent showing side by side with iconic British designers and brands to an expected audience of over 5,000 buyers, T.V. and radio crews, fashion editors and writers. London Fashion Week is the international showcase for one of the UK’s most important creative industries.

The BFC is delighted to be playing host to a record number of American buyers. Barneys and Saks fifth Avenue, regular visitors to London Fashion Week, are being joined by Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus and boutiques such as Opening Ceremony and H. Lorenzo, who are attending for the very first time. French and Italian interest is as keen as ever with Colette, Le Bon Marche and L’Eclaireur, La Rinascente, Biffi and Penelope, among others , all visiting London Fashion Week this February. Other European and Eurasian markets strongly represented include Belgium, Spain, Germany, Russia and Ukraine while China is becoming an exciting new consumer of UK fashion with multi-brand stores emerging in Beijing and Shanghai, joining representatives from the big department stores from Hong Kong such as Joyce and Lane Crawford. Meanwhile, Japanese support for British design goes from strength to strength with significant orders from the likes of Isetan, Beams and Takashimaya.

Top international press include Editors-in-Chief from six editions of Vogue – Anna Wintour US Vogue, Australia’s Kirstie Clements, Daniela Falcao from Brazil, Cristiane Arp from German Vogue and Franca Sozzani of Vogue Italia as well as the newly appointed Emanuelle Alt of French Vogue. France is also represented by Le Figaro, Le Monde, Grazia and L’Express while a strong American showing includes Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, Marie Claire, The New York Times, V and W Magazines. Fashion publications and broadcasters from Scandinavia, Benelux, South America, Eastern Europe and the Far East are all sending internationally renowned stylists, fashion editors, writers and bloggers.

Such impressive international presence at London Fashion Week is in large part due to the BFC‘s Guest Programme supported by UK Trade & Investment. The Guest Programme was set up in 2002 as part of a scheme to promote London Fashion Week internationally. The focus in the early seasons was on the American, French and Japanese markets and was targeted at buyers but now the scheme is offered to leading members of press as well and guests come from a large number of territories. Over the last eight years the programme, which forms part of the BFC’s strategy of business support for emerging British talent, has generated significant press coverage and substantial orders and has directly contributed to the success of many British fashion designers especially the recipients of the BFC’S fashion initiatives NEWGEN sponsored by Top Shop, Fashion Forward supported by Coutts & Co and Vogue’s Fashion Fund.

International press and buyers come to London for the creative energy and raw talent on show but the BFC’s Guest Programme scheme also enables London Fashion Week to compete with the brand-led markets of New York, Paris and Milan in terms of the quantity and quality of designers showing and the business and advertising revenue this subsequently generates.

Susan Haird, Acting Chief Executive of UK Trade and Industry comments,“London Fashion Week is an excellent platform for British designers to showcase to the international fashion community the creative, edgy brilliance of our multi-billion pound fashion industry, which is worth £21 billion to the UK economy and supports 1.31 million jobs. We look forward to partnering once again with the British Fashion Council to assist new and exciting designers make their mark in key international markets.”

(source:creativeboom.co.uk)

Ukraine Cooperates With the United States in the Energy Sector

KYIV, Ukraine, February 21, 2011 /Ukraine Twitter/ -- Governments of Ukraine and the United States discussed further cooperation in the nuclear energy sector and signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of shale gas exploration in Ukraine, as reports the press service of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine. The issues of the Ukrainian energy sources diversification such as LNG-terminal construction and exhausted gas fields rehabilitation were also discussed during the second session of a Ukrainian-American working group on energy security.

The Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Yuriy Boyko emphasized the necessity to further develop Ukraine's cooperation with the U.S. in the nuclear energy sector in the area of nuclear plants' safety enhancement, extending life of existing reactors, nuclear fuel supplies and building storage facilities for the depleted fuel. He noted that Ukraine is interested to continue implementation of the International Nuclear Safety Program, the ten-year long (1993-2003) U.S. Department of Energy initiative in safety improvement of nuclear power plants built in the Soviet time.

In addition to nuclear safety, the minister also discussed the ways to diversify Ukrainian energy production. One such method could be the increase of shale gas production, which has recently changed the situation at the world gas market. According to the preliminary scientific studies, Ukraine has significant potential for its shale gas bearing formations.

Both Ukrainian and the U.S. governments plan to implement projects aimed at rehabilitation of the exhausted gas fields in Ukraine. Yuriy Boyko noted that the Ukrainian state-owned companies such as Naftogaz and Ukrnafta need technological cooperation to increase gas recovery in the insufficient or exhausted fields.

Yuriy Boyko also spoke of the steps undertaken by the Ukrainian government in order to diversify energy resources and natural gas suppliers. "Ukraine is interested in cooperation with American energy companies in order to complete the LNG-terminal project," said the minister.

Furthermore, Ukraine hopes to diversify the supply of liquefied natural gas from North Africa, Middle East and Azerbaijan. So far, Azerbaijan has confirmed its intention to sell Ukraine five billion cubic meters of LNG per year. The construction of the LNG terminal in the Black Sea region with the capacity of 10 billion cubic meters is planned for 2014.

(source:prnewswire.com)

Ukraine to Develop its own Modern Missile Complex

KYIV, Ukraine, February 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ukraine will build its own up-to-date missile complex called Sapsan. The new multi-functional missile complex is expected to combine the features of a tactical missile complex and a multiple rocket launcher. This was announced during the visit of the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to Kharkiv City, Eastern Ukraine.

The missile range stated by the developer (the Pivdenne Design Bureau in Dnipropetrovsk) is up to 280 kilometers. The new weapon is expected to be tested in 2012-2013 and enter service in 2015. The estimated construction cost of the new missile system is 3.5 billion UAH (USD 440 mln.)

When asked about the readiness of the modern Sapsan missile complex, Viktor Yanukovych reassured that the government is set to carry out this plan within the shortest timeframe as well as to make sure the project is properly financed. The president has referred to Sapsan as to the "most up-to-date" missile system to be constructed in Ukraine.

In addition, the Ukrainian president highlighted that the government plans to back up Ukraine's participation in preparation of the space launching site in Brazil and support such major projects as Dnipro, and Cyclone-4.

In recent years Ukraine has occupied one of the world's leading positions among the countries that produce rocket launchers. Another world-known achievement of Ukraine is production of the ecologically sensitive rocket complex Zenit, one of the best rocket carriers with a fully automated preparation and launching process. The carrier is produced by Pivdenne Design Bureau. Zenit will serve as a base for creating an entire family of prospective space carriers. Moreover, Kharkiv based design bureau Khartronis a leading think-tank of Ukrainian missile construction industry. Khartron is among the three design bureaus in the world, capable to produce sophisticated missile control systems. Ukraine is one of the three successors of the Soviet Union's space industry potential. Moreover, Ukraine is one of the five countries in the world, which has a complete rocket production cycle. Ukrainian companies that work in the space industry utilize most of the known space technologies and participate in 50 international space projects.

(source:prnewswire.com)

Gazprom says no revision of gas contract with Ukraine

Russian gas giant Gazprom is not planning to revise its gas supply contract with Ukraine, CEO Alexei Miller said on Monday.

"Under the current contract, gas is supplied with a 30% discount compared to the price for European consumers. We do not plan any changes to the price formula or the contract," Miller said.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it wanted to revise the contract. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said recently that Kiev would continue pressing for changes to the price formula.