President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in a telephone conversation with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva, discussed the progress towards the adoption of the state budget of Ukraine for 2021, the preservation of the anti-corruption agenda and macroeconomic stability in the country.
“Our teams enjoy strong trust & work closely to welcome the IMF mission ASAP,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine announces the Cinema Challenge Hackathon, dedicated to finding IT solutions that will help popularize high-quality Ukrainian-made content.
According to the ministry’s website, the online hackathon will be held on November 14-22 with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ukrainian Cinema Foundation. The organizers are national online cinema sweet.tv and the We_Challenge team.
The goal of the hackathon is to accelerate the development of domestic technologies for online cinemas.
During the Cinema Challenge, IT specialists will develop new Ukrainian solutions to popularize national content: cinema, TV programs, TV series, and dubbing.
Data scientists, developers, managers, designers, marketers can take part in the hackathon. Participation is possible both individually and as a team, depending on the chosen direction.
The prize fund is $50,000 ($10,000 for first place in each challenge, $5,000 for second place in each challenge, and $10,000 for the winner among projects).
Areas of the hackathon are the following: Challenge 1 (Data scientists) – participants and teams are working on a recommendation system for films, Challenge 2 (Data scientists) – participants and teams are working on a recommendation system for TV programs, Projects Contest (Teams) – teams are working on projects with topics: gamification/referral system or Your Idea – suggest your version within the general theme of the Hackathon.
“The main goal of hackathons is to create effective IT solutions that will provide the viewer with the most valuable content and contribute to the development of a culture of consumption of high-quality Ukrainian video content. For the first time, the event is being held for the development of cinema tech in Ukraine. Of course, top platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV + and others are already known in this segment. But I am sure: we also have great potential, Ukrainian developers have everything they need to create a world-class streaming platform,” the press service said, citing Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development Oleksandr Borniakov.
Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko says that the ministry is already preparing a proposal to the government on the regime of financial compensation for cultural sector.
“The Ministry of Culture is already preparing our proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers on the regime of financial compensation. We will appeal to the European experience, because the introduction of a lockdown there provided for financial compensation from the state to business entities (including self-employed ones) for a period of downtime,” Tkachenko wrote in the Telegram channel on Wednesday.
In this connection, the minister cited calculations on the impact of quarantine on culture, tourism and creative industries.
So, according to the minister, 2% of the country’s GDP, or more than UAH 83 billion, is the total loss of business in the cultural sector, creative industries and tourism from lost income since the beginning of March, taking into account the first lockdown.
In particular, in the field of tourism: a decline in the tourist flow by 75%; average loss of income for one weekend – UAH 1,045 million.
Hotels – drop in average occupancy from 50% to 20%; average loss of income for one weekend – UAH 119,7 million.
Cinemas – 39% loss of visitors; average loss of income for one weekend – UAH 17,13 million.
Culture and creative industries (excluding IT and film networks) – loss of 50% of income due to restrictions on holding events and entering institutions, loss of solvency; average loss of income for one weekend – UAH 324.16 million.
In addition, the minister said that a lockdown of tourism, culture and creative industries could lead to a loss of about 10% of GDP over the next five years.
According to him, the recovery of markets will take place slowly due to the migration of specialists to more protected industries, and the negative balance of the labor force in creative industries will lead to the loss of their export potential and the possibility of promoting Ukraine in the world through creative products and services.
The number of cattle in Ukraine (excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, Sevastopol, the JFO zone) as of November 1, 2020 amounted to 3.26 million animals, which is 6.1% less than on the same date in 2019.
According to the State Statistics Service, the number of cows by the indicated date decreased by 5.9%, to 1.75 million animals.
The number of pigs increased by 0.6%, to 6.19 million animals, the number of sheep and goats decreased by 6.3%, to 1.32 million animals.
Poultry numbers in the country decreased by 4.3% compared to November 1, 2019, to 233.12 million birds.
According to the State Statistics Service, the number of cattle in Ukraine in 2019 amounted to 3.12 million animals, which is 6.5% less than in 2018. The number of pigs decreased by 4.9%, to 5.73 million animals, sheep and goats by 4.8%, to 1.21 million animals, and poultry increased by 4.2%, to 220.46 million birds.
Milkiland, a dairy group with assets in Ukraine and the Russian Federation, ended January-September 2020 with a net loss of EUR 29.03 million, which is 2.5 times more than in the same period in 2019.
According to the group’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Milkiland’s consolidated revenue decreased by 54.6%, to EUR 43.98 million in the nine months of 2020, as a result of a noticeable drop in the Russian segment of the group’s business. Gross profit decreased by 52.4%, to EUR 6.33 million, and operating loss by 50%, to EUR 9.46 million.
In the reporting period, Ukraine was the largest geographic segment for Milkiland, providing 59% of the group’s revenue (an increase of 19 percentage points compared to the same period in 2019). The segment’s revenues decreased by 33% to EUR 26 million, mainly due to lower sales volumes of the Ukrainian subsidiaries and lower export volumes.
The Russian Federation accounted for 41% of the group’s revenue in January-September 2020, compared with 57% for the corresponding period last year. The segment’s revenue decreased by 66.7%, to EUR 17.97 million, mainly due to a drop in sales of the Russian subsidiaries.
Whole-milk dairy was the largest segment in term of revenue, providing for 39% of revenue in the nine months of 2020 (9 percentage points down from the same period last year). The segment’s revenue decreased by 63%, to EUR 17 million, due to lower sales in Russia and Ukraine, partially offset by the appreciation of the main operating currencies against the euro.
Sugar production in Ukraine as of November 16 amounted to 702,900 tonnes.
According to a report on the website of the National Association of Sugar Producers Ukrtsukor, as of the indicated date, 30 sugar factories were operating in the country, which have processed 5.34 million tonnes of sugar beets.
As reported with reference to Ukrtsukor, the sugar beet processing season in the country started on September 5.
Sugar production in Ukraine in 2020 is projected at 1.2 million tonnes, which is 15% less than a year earlier.
As of November 12, 2020, Ukrainian agricultural producers harvested 6.7 million tonnes of sugar beets from an area of 161,600 hectares (75%).
