In January-September 2023, the volume of commercial output of Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill (Kyiv Pulp and Paper Mill, Obukhiv, Kyiv region), Ukraine’s industry leader in this indicator, amounted to UAH 5 billion 566.3 million, up 6.1% compared to the same period in 2022.
According to statistics provided by UkrPapir Association to Interfax-Ukraine, the plant’s production of corrugated boxes increased by 23.7% in volume terms, to 168.3 million square meters. Cardboard output increased by 9.2% to 124.8 thousand tons, driven by a 15.5% increase in containerboard output to 102.7 thousand tons, while boxboard output decreased by almost 13% to 22.1 thousand tons.
At the same time, the output of base paper for sanitary and hygiene products maintained a negative trend: in January-September, it decreased by 24% to 33.3 thousand tons, and the production of toilet paper in rolls also decreased by 24% to 188.17 million units.
Despite the decline in toilet paper production, the plant maintains a strong leadership in toilet paper production in Ukraine. In total, in the first nine months of 2023, the country’s major enterprises produced 444.63 million rolls (down 1.4%).
According to statistics, in September of this year, Kyiv Pulp and Paper Mill increased production of corrugated boxes by 13.2% to 19.6 million square meters by September 2022, and paper and cardboard by 1.3% to 18.1 thousand tons.
According to the association’s data from major industry players, in January-September this year, Ukraine recorded a 9.8% increase in paper and cardboard production (up to 405.3 thousand tons) and a 17.7% increase in cardboard boxes (up to 379.6 million square meters).
Kyiv Pulp and Paper Mill is one of Europe’s largest cardboard and paper products producers, employing over 2,500 people.
As reported, in 2022, the mill produced UAH 7 billion 432 million worth of products, which is 3.5% less than in 2021.
In September, TAS Insurance Group (Kyiv) paid out a total of UAH 118.5 million under the concluded insurance contracts, which is 37.1% more than the amount of the company’s indemnities in September last year.
According to the company’s website, payments under hull insurance contracts increased by 37.7% to UAH 32.29 million compared to the reporting period of 2022, which is 27.25% of the insurer’s total payments for September this year, MTPL – by 31.1% to UAH 39.43 million (33.27%), Green Card – by 22.5% to UAH 27.35 million (23.08% of total payments).
At the same time, VHI payments increased by 86.4% to UAH 15.41 million, which is 13% of the total amount of payments made by the insurer for the reporting period.
Under other insurance contracts, TAS IG paid UAH 4.02 million in insurance indemnities for the month, which is 75% more than a year ago.
TAS Insurance Group was registered in 1998. It is a universal company offering more than 80 types of insurance products in various types of voluntary and compulsory insurance. It has an extensive regional network of 28 regional directorates and branches.
Von Januar bis September 2023 hat die Papierfabrik Kokhava (KPM, Region Lviv), die Hygienepapierprodukte herstellt, ihre Produktion im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 24,8 % auf 858 Mio. UAH gesteigert, wie aus den Statistiken der Vereinigung Ukrpapir hervorgeht.
Nach den Daten, die Interfax-Ukraine zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, stieg die physische Produktion von Rohpapier für Sanitärprodukte um 2,3% auf 30,9 Tausend Tonnen. Im September stieg die Produktion leicht auf 2,95 Tausend Tonnen an, was ebenfalls 18% weniger als im August dieses Jahres ist.
Die Produktion von Toilettenpapier in Rollen stieg in diesem Zeitraum um 4,1 % auf 100,9 Millionen Stück. KBF behält den zweiten Platz in Bezug auf die Produktion nach der Kiewer Zellstoff- und Papierfabrik (188,2 Millionen Einheiten), knapp vor VGP JSC (Ruta TM).
Die Zellstoff- und Papierfabrik Kokhavynsk, die seit 1939 in Betrieb ist, produziert das Rohpapier für Sanitär- und Hygieneprodukte sowie Toilettenpapier und Papierhandtücher.
Wie bereits berichtet, erhielt KBF im Jahr 2021 ein EBWE-Darlehen in Höhe von 13,8 Mio. EUR für die Errichtung einer Produktionsanlage für zellstoffbasiertes Papier.
Seit dem Beginn der russischen Aggression in der Ukraine hat die Fabrik ihre Produktion praktisch nicht eingestellt.
Wie berichtet, produzierte KBF im Jahr 2023 Produkte im Wert von 975,3 Mio. UAH, 44,8 % mehr als im Vorjahr. Der Nettogewinn sank um 12,7 % auf 52,4 Mio. UAH.
From 30% to 60% of Ukrainians have not had contact with a family doctor or been examined during the year, and the state should develop mechanisms for reimbursement of research and analysis under the Health Insurance Program (HIP).
Serhiy Kutsevlyak, PhD in Medicine, Master of Public Administration, told Interfax-Ukraine that this is evidenced by the results of the analysis of the monitoring of the medical information system (MIS) data, as well as a patient survey conducted in one of Kyiv’s primary healthcare centers in May-July 2023.
“We analyzed how many patients have never seen their family doctor: not a single appointment, not a single referral, not a single prescription, not a single sick leave, not a single certificate, that is, zero activity during the year for a person who has a declaration with a family doctor. In the agrarian rural region, we saw about 30% of such patients. And in the central region, we counted up to 60% of people who have never seen a family doctor,” he said.
At the same time, referring to the monitoring of MHI data for 2019-2021, Kutsevlyak noted that “a lot of people simply do not visit family doctors, which logically leads to high mortality rates, in particular from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and high rates of disability after heart attacks and strokes.”
He said that in the summer of 2023, a pilot project was implemented in one of Kyiv’s primary healthcare centers, during which the clinic conducted cardiac examinations and tests in 500 people aged 40-65.
“They found 41% of people who need in-depth attention and corrective therapy. That is why we are now talking about forming a state policy so that the state provides a minimum set of tests for the patient to ensure consumables for the study,” he said.
Kutsevlyak noted that, according to preliminary calculations, the cost of implementing the project for monitoring the health status of residents of a city with a population of about 250 thousand people could be about UAH 80-90 million.
“We are saying that the state should introduce reimbursement for examinations to be able to motivate and control family doctors. It is clear that family medicine will not be able to do this with the current level of payment per patient, so the state should shift its focus to have this opportunity,” he said.
Kutsevlyak emphasized that the implementation of preventive medicine projects in the context of war is becoming even more important.
“Not only does the war affect mortality, but we lose tens of thousands of people at the front, and in the rear we lose hundreds of thousands of people from undiagnosed diseases. Therefore, we need to shift the emphasis to monitoring the health of a particular citizen, so that an increase in healthcare funding by billions will have an effect and save tens of billions across the country,” he said.
Kutsevlyak clarified that he had initiated the development of a corresponding state program aimed at intensifying the work of the primary healthcare system in the area of preventive medicine, in particular, at encouraging primary healthcare doctors to monitor the health of patients who have declarations with them.
According to the expert, “all state investments over the past 10 years have been spent on stands, contrast, angiographs, CT scans, and other equipment, but there is no timely basic diagnosis and timely identification of risk factors that lead to disease.
“The problem of timely diagnostics to identify risk factors remains relevant. High-tech equipment, such as CT scanners and angiographs, cannot be effectively used without systematic mass screening of working-age residents,” he said.
Kutsevlyak noted that many Ukrainians face a lack of regular medical check-ups. At the same time, the shortage of doctors, especially in remote regions, as well as economic and socio-cultural factors, can cause delayed or complete neglect of medical examinations, which is especially important for the elderly and rural residents.
“Today, there is a problem of patients seeking treatment at late stages of disease. Unfortunately, the culture of check-ups and regular medical examinations is not well developed in Ukraine. Doctors have little interest in helping to diagnose and start treatment in time. We see great prospects for development if the state pays attention to this issue and starts directing doctors to work towards disease prevention,” Kutsevlyak summarized.
Kutsevlyak noted that “the emphasis should be on efforts at the primary health care stage.”
“Family doctors play a key role in timely diagnosis and prevention of diseases. The development of family medicine, advanced training of doctors and intensification of their interaction with patients can contribute to the early detection of risks and diseases,” he said.
In addition, according to Kutsevlyak, “we should pay attention to educational programs aimed at improving the medical literacy of the population, awareness of personal responsibility for their own health.”
“An informed patient will take more responsibility for his or her health and undergo regular medical examinations. It is necessary to intensify the work of the primary healthcare system and provide citizens with the necessary medical examinations for timely diagnosis. This will help reduce mortality and disability, and will be economically beneficial for the state. A 5% reduction in the number of strokes alone will generate an economic effect of at least UAH 1.5 billion per year, saving the lives and active working condition of 7.5 thousand Ukrainian citizens. Implementation of the principle of continuous monitoring of citizens’ health should become the basis of state policy,” he said.
In April and the first half of October 2023, GTS Operator LLC transported more than 3 bcm of natural gas from the EU and Moldova to Ukraine, which is seven times more than the volume of the resource transported during the same period last year (more than 414 mcm), the Energy Ministry reported.
Of the transported gas, 2.4 billion cubic meters of fuel belonging to foreign companies are stored in domestic UGS facilities, according to its release on Monday.
According to the GTSOU, cited by the Energy Ministry, the main transportation route remains the Slovakian one, with 45% of the gas volumes coming from there. Natural gas was also supplied from Hungary, Poland, and the Trans-Balkan route (from Romania via Moldova).
The Ministry of Energy noted that the Trans-Balkan route was used for the first time this year, mainly transporting gas ordered by foreign traders for storage in Ukraine.
As reported, natural gas supplies to Ukraine in September 2023 from the European Union and Moldova amounted to 982.7 bcm. In April-September 2023, Ukraine received more than 2.8 bcm from the EU and Moldova, which exceeds the corresponding figures for the same periods in 2021 and 2022.
As noted by Oleksiy Chernyshov, CEO of Naftogaz Group, the volume of non-resident gas in Ukraine’s underground storage facilities reached 2.2 bcm at the beginning of October.
Stress testing conducted by the Ukrainian GTS and UGS operators with the assistance of USAID in August 2023 confirmed the high reliability of the Ukrainian gas infrastructure, including the storage and transportation of gas from foreign customers, even in the face of military risk of damage to key assets.
After Azerbaijan established control over the former Nagorno-Karabakh, the Transcaucasus region entered a new era, where the political and economic prospects of the countries of the region became a subject of discussion in the international arena. In light of this, experts from various countries are analyzing the current situation and trying to predict the future of relations between the countries in the region. A new video published on the YouTube channel “Experts club” was devoted to this very topic, in which Azerbaijani military analyst, leading expert of the analytical center “STEM” Agil Rustamzadeh and the founder of the Kiev analytical center “Experts club”, candidate of economic sciences Maxim Urakin shared their opinion on the situation.
Military-political aspect
The experts emphasize the importance of the reached mutual understanding on the Karabakh issue.
“The resolution of the conflict has created a basis for the resumption of diplomatic dialog and economic cooperation between the countries of the Transcaucasus. Azerbaijan’s confrontation with Armenia is conditioned not only by the Karabakh conflict, the point is that those people who created this geopolitical paradigm were engaged in shaping the worldview of the Armenian population. A part of the Armenian population still believes that they once had a state that included the territories of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia. With the emergence of Western institutions and the change of Armenians’ views, they begin to realize that enmity with such a geopolitical player as Turkey is a dead-end way of the country’s development. It is a way to nowhere, especially when these countries have no territorial claims to you, but you have territorial claims to your neighbors,” Rustamzadeh stressed.
The expert also notes that the signing of a possible peace treaty will give Armenia an impetus to move to a new level of development, will allow it to become not an object but a subject of international politics.
“I meet such an opinion both in Azerbaijan and Turkish colleagues. It is that under certain changes Turkey and Azerbaijan can become the guarantor of Armenia’s territorial integrity. Therefore, I believe that with the pragmatism shown by the Armenian people, the government and the political elite of Armenia, Armenia has chances to become a pro-Western democratic country,” Rustamzadeh said.
In his opinion, in order to ensure long-term stability, it is necessary to analyze all aspects of the conflict and its consequences for regional security.
Economic aspect
Maxim Urakin emphasized the economic sphere of relations between the countries of the region.
“Economy and politics are closely linked, and trade relations between the countries of the Transcaucasus play an important role in shaping the political landscape of the region,” Urakin noted.
The expert also drew attention to how export destinations affect the countries’ political preferences.
“Most of Azerbaijan and Iran’s exports are directed to Europe and Asia, while Turkey’s exports are much more diversified,” the economist emphasized.
Urakin also analyzed each country’s exports and their trade relations in detail, emphasizing the interconnectedness of economic and political factors in the region.
Development Prospects
Rustamzadeh and Urakin agree that further sustainable development of the region requires further work to resolve the remaining conflict situations and increase economic cooperation between the countries.
“Restoring trust and strengthening economic ties between the countries of the Transcaucasus will contribute to the creation of a favorable climate for investment and growth of the regional economy,” Rustamzadeh concluded.
You can learn more about the prospects of development of the Transcaucasus after the end of the Karabakh conflict from the video on the Experts club channel at the link:
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ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN, CAUCASUS, KARABAKH, NAGORNY_KARABAKH, RUSTAMZADEH, URAKIN, WAR
