United States President Joe Biden, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the partnership between Kyiv and Washington will strengthen in the future.
“I am pleased to welcome President Zelensky to the Oval Office in the White House. During the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, the partnership between our countries is stronger than ever and will become even stronger,” Biden said during talks with Zelensky, the video of which made public by the Dom television channel in Telegram.
He also said that Ukraine and the United States have common values and goals, in particular, regarding the provision of peace and stability in Europe.
“Ukraine and the United States have common values. We are unswervingly committed to our long-term goal for Europe: to make it whole, free and peaceful,” the U.S. President said.
In January-June 2021, the Latvian pharmaceutical concern Olainfarm increased sales of products in Ukraine by 24% compared to the same period in 2020, to EUR 6.313 million.
According to the company’s materials, the improvement of this indicator has been facilitated by the introduction of a new marketing model in Ukraine since the end of 2020.
In general, over the six months of 2021, the group’s sales reached EUR 66.671 million, which is almost the same as the level of sales for the same period in 2020.
The largest markets for Olainfarm Group were Latvia (30%), Russia (about 27%), Belarus (about 12%), and Ukraine (over 9%).
Olainfarm is the largest pharmaceutical company in Latvia and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the Baltic States. Its product portfolio includes over 60 finished dosage forms, 25 active pharmaceutical ingredients and over 20 chemical intermediates.
Subsidiaries are located in Ukraine, Lithuania, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan, and representative offices – in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Tajikistan, Albania, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan.
USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities (USAID Agro) and the National Association of Agricultural Advisory Services of Ukraine will create the online resource center “Best agricultural practices for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME)” to provide its participants with knowledge about modern agricultural technologies in a number of agricultural sectors.
USAID Agro wrote about the agreement signed on September 1 to create this online project on Facebook.
“The resource center will provide agricultural MSMEs with practical knowledge and an indicative base about modern agricultural technologies in Ukraine and the world that can be introduced in the horticultural sector, livestock, aquaculture, poultry (except for chickens), in the production of confectionery and craft products,” the report says.
The project will become a communication platform where successful farmers will share their achievements with their potential followers. For this, Internet technologies, social networks will be used, educational webinars, meetings, fairs and conferences will be held, the “Best agro-practices” bulletin will be published.
It is specified that state and local authorities, public organizations, associations, scientific organizations and agricultural journalists are invited to participate in the project.
The beneficiaries of the project will be farmers from all over Ukraine, in particular, the target areas of the USAID Agro project are Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Cherkasy regions.
“The resource center will give a new impetus to the development of agricultural consulting, in particular, for the cooperation of advisers with farmers, institutions of agricultural science and education, research and design institutes, associations,” the organization summed up.
The National Association of Agricultural Advisory Services of Ukraine is an association of agricultural advisers and advisory services promoting modern management and production technologies at the MSME level, as well as implementing a number of projects related to the application of modern approaches to agricultural production.
Ukraine needs to import approximately 3.5 million tonnes of thermal coal during the coming heating season, Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko has said.
“Additionally, it is needed to import about 3.5 million tonnes during the heating season in accordance with the coal accumulation schedule,” the minister said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, he noted that generating companies – both DTEK and Centrenergo – have begun to conclude contracts for coal imports.
According him, the price of electricity in the market already makes it possible “to calmly buy coal, produce [electricity], sell and earn money.”
“We expect that we will stabilize the situation with coal and will calmly pass the autumn-winter period,” the minister said.
At the same time, he noted that in the heating season of this year, the Ministry of Energy also expects “certain achievements” – the NPP operation with at least 14 units out of 15 operating, as well as, if necessary, especially in December-January, connection of the 15th atomic block to the system. According to his forecasts, gas reserves in underground storage facilities will reach 19.5 billion cubic meters at the beginning of the autumn-winter period.
According to presidential decree 452/2021, promulgated on Monday, which approved the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) dated July 30, 2021 on measures to neutralize threats in the energy sector, the Cabinet of Ministers must ensure the accumulation of natural gas, reserve fuels and coal by October 31 of this year for the smooth operation of the fuel and energy complex during the heating period 2021/2022, as well as the priority of providing open wagons for shipment of coal products by rail in accordance with the requests of coal enterprises – mines and processing plants. Also, the government needs to ensure the completion of the implementation of measures regarding the readiness of the fuel and energy complex to work in a special period and make appropriate decisions.
Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) was the first among Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies to implement the SAP SuccessFactors system to automate the most important and time-consuming processes in the field of personnel management, and is introducing a new module – SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting.
According to a press release from the company, the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting module will cover and automate the entire recruiting process – from sending applications to find a person to starting a job.
In addition, the module makes it possible to analyze the work of recruiters using HR performance metrics.
“HR specialists will be able to work more efficiently with resume databases, keep records of internal and external candidates, form groups of the most relevant applicants according to the application for recruiting and save the results of interviews,” the company says.
According to Viktoria Kondrashikhina, the HR director of Farmak, this approach will significantly reduce labor costs for finding specialists and accelerate the filling of vacancies.
“Actively digitalizing its business, Farmak pays great attention to the automation of HR processes. For three years now, we have been using the SAP SuccessFactors module, which has transferred to online the setting, cascading and coordination of goals, annual assessment of corporate and managerial competencies, the formation of individual development plans, and personnel reserve. Last year, we began to introduce a module that automates staff training. This will simplify and accelerate the process of acquiring new knowledge and move from paper to digital data management. And also to develop e-learning with elements of gamification, making learning more flexible and effective. Now we are introducing recruiting automation for even greater efficiency and freeing up the time of HR specialists for other strategic tasks,” she said.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. The company’s product portfolio includes more than 220 complex-component modern medicines. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs.
Ukraine has entered the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL), the Ministry of Economy said.
“On August 28, 2021, the protocol on Ukraine’s accession to the agreement on the establishment of the ACWL entered into force, our country has officially become a member of this international organization and can use its services,” the ministry said on the website on Monday.
The Ministry of Economy noted that membership in the center provides an opportunity to receive free legal advice on WTO law and free training services, as well as legal assistance during the resolution of disputes within the WTO for a lower fee than a fee to law firms on a commercial basis (with a 40% discount to the established hourly base rate).
The Advisory Centre on WTO Law is an international organization founded in 2001 to provide legal assistance to developing countries. The Consulting Center includes 12 developed countries and 39 WTO members that are developing. The Verkhovna Rada ratified the corresponding protocol on June 15, 2021.
