KYIV. Sept 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The government intends to conduct the common pecuniary appraisal of farmland in 2018.
This is outlined in the bill on the national budget of Ukraine for 2018 drawn up by the government.
According to the document, pecuniary appraisal of farmland across the country would allow assessing the land bank and provide for additional payments to local budgets thanks to the sale of rights to state-owned and municipal land parcels. According to the draft budget, in 2019-2018, some UAH 10.5 billion of land rental will be sent to local budgets.
The pecuniary appraisal of farmland will be conducted using budget funds.

KYIV. Sept 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Private joint-stock company Ukrnaftoburinnia, the co-owners of which are Ihor Kolomoisky and Vitaliy Khomutynnik, has increased its daily gas production rate to 1.35 million cubic meters (mcm) thanks to well No. 38 on the Sakhalynske oil and gas condensate field (Kharkiv region), the company’s press service has reported.
“On September 13, after developing well No. 38 of the Sakhalynske field daily production rate of this well was 400,000 mcm of gas. Average gas production rate for the entire company was 1.35 mcm, which is a record breaking figure for the company,” the press service said.
Well No. 38 of 5,344 meters deep was drilled in 175 days. The company intends to drill three or four more wells by the end of this year.
Ukrnaftoburinnia is a large private gas company in Ukraine. Since 2010, the company has been developing the Sakhalynske oil and gas condensate field. The company operates 22 gas condensate and oil wells. Under product sharing agreements the company operates additional 10 gas condensate wells.

KYIV. Sept 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The reconstruction of the military airfield in Uman (Cherkasy region) and its transformation into a civil airport could take four years with the investments of almost EUR 72 million.
Such data were announced at a press conference on pre-project proposals for the reconstruction of Uman’s military airfield and its transformation into a modern international airport held in Kyiv.
Pre-project proposals were made by order of VimesVC Ltd. (UK) by a working group consisting of experts and engineers – representatives of the aviation industry, construction, tourism and pilgrimage, law, economics, and ecology. Positive reviews from Ukraeroproject and the Institute for Environmental Security of the National Aviation University were received.
The reconstruction of the Uman airfield was considered in the aspect of the key element of the infrastructure “Conceptual proposals for the development of the city of Uman as a multicultural and tourist center.”

KYIV. Sept 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a contract with National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom to deliver monitoring instrumentation systems for four reactors of Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP), the company’s press service has reported.
“The project is part of the Complex Consolidated Safety Upgrade Program of nuclear power plants in Ukraine performed under loan agreements with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Euroatom,” the company said in a report.
Westinghouse said that Westinghouse will provide accident and post-accident monitoring systems and hydrogen concentration monitoring systems to reactors 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Zaporizhia NPP.
“The upgrade includes monitoring systems, along with severe and design basis accident field instrumentation, and additional miscellaneous equipment such as penetrations, cables, sensing lines, special tooling, accessories, spares, consumables, and special mounting and fixing provisions. Installation supervision, training and warranty for products and services are also included,” the company said.
Westinghouse will execute the project with selected Ukrainian expert companies including Westron, an I&C joint venture between Westinghouse and Hartron.
The project will start immediately, beginning with delivery of reactor 4 at the beginning of 2018 and ending with delivery of reactor 6 at the end of 2019. The final acceptance of the last delivered system is planned for the beginning of 2021.
Energoatom is the operator of all four Ukrainian-based operating nuclear power plants, which have 15 VVER reactors with an overall generating capacity of 13.835 gigawatts.

KYIV. Sept 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine Pavlo Dehtiarenko has held a working meeting at Ukrkosmos State Enterprise to discuss the situation with the implementation as part of international cooperation of the project on the creation of a national satellite communications system and the launch of the first Ukrainian telecommunications satellite Lybid, the agency’s press service has reported.
Dehtiarenko said that the Lybid project “should be implemented despite all difficulties.”
He also familiarized himself with Ukrkosmos infrastructure, paying special attention to the Lybid flight control center.
During his visit to the state enterprise, Dehtiarenko also examined the new promising areas of the enterprise’s work, including the project on the creation of a technological platform for regional TV broadcasting Kraina TV, as well as a DTH platform based on the deep modernization of the enterprise’s teleport equipment, the press service said.
As reported, a contract for the construction of a national telecommunications satellite Lybid was signed by the SSAU and Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. The MDA is the head contractor under this project. The Lybid is based on the Express-1000NT platform, developed by Russia’s Reshetnev ISS.
The Canadian export agency EDS provided a $254.6 million loan under the Ukrainian government guarantees to finance the project in the summer of 2009. Initially it was planned to put the Ukrainian satellite into orbit in 2012, later it was postponed to 2013 and then to April 2014.

KYIV. Sept 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Business Association (EBA) hopes medical reform will be launched in 2018 and Health Ministry officials responsible for the reform will be determined.
“The EBA Health Care Committee supports the need for a health care reform, and we were pleased to hear from President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko at a business community meeting on September 13, 2017 open support and, most importantly, confidence that the reform will start in 2018,” Executive Director of the EBA Health Care Committee Natalia Serhienko told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, she stressed the need to clearly define officials responsible for the reform.
“At this point, it is not clear exactly how responsibility for the reform will be built, who will be responsible for its phased implementation in the Ministry of Health. We hope that with the launch of the reform the issue of clear definition of responsible officials from the Health Ministry will be resolved and the public will have a full understanding and the opportunity to give feedback on the implementation of the reform stages,” she said.
In addition, the expert noted the EBA “would like to understand the government’s expectations from the pharmaceutical business for the successful implementation of the reform and the potential impact of the reform on the pharmaceutical industry.”