The main tasks of the agrarian sector are the formation of deep processing, increasing the production of raw materials for it, expanding the geography of exports of agro-products and food security, Vitaliy Koval said even before his appointment as Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food at a parliamentary session on Thursday.
“As a candidate for the post of Minister of agrarian policy and food I guarantee that the agricultural sector – it will be a sector of deep processing, and the Ukrainian land will be the foundation for us to grow products on it, products processed, exported to the maximum number of countries, ensure food security, and the agricultural complex has become truly agro-industrial ”, – he said.
Koval urged MPs to support all initiatives aimed at transforming Ukraine into an agro-industrialized country, so that “agrarian of Ukraine” would sound proudly around the world”.
Among the greatest challenges facing the agrarian sector, he named ensuring foreign currency earnings, growth of the agro-economy and restoring the confidence of agrarians in the government.
“The programs that we approved with you, we must fill not only with budgetary funds, but also with the funds of our partners so that the products were competitive and we could ensure food security on all continents,” Koval stressed.
At the same time, he promised to restore the subjectivity of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy so that the agro-industrial complex would be a driver of development of the entire economy, especially in related machine-building and industries that will allow import substitution.
Koval emphasized that he would pay special attention to the livestock sector.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday appointed as Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food ex-head of the State Property Fund Vitaly Koval. His candidacy was supported by 251 people’s deputies. Before that, since September 9, 2019, he headed the Rivne regional state administration, and from February 24, 2022 he headed the Rivne regional military administration.
At a meeting of the faction “Servant of the People” with the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nine candidates for new ministers were agreed upon, the candidacy of First Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga is proposed for the post of the head of the Foreign Ministry.
“A meeting of the faction was held…On the agenda – personnel renewal…President Volodymyr Zelensky joined us. Based on the results of the faction meeting, we have worked out a general picture of personnel rotations to strengthen the state: the Foreign Ministry – Andrei Sibiga,” the head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arahamiya, wrote in Telegram on Wednesday.
According to Arahamiya, Alexei Kuleba, deputy head of the Office of the President, is proposed for the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Policy. “He will head the ministry as it works now. Subsequently, as it was conceived, it will be divided into infrastructure and regional policy areas,” Arahamiya said. He also said that Olga Stefanishina is proposed for the post of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration – Minister of Justice.
Deputy Defense Minister Natalia Kalmykova is proposed for the post of Minister of Veterans Affairs, while Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Nikolai Tochitsky is proposed for the post of Minister of Culture and Information Policy.
They intend to appoint interim Minister of Youth and Sports Matvei Bedny to the post of Minister of Youth and Sports.
Also, according to Arahamiya, Deputy Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk is proposed for the post of Minister of Ecology.
The Ministry of Strategic Industry may be headed by the director-general of the Ukrainian Defense Industry JSC, German Smetanin.
According to the head of the Servant of the People faction, Oleksandr Kamyshyn will move to the presidential office, where he will continue to deal with the issue of arms and infrastructure. In addition, Irina Vereshchuk moves to the Office of the President, who will work as a specialized deputy head of the OP.
“Discussed the creation of a new institution in the government with the working title “Ministry of return of Ukrainians”. We are holding a discussion of candidates who could head it,” – wrote Arahamiya.
Ukrainian banks as of Wednesday issued 288 thousand cards, which will be charged compensation under the state program “National cashback”, said Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko.
“For two days our partner banks (of the state program “National Cashback”) – it is, in fact, all the largest banks in our state, issued a total of 288 thousand cards,” she said on the air of the national telethon ‘United News’ on Wednesday.
According to Sviridenko, more than 600 manufacturers have already joined the state program, registering 63 thousand goods in the system.
“At the time of the launch of the program, nine retail chains have already credited cashback, somewhere around 40 more are in the process of joining,” the first deputy prime minister said.
She recalled that the cashback program started on September 2 in beta testing mode, which is tentatively to last about a month.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a meeting on August 20 approved the procedure for granting “National cashback”, according to which Ukrainians will be able to receive compensation for 10% of the cost of goods purchased by them. The maximum amount of cashback is 3 thousand UAH/month, the funds can be spent on medical and utility services, sports, movies, train tickets, donate to the AFU or buy war bonds.
Since the beginning of 2024, medicines produced in India have accounted for 8.3% of the total volume of medicines imported to Ukraine.
The State Service for Medicinal Products and Drug Control (Goslexluzhba) informed Interfax-Ukraine that since the beginning of 2024, 3213 series (32824807 packages) from 65 Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers have been submitted for state quality control, which makes up 8.3% of the total volume of medicines imported to Ukraine.
At the same time during 2022-2023 10924 series of medicinal products manufactured in India were submitted for state quality control, including 4715 in 2022 and 6209 in 2023, which is 54705914 and 51309132 packages respectively.
In addition, the State Service of Medicinal Products with reference to the data of the State Register of Medicinal Products reported that since the beginning of 2024 Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers have registered in Ukraine a little more than 100 drugs (excluding active pharmaceutical ingredients, API – IF-U), currently in Ukraine are registered 1999 drugs manufactured in India, in 2023 in Ukraine were registered 1895 Indian drugs, in 2022 – 1709, in 2021 – 1472, in 2020 – 1165.
Thus, the dynamics of registration of Indian medicinal products in Ukraine over the last five years is slowing down: if the number of registered medicinal products manufactured in India in 2021 was 26.2% higher than a year earlier, then at the end of 2023 – only by 10.9%.
INGO Insurance Company (Kiev) has launched a new insurance product, specially designed to protect children from accidents, including coverage of consequences of military operations.
According to the insurer’s information, the policy is available for children from 1 to 17 years old. It covers risks of injuries, disability and even fatal accidents, with the possibility of receiving the sum insured from UAH 100 thousand.
The policy is valid on the territory of the whole world, except for zones of active hostilities and border territories with the aggressor country. Parents can choose when the insurance will be relevant: round the clock, during school or kindergarten or during sports and training.
INGO Insurance Company JSC has been providing insurance services for 30 years. Since 2017, the main shareholder is the Ukrainian business group DCH.
World central banks in July, according to preliminary estimates of the World Gold Council (WGC), increased the amount of gold in their gold reserves by 37.1 tons.
The largest buyers were Poland (14.3 tons), Uzbekistan (9.6 tons) and India (5.4 tons). Jordan (4.3 tons), Turkey (3.8 tons), Qatar (2.3 tons), Czech Republic (1.6 tons), Egypt and Malta (0.1 tons each) also increased their reserves
Kazakhstan (3.9 tons) and Mongolia (0.7 tons) sold gold.
“Central banks have remained committed to hoarding gold in recent months. While the overall level of demand cooled slightly as the gold price continued to rise to new highs, it nevertheless remained positive,” WGC analyst Krishan Gopaul said in a review.
