President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with the Qatari delegation, which arrived in Ukraine, led by a member of the ruling dynasty in the State of Qatar, Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim bin Faisal Al-Thani, and discussed the implementation of joint investment projects in the field of infrastructure, agro-industrial, tourist and hotel complexes.
As reported on the website of the head of state on Friday, the president noted the importance of the agreements signed in the field of agricultural cooperation and interaction in the hotel and tourism industry. “It is important that there are already the first results of such work – the signing of relevant memorandums,” Zelensky said.
The president noted a significant intensification of bilateral relations between the two countries, in particular, an increase in Ukrainian exports to Qatar by 75%, and stressed the readiness to ensure food security in Qatar by supplying high-quality agricultural products.
Zelensky also welcomed the initiative to create a University of Hospitality in Ukraine on the basis of the Qatar University.
The Government of Ukraine, two days before the end of 2021, approved a financial plan for it for JSC Odesa Port-Side Plant, which assumes a net profit of UAH 106.995 million.
Relevant order of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 1781 of December 29 was published on its website on Friday, December 31.
The financial plan itself is absent in the publication, however, according to its explanatory note published on the government website, due to a loss of Odesa Port-Side Plant in the 2020 tax declaration in the amount of UAH 5.02 billion, dividends are not planned for 2021.
The explanatory note does not contain other details of the financial plan, but it says about the intention to receive an overpayment of income tax in the amount of UAH 320.6 million by the end of this year.
Odesa Port-Side Plant manufactures chemical products, and is also engaged in transshipment of chemical products to sea transport.
Mariupol seaport (Donetsk region) on December 30 put into operation a laboratory to control the quality of transshipped grain crops, its launch became one of the stages of construction of a grain terminal in the port, the first stage of which should begin work in 2022 and will allow transshipment of up to 1 million tonnes of agricultural crops per year, according to the website of the state-owned enterprise.
“The management of Mariupol seaport expects to attract to the new terminal part of the export grain flows from the eastern and central regions of Ukraine next year. Negotiations with large agricultural companies are ongoing,” the company said in a statement.
The commissioned laboratory is certified in accordance with the requirements of international standard ISO 10012: 2005. The laboratory is capable of analyzing samples of wheat, barley, corn, peas, sorghum and oats.
As reported, the state-owned enterprise Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), the agricultural exporter Cofco Agri Resources Ukraine, the state-owned enterprise Mariupol seaport and STT LLC signed a memorandum of cooperation on the development of the port of Mariupol in October 2019.
The memorandum provides for the implementation of an infrastructure project in the port of Mariupol, which will attract a total of more than UAH 1.3 billion of investments in infrastructure development and will increase cargo traffic through it by 2.3 million tonnes.
Within the framework of this document, it is planned to reconstruct two berths, a grain terminal and create a single transshipment complex for food and liquid food cargo.
European Union High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell will visit Ukraine on January 4-6.
As the press service of the European Commission reported on Monday, “his first trip abroad this year testifies to the EU’s strong support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at a time when the country is faced with a Russian military buildup and hybrid actions.”
Borrell, accompanied by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, is expected to first visit eastern Ukraine and the disengagement line. Then he will travel to Kyiv, where he will meet with the Ukrainian authorities.
The deficit of the Ukrainian state budget amounted to 1.4% of GDP in January-November, while 5.5% of GDP was projected in the law on the state budget, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“Thanks to the balanced fiscal and debt policy, the state budget deficit amounted to only 1.4% of GDP over 11 months,” the prime minister said, opening a government meeting on Wednesday.
Ukraine is fully included in the “yellow zone” of epidemic danger, however, the growth in the incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) is expected to resume from the middle of January, experts from Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) said.
“We at KSE expect further unloading of the medical system in the next one to two weeks, and after that, from about the middle of January, we expect an increase in COVID-19 incidence,” Head of the KSE Center for Health Economics Yuriy Hanychenko said at a weekly online briefing on Wednesday.
KSE experts do not expect Ukraine to enter the “green zone” of epidemic danger in the first quarter of 2022.
However, speaking about forecasts for 2022, Hanychenko said that Ukraine needs to reduce the incidence rate by two to three times in order to reach the “green level” of epidemic danger.
Analyst at the KSE Center for Health Economics Kateryna Kuzminova, in turn, said that over the past week, the death rate from COVID-19 in the country has decreased by 25%.
“Since the death rate is a deferred indicator and mortality trends are following the number of new cases and hospitalizations with a lag of several weeks, we expect a continuation of the decline in the coming weeks,” she said.
Commenting on the vaccination situation, KSE experts said that over the past week the rate of vaccination has decreased by 25%, but it is expected that they will be able to be compensated by the introduction of booster and additional doses of the vaccine.
Ukraine is approaching the WHO target of vaccination of 40% of the population by the end of 2021, more than 40% of the population in 20 of 25 regions of Ukraine received one dose of the vaccine, according to KSE. The highest level of vaccination is observed in Kyiv and Kyiv region (respectively 72% and 58%), the lowest in Zakarpattia (32%).
