The timely reaction to the avian influenza outbreak in Ukraine allowed the country not to halt imports of poultry from the European Union (EU) and Ukrainian counts on uninterrupted authorization to export Ukrainian poultry to the EU, Deputy Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Minister, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has said. “Over the past month, a number of EU Member States have recorded cases of avian influenza. But a timely decision on zoning and a well-functioning communication mechanism allowed Ukraine to not stop the import of poultry meat from the EU for this reason. Therefore, we immediately informed the competent authorities of the EU about the detected case of bird flu in Vinnytsia region,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
In addition, Ukraine has suspended certification of exporter capacity in a 30 km zone, while the EU sets requirements for the 10 km zone.
“All these measures are being taken to prove to the whole world that trust allows us to maintain trade in such sensitive situations,” Kachka said.
The deputy minister expects that in such conditions the EU will retain a permit for the import of poultry meat from Ukraine.
“If we were hostile to each other, the EU would have taken this opportunity and tried to close imports from Ukraine in general. This would trigger a chain mechanism of mutual restrictions. (Both sides want to avoid this scenario). In the meantime, we are actively cooperating with EU regulatory authorities so that the reaction is friendly and adequate,” Kachka said.
Тhe State Expert Center of the Health Ministry of Ukraine gave positive conclusions regarding conducting 248 clinical trials of medicines in 2019, which is 19.23% more than in 2018, the center has reported on its website. According to the report, 210 studies were conducted by foreign manufacturers as part of international multicenter clinical studies, and 38 – by domestic manufacturers.
According to the center, an analysis of clinical trials materials in recent years has shown that the most commonly used drugs are used to treat diseases in the field of oncology, psychiatry, neurology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, rheumatology, and other diseases.
Most clinical trials were carried out in Kyiv – 21%. Kharkiv – 13%, Vinnytsia – 10%, Dnipro – 7%, Zaporizhia – 6%, Ivano-Frankivsk – 6%, Lviv – 6%, and Odesa – 5%.
Ukrainian authorities want to pass JSC Ukrzaliznytsia to management of Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), Germany’s operator of railways, for 10 years, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said. “Yes, we want to pass our railways to the Germans to manage it for 10 years,” Honcharuk said at the Ukrainian Breakfast in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday morning.
He added that the authorities of Ukraine associate not only expectations about the development of Ukrzaliznytsia with this decision. “This is ecosystem-based issue, which should show that Ukraine is unprecedentedly open for investment, for the world, for new standards,” the prime minister said.
Honcharuk said that, despite the fact that it is still necessary to negotiate and agree on the details of the decision and documents, “a political decision on this has already been taken and this is a huge step.”
Later, at a briefing on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Breakfast, the prime minister said that the relevant agreement with DB will be “early February.”
As reported, on January 22, 2020, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and Deutsche Bahn in Davos, Switzerland, signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic partnership in the industry and the development of Ukrzaliznytsia.
“This memorandum is not yet about privatization, and not about concession, but about strategic partnership. That’s great news,” Honcharuk said, when opening a meeting of the National Investment Council under the president of Ukraine in Davos.
He said that the country needs such assistance to improve the situation on the country’s railway and realize its logistics potential.
At the same time, speaking about the memorandum, in his Twitter account, Honcharuk said that German specialists will reform the management mechanisms of Ukrzaliznytsia, and Ukraine will retain full control over the enterprise.
“I hope that German operational efficiency and zero tolerance for corruption will become the basis for changing the situation in Ukrzaliznytsia,” the prime minister wrote.
According to the text of the memorandum, the parties will study the possibilities of creating a strategic partnership between Ukrzaliznytsia and DB.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 23/01/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of january 23
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukraine boosted its electricity exports by 4.9% in 2019, to 6.469 billion kWh, the Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection has told. Electricity supplies from the Burshtyn TPP energy island to Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania rose by 17.1%, to 4.448 billion kWh.
Exports to Poland fell 2.4%, to 1.377 billion kWh.
Exports to Moldova fell 32.6%, to 644 million kWh.
In July, Ukraine resumed commercial imports of electricity. The year’s total was 2.699 billion kWh, including 909.8 million kWh from Slovakia, 851.3 million kWh from Belarus, 630.1 million kWh from Hungary, 286.3 million kWh from Russia, and 21.1 million kWh from Romania.
Due to crossflows related to the parallel work of the united energy system in Ukraine and systems in bordering countries (accounted for under contracts signed by Energomarket), Ukraine imported 41.6 million kWh of energy from Russia and 1 million kWh from Belarus in 2019.
BUYERS, ELECTRICITY, HUNGARY, MOLDOVA, POLAND, ROMANIA, SLOVAKIA
