Hungary on Wednesday, July 7, has resumed the passage of persons and vehicles through the checkpoints Lónya and Barabash.
“We ask citizens who plan to cross the border with Hungary to take into account that the pass is carried out at the checkpoint Kosyno – Barabash from 8:00 to 20:00 [Kyiv time] and at the checkpoint Dzvinkovoe – Lónya from 8:00 to 19:00 [Kyiv time],” the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Hungarian side reported that the ability to cross these checkpoints was temporarily limited. The work of checkpoints on the Ukrainian side did not stop.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has named five ways the Ukrainian government can develop the progress made and where the United States is ready to help Ukraine.
First. To adopt the draft law on reforming the High Council of Justice, followed by the law on the High Qualifications Commission of Judges. Together, these laws will ensure a transparent process for the selection of judges. Second. To ensure that the selection of the leadership of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is transparent, credible and based on merit, Blinken said in a video message to participants of the Ukraine Reform Conference, which is taking place in Vilnius on Wednesday.
According to him, the third step is to pass a law on transparent corporate governance, which protects the independence of the supervisory board, CEOs and complies with the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Blinken called the fourth step the adoption of legislation that demilitarizes, depoliticizes the Security Service of Ukraine, and leaves the work of combating corruption and combating organized crime to other government institutions created for this purpose.
And fifth. Bring corrupt officials to justice. A number of investigations have been carried out, but no senior official has been tried or convicted of corruption since 2014. People need to see that the system is working in order to believe in it, the Secretary of State said.
The manufacturer of upholstered furniture Morgan Furniture LLC (Kvasyliv, Rivne region) plans to launch a line for the production of foam rubber with a capacity of 24,000 tonnes per year in August 2021, investments in the creation of which amount to $4 million, said head of Rivne Regional State Administration Vitaliy Koval.
“Already in August, the international company Morgan Furniture is launching a foam rubber production line. Development and prospects were discussed today at a meeting with co-owner [of Morgan Furniture] Franklin McMahon and director Roman Basarab. They plan to increase production capacity and triple production volumes,” Koval wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
He recalled that the company has been operating for nine years, daily exporting 1,000 sofas, beds and other upholstered furniture and providing jobs for more than 1,000 employees.
“The launch of the foam rubber line will not only create new jobs, but also reduce the cost of production. After all, they had to buy this material from the monopolist and spend additional funds on logistics. Now the enterprise will have a closed furniture production cycle,” the head of the Regional State Administration said.
According to him, with McMahon they also discussed the formation of a furniture cluster – one of the main priorities for the development of Rivne region.
“And Morgan Furniture cannot only join the merger, but also take 1-1.5% of the European furniture market, creating a competitive environment,” said Koval.
“Our common task is to grow faster than the market. As a result, we will increase the region’s share in the national production of furniture products, which will allow us to attract additional resources, create jobs and attract new investors,” the head of the region said.
As reported, in June 2012, the McMahon spouses opened a furniture factory, Morgan Furniture LLC, on the basis of the Rivnesilmash plant, which they acquired. They invested EUR 10.5 million in this production facility. Initially, the company employed 120 people.
In 2020, Morgan Furniture LLC slightly reduced its net income compared to 2019 – to UAH 912.15 million and received a UAH 31.63 million loss against a net profit of UAH 45.03 million.
The company is part of Home Group SA, a large European manufacturer of household goods, which is registered in Luxembourg.
The holding has production facilities in Poland, the Baltic countries and Ukraine.
In June 2017, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine allowed the Chinese furniture group ManWah to acquire a 50% stake in Home Group.
Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv) in January-June 2021 served 3.397 million passengers, which is 35% more compared to the same period in 2020 (2.519 million).
At the same time, according to the airport’s report, in June it served 938,674 passengers, which is almost 19.4 times more than in June 2020 (lockdown), of which 523,355 people were serviced on regular flights, 415,319 people – on non-scheduled flights.
In June, the airport received and dispatched 7,357 flights, which is six times more than in June 2020.
In addition, in the six months of 2021, Boryspil airport served 1.776 million passengers on regular flights (a 6% decrease) and 1.621 million on non-scheduled flights (an increase of 2.57 times).
In total, in the first half of 2021, the airport received and dispatched 29,264 flights, which is 33.7% more than in the same period in 2020.
At the same time, the number of transfer passengers for the six months of this year decreased by 72.3%, to 107,998 people (for the same period last year, this figure was 389,200 people).
The share of transfers in the total passenger traffic in January-June 2021 decreased from 15.5% to 3.2%.
Lyst-Ruchky LLC (Ruchky village, Poltava region), part of Astarta agro-industrial holding, exported the first batch of organic soybeans under a contract with the German processing company Agriprotein GmbH, the agricultural holding’s press service reported.
“A supply contract of organic soybeans was concluded with the German processing company Agriprotein GmbH. As per contract, the quality of delivered products has to be confirmed in two stages. The first samples of soybeans were selected and tested by the European laboratory Galab (Germany) prior to signing a contract. The organic origin of the product and its high quality was confirmed. The second stage of the inspection took place upon delivery and organic status of soybeans was reaffirmed,” the company said on its website.
“As reported, last year Astarta completed a three-year journey to the first harvest of organic grain and oilseeds crops in sync with the European trend of expanding organic farming methods. In the 2021 season, the total area of the company’s land bank under organic products is 1,800 ha with the following crops: soybeans, millet, mustard, sunflower, corn and winter wheat,” the report says.
“The company also plans to certify this crops according to Bio Suisse (Switzerland) and USDA NOP (USA) standards,” it said.
As reported, Lyst-Ruchky in July 2020 received a certificate of a manufacturer of organic products. To confirm this status, it took three years of work in a transitional period, the corresponding intermediate inspections and certifications.
Ukraine’s international reserves as of July 1, 2021, according to preliminary data, amounted to $28.358 billion (in equivalent), which is 2% more than at the beginning of May this year ($27.84 billion), according to the data of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“As of July 1, Ukraine’s international reserves, according to preliminary data, amounted to $28.358 billion (in equivalent). In June, they grew by 2% due to foreign exchange charges in favor of the government and NBU interventions, which compensated for the repayment of external and internal obligations of the state,” the report says.
As the National Bank notes, the dynamics of reserves in June was affected by operations on government debt management – the total volume of payments for servicing and repaying government and government-guaranteed debt in foreign currency amounted to $995.6 million (in equivalent).
It is specified that $848 million was spent on servicing and redeeming government domestic loan bonds, $80.1 million – on servicing eurobonds, and the rest – on fulfilling other government obligations in foreign currency.
At the same time, foreign exchange earnings in favor of the government amounted to $1.095 billion (in equivalent), including $726.3 million from the placement of government bonds.
The press service noted that in May, the NBU and the government sent $2.3 million to the IMF.
It is indicated that the dynamics of reserves was also influenced by the operations of the NBU in the interbank market. In particular, the NBU replenished its reserves by $682.8 million due to the fact that for most of the month the supply of foreign exchange on the interbank market prevailed over demand, including due to the growing interest of non-residents in government bonds and the activation of exporters.
In addition, on some days, the regulator smoothed out excessive fluctuations of the hryvnia by selling foreign currency, selling $99.5 million per month.
According to the report, the dynamics of the indicator in June was also influenced by the revaluation of financial instruments – last month their value decreased by $180.8 million in equivalent, according to the National Bank.
As the regulator noted, as of July 1, 2021, the volume of international reserves covers 4.3 months of future imports. It is clarified that this is enough to fulfill the obligations of Ukraine and the current operations of the government and the NBU.
In addition, the NBU clarified that Ukraine’s net international reserves in June increased by $623 million, or 3.6%, to $17.977 billion.
