Ukraine allocates $2.5 bln for Euro 2012

Ukraine has allocated a total of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars from state budget in preparation for the Euro 2012 football championship, the deputy head of the national agency for Euro 2012 preparations Valeriy Zhaldak said here Wednesday. Zhaldak said the building and operating stadiums and the airports were the major investment fields. The lion's share of funds was spent on construction of stadiums in Kiev and Lvov, as well as the runways at the airport in Donetsk, Kharkov and Lvov. Zhaldak stressed that private investment was higher than the funding, allocated by the public sector. "Private investors have spent more than 2.5 billion dollars on the development of the hotel chain, 370 million dollars was spent to build the stadium in Donetsk, while 268 million dollars went to the construction of a private terminal at the Kharkov airport," Zhaldak said. The figures Zhaldak cited are at variance with the calculations of Ukrainian experts who expect that total budget expenditures for construction of the roads, stadiums, airports and other projects required to host European sport's most-watched event at 8-10 billion dollars. The Euro 2012 will be hosted by Ukraine and Poland between June 8 and July 1 next year.