NIBULON strives to revive Ukrainian rivers as the country’s waterways and to redirect grain and other cargoes from road transport and its high achievements in this sphere is a result of a set of factors, such as well-coordinated work, professionalism, many years’ hard work of the whole team, support of the reliable partners, and what is more will, fortitude, and strategic vision of its owner, Hero of Ukraine Oleksiy Vadaturskyy. The success of NIBULON has been repeatedly recognized by both Ukrainian and international experts, who agree that this is a unique case when the agricultural company revives river navigation and shipbuilding in the country almost on its own. 
Today NIBULON celebrates one more its important victory. According to the “National Maritime Rating of Ukraine 2017”, Oleksiy Vadaturskyy won under the category “Person of the Year 2017 on Water Transport”. As the organizers of the rating said, that was the first time in the eleven-year history of maritime ratings when the transport community of the country recognized the absolute leadership on water transport of a person, whose main business is connected with another industry.
When addressing an audience at the awards ceremony, Oleksiy Vadaturskyy was one of a few participants who have addressed the audience in Ukrainian. He expressed his gratitude to both the experts who voted for him and those who did not support him, because this adds more significance to this award,
“This is a genuine award and not a corrupt one”, stressed Hero of Ukraine. “I didn’t agitate anyone. I didn’t pay anyone. NIBULON is not among the sponsors of this event. Therefore, I am grateful to the organizers of the rating and editorial staff of Ports of Ukraine magazine because I know what strong pressure they have withstood awarding this victory to a person who is not from marine and economic sector. After all, when the results were announced, there were attempts to launch e-voting in order to negate this award”. 
Mykola Pavliuk, Hero of Ukraine, an Honorary President of Odesa Sea Port, presented the honorable award “Person of the Year” to Oleksiy Vadaturskyy and congratulated him, “This is a unique event not only for the industry, but also for the country. If we had more people like Oleksiy Vadaturskyy, at least 5-10, Ukraine would have been changed. It’s necessary not to propagandize, not to talk in general about what we are going to do and build in 2038 but what we have to do today and whose lead to follow”.
Oleksandr Kurliand, President of Ukrferry Shipping Company, said the following things about Oleksiy Vadaturskyy, “We must learn much from him.  The Ministry of Infrastructure and the USPA blame him for monopoly, but do not confuse monopoly with leadership”.
“What does it mean to be the best on water transport? Firstly, the company’s fleet numbers 67 vessels. This year we will construct eight more vessels, and in the next 2-3 years our fleet will number 100 vessels under the Ukrainian flag, from Ukrainian metal, in the Ukrainian Shipping Register. Our company did not take any vessel to offshore zone. The reconstruction of NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard is one more our achievement. The reconstruction will enable us to start constructing complete vessels of 140 m this year. The next year we will launch a unique vessel, which has not been seen in Ukraine yet”, said during his speech Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
This is the 20th award of the company in the National Maritime Rating. This is the eighth time since 2009 NIBULON has won under the category “Fleet Revival”. In addition, the company was rewarded with a memorable badge “New Terminal” for the second time for the fact that it put two transshipment terminals on the Dnipro River into operation in 2017. NIBULON has been a prize-holder of the National Maritime Rating of Ukraine for eight years under such nominations as “Golden Berth” (4 times), “Absolute Growth” (two times), “Achievement of the Year”, “Growth Rates”. “I raised the bar for future winners so that they understood that in order to win they have to build at least 300 thousand tons of elevator capacities on the rivers and at the sea, to build 8 vessels, dredge 150 km of waterways in a year. In addition, we have constructed our dredger which enables us to crush rocky bottom. We raised the bar to be a person of the year. Future winners should try to raise the bar higher than we did”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
Deputy General Director of Fleet Construction, Fleet Operation and Navigation Safety Andrii Volik also attended the awards ceremony.
Speaking about NIBULON’s achievements, Oleksiy Vadaturskyy could not refrain from telling the truth about what is really happening today in the Ukrainian marine and economic complex (although some did not want to listen to constructive criticism; following the Minister’s lead, who has a habit of disappearing from events, they left the room immediately after his speech),
“We showed that the agrarian company, as a leader, invests in the Ukrainian economy, and this is a great potential for the agricultural sector development. We showed the company that is capable of doing a lot in Ukraine, but they do not give us a chance”.
Taking the opportunity that people’s deputies were in the room, and as he noted, “so much depends on them, but they do not want to do anything for shipbuilding development in Ukraine, and Ukrainian rivers to be navigable”, Hero of Ukraine drew the attention of those present to the cases of real irresponsibility. In particular, from November 2017 until yesterday, navigation and locks on the Dnipro River were unjustifiably closed (this situation was covered on our website in the series of publications “The Minister Dreams of Something – Potential of the Dnipro River is Unused”).
“And this the way current “Facebook” reforms behave in the Ministry of Infrastructure. On November 28, 2017, the Dnipro River was closed allegedly to repair Kaniv lock. But during this time the lock was not completely repaired and as it turned out, they couldn’t hold a tender for its repair for a long time. And then the person who won the tender disappeared. In the end, the funds are not spent and perhaps they are spent by other corrupt organizations. In the meantime, the lock was not repaired; it was closed.
Today’s event gathered a lot of professionals who really do everything to develop the marine and economic complex. There are no representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, because another event was scheduled for this day on purpose. Unfortunately, in this room there are also unscrupulous people who think only of their own enrichment, and not about the development of inland waterways or about the shipbuilding industry development. They find words to show how they struggle on Facebook, but we should understand that everyone struggles for his own position, not for the state one. They struggle for their financial flows, and we want Ukrainian companies and Ukrainian investors to have equal rights with foreign investors, including in marine and economic complex. We construct vessels, and do not take them to offshore zone like others do; they stole them, took them to offshore zone and now they think of importing vessels without customs clearence to Ukraine, as no one admits them abroad.
It has already been said today that people win no thanks to someone’s support. We are struggling against all in order to restore the shipping and shipbuilding potential of our country. Almost 100 km of waterways disappear from the Ukrainian map every year. Our company revived the Southern Buh River, having dredged 134 km of the river in a year. To do this, we spent 5 years in order to receive 47 permits. I am proud to say that in the near future our company will transport 1 million tons of grain cargo along the Southern Buh River. Should Odesa citizens be glad or should not be glad? Perhaps, they will not be glad, because this grain will not be transported to them by road transport. But Ukrainians will benefit from this.
Another example is the inadequate attitude towards Ukrainian investors in our country. For example, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Hroisman attended the inauguration of one of the transshipment terminals, for which I have been awarded today, in Bilenke (Zaporizhzhia region). On the day of inauguration of the terminal, I was served a suspicion of violation and launching of a criminal case. In 9 months, nothing was found or proved, but they distract local authorities, investors and discredit the country.
At the same time, I also want to thank Kostiantyn Bryl, chairman of Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration, Andrii Hordieiev, the chairman of Kherson Regional Administration, and their teams for support.  It would not be possible to construct these transshipment terminals without support of local authorities. If we hoped only for support of central authorities, it would be practically impossible to implement. Therefore, the people’s deputies should take into account such nuances when working on the issues of decentralization so that the community had the opportunity to develop”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
Since last year, the company has focused on passenger transportation development. In the near future, the company plans to build vessels of catamaran type. The representatives of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district (Odesa region) have repeatedly addressed themselves to NIBULON asking us to resume high-speed transportation of passengers from Odesa to their district, as well as to Varna, Istanbul, the Kinburn Spit, Zaliznyi port, Skadovsk. But today NIBULON is the only company that deals with unprofitable business of reviving passenger transportation by water, as there is no precondition for its development in Ukraine,
“There will be no passenger transportation until our people’s deputies, government officials and the Ministry of Infrastructure raise the issue of cancelling the excise tax on fuel for water transport. Don’t hide and don’t close your eyes to the fact that Ukrainian tugs practically bunker outside the 12-mile zone of Ukraine and consume fuel at a price of up to UAH 10 thousand cheaper than the Ukrainians buy officially paying the excise tax. This is a real rise in the cost of transportation up to USD 4 per 1 ton of cargo. Everyone closes their eyes to all these issues.
Our company creates jobs for Ukrainians who work in Ukraine. And it was very strange for me to hear that there are companies that employ our people abroad. And the number of these people employed in a year is impressive (more than 10,000). People are the huge potential of our country, but for some reason our people’s deputies don’t think of a way to employ them in Ukraine; they think of a way to employ them abroad.  We have created more than 700 jobs at our shipbuilding and repair yard, and 9,000 people are next in turn to get a job at NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard. Every year we employ and teach Ukrainians to develop Ukraine living in it.
Under such conditions we construct vessels, hoping that navigation in Ukraine will develop”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
“Despite all the obstacles and difficulties, our company will have a lot of victories. Each another victory will make both people of the marine and economic complex and officials think differently. Ukraine will get only positive things from us in this difficult period. It will prove that Ukraine deserves more, Ukraine can do more, and the future of Ukraine depends on us”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.