KIEV, Dec. 26 - Ukraine's national oil and gas stock company Naftogaz Ukrayiny has signed an agreement with China Development Bank Corporation for $3.656 billion under state guarantee for projects involving the replacement of gas with coal, Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boyko's press service announced Tuesday evening.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – Prime Minister Mykola Azarov believes that Ukraine can raise export of software products to $8 billion by 2015.

"We are capable of raising level of exports of software products by 2015 to some $8 billion," he said at a meeting with associations dedicated to the IT industry development in Kiev on Friday.

KIEV, Dec. 23 - The installed capacity of renewable energy facilities in Ukraine in 2012 will at least double, according to Vitaliy Daviy, the president of the Association of Alternative Fuel and Energy Market Participants of Ukraine (APEU).

KIEV, Dec. 26 - Ukraine's business circles worsened their inflation expectations in the fourth quarter, according to a poll of enterprise heads by the National Bank of Ukraine.

"The expected inflation for next 12 months was 14% on average [the increase by 0.4 percentage notches compared to the level predicted in the previous quarter]," reads the report.

MOSCOW, Dec. 26 - The Russian-Ukrainian talks on the terms for gas supplies to Ukraine do not put Russian gas supplies to Europe at risk, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – Austria's EPIC plans to restructure OJSC Ukrtelecom if the company buys a state-owned 92.79% stake in the operator, and then the company would resell it.

A managing partner of EPIC, Peter Goldscheider, gave his opinion to Interfax-Ukraine.

KIROVOHRAD, Dec. 23 – Dnipropetrovsk-based Velta industrial and commercial firm Ltd. has started building an ore mining and ilmenite concentrate enrichment mill on the Birzulovske field (Kirovohrad region).

KIEV, Dec. 23 – The large volume of bad credits, bad financial state of borrowers and the low level of legal protection of creditors would hinder the development of the Ukrainian banking system in 2011, according to heads of the largest banking associations of the country.

KIEV, Dec. 24 – Britain's Regal Petroleum plc with assets in Ukraine could be deprived of its licenses to develop the Mekhediviska-Golotvshinska (MEX-GOL) and Svyrydivske (SV) gas and condensate fields in Poltava region.

KIEV, Dec. 24 - The Industrial Union of Donbass is finishing talks with international creditors on the restructuring of its debt and hopes to sign the agreement in January-February 2011, said ISD Vice President Oleksandr Pylypenko.