The European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, together with national partners, officially opened two renovated medical call centers in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, and Severodonetsk, Luhansk region.
The equipment for the call centre, worth around EUR 17,000 (about UAH 540.000), was purchased with the financial support of the European Union under the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, the message reads.
The centers are based at Kramatorsk Primary Healthcare Centre No. 1 and Severodonetsk City Multidisciplinary Hospital. They will serve about 180,000 residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Up to six coordinators work in the call centers and use a specially designed call system, which helps them call back those who could not reach the centre immediately.
“The European Union continues to support the effective functioning of the healthcare system in eastern Ukraine, ensuring that needs of all local residents are addressed. Together with our partners from the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme and the European Investment Bank, we’ve been piloting new approaches to health service delivery, which is crucial in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and renovating medical facilities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Martin Schroeder, acting Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, said.
Bills on the reform of architectural and construction control should be developed with the direct participation of the architectural professional community.
This opinion was expressed by President of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine Oleksandr Chyzhevsky during a press conference devoted to how bill No. 5655 can destroy the architecture of Ukraine and architects as a profession held at Interfax-Ukraine.
“We highly and positively assess the efforts of legislators to eradicate corruption in the construction industry by introducing elements of the Unified Electronic System into practice. This should become a part of the overall process of digitalization of the country, the introduction of ubiquitous e-government. However, the professional community is protesting against the provisions of bill No. 5655, which curtail the powers of the architect and unbalance the industry as a whole,” Chyzhevsky said.
According to Deputy Chair of the Architectural Chamber of the National Union of Architects Anna Kyrii, today none of the numerous amendments that were transferred to the text of bill No. 5655 have been taken into account.
“In its current version, bill No. 5655 unprecedentedly deprives architects of the rights and opportunities to influence and control their project,” Kyrii said.
Kyrii called “the destruction of authorship as such” the most painful blow.
“For some reason, the creators of the bill pay attention to only one point, which directly determines that authorship is deprived if the project is carried out using budgetary funds. Yes, this point is the most terrible, because the architect is deprived of copyright property rights to the project even before that moment he began to design. However, this is not the only moment – dozens of points of the bill, one way or another, deprive or squeeze the rights of the architect, or discredit the architect in front of the rest of the project,” Kyrii said.
At the same time, the expert said that the practice of attracting famous architects to the implementation of projects significant for society, which are financed from budgetary or donor funds, is popular all over the world. And this increases the credibility of both customers and architects.
According to Chair of the expert commission of the Architectural Chamber of the National Union of Architects Olha Podushkina, the property rights of architects are protected by the law of Ukraine on copyright and related rights (section II, Article 15).
“And although the majority thinks that an architect’s copyright is about ownership of an idea and concept, in fact, an architect’s copyright is primarily about his responsibility for the quality and safety of the project,” Podushkina said.
The expert said that for an architect, a project is not only a set of reinforced concrete structures, glass and engineering systems, but a harmonized spatial structure of the human life environment, which should be created taking into account aesthetic principles, reliability, environmental friendliness, and functional comfort. “Only an architect can organize the process of implementing his project and help the customer to obtain a high-quality product. Only an architect can control the implementation of the designed solutions that shall meet all standards. Only in this case the building will serve the projected period, it will be safe and comfortable, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly,” Podushkina said.
According to Kyrii, the current version of bill No. 5655 creates a corruption risk for projects implemented using budgetary funds: if, after the approval of the project and its estimate, the customer, seeking to save money, makes a choice in favor of materials and solutions of lower quality.
“If the architect does not have leverage to influence this choice, and this is also a security issue, buildings will simply come down with cheaper materials. On the other hand, if accounts are settled according to the previously approved estimate, and cheap materials are used, who will check it? and who will be responsible for this?” Kyrii said.
Chyzhevsky said that the rights of architects should be harmoniously combined with responsibilities.
“Duties can be fully fulfilled only when there are full rights, in particular, property copyright,” Chyzhevsky said.
The experts called the creation of the Urban Development Chamber as another controversial point of the bill.
According to Kyrii, this initiative leads to the strengthening of centralized power instead of expanding the rights of horizontal structures, i.e., in fact, it leads to the leveling of the very practice of self-regulation.
According to her, bill No. 5655 will unbalance the entire system.
“An architect is deprived of his rights and at the same time he is entrusted with even greater responsibility. We are becoming even more dependent on those who are still in charge of the market. The main resource is concentrated in the developers, those who distribute funds. In most cases, they are the initiators of violations of state building codes, saving resources, replacing quality materials with cheaper ones,” the expert said.
She drew attention to the fact that at the same time, it is for developers that the current version of the bill expands the rights.
“The Urban Development Chamber will supervise the responsible executors of the works, and the developers will receive both property copyrights and urban planning control, which they can order from legal entities,” Kyrii said.
According to Chyzhevsky, the organization of separate bodies with the broadest possible powers is extremely dangerous.
“This creates many additional levers of influence on responsible executors, which is demonstrated by the experience of SACI,” Chyzhevsky said.
The expert said that self-regulation is a sign of our times.
“On the one hand, this is a component of the formation of civil society, which ensures stable democracy, which is so important for our country. On the other hand, the implementation of the powers delegated by the state, the process of certification of a creative employee by a creative employee, which is implemented by the National Union of Architects, meets not only the recommendations of the World Organization of Architects, but also the obligations of the state of Ukraine to the WTO and the EU,” Chyzhevsky said.
ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL, DEVELOPED, PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY, REFORM
Ukrtelecom’s total income in the first half of 2021 amounted to UAH 3.4 billion (more than 10% more than in the same period in 2020), and Internet income exceeded UAH 1 billion (more by 7.4%), the company’s press service has said on Monday.
Ukrtelecom’s EBITDA in the first six months amounted to UAH 1.1 billion (an increase of 29%). EBITDA margin increased by 4.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 31.3%.
It is noted that for the specified period, the company’s telecommunications services income amounted to almost UAH 2.4 billion. Private subscribers were provided with services for almost UAH 1.5 billion, and business consumers – for UAH 692 million. The fixed optical Internet user base grew by 83%, to 203,000 subscribers.
In the business segment, Internet income increased by 10.2%, to UAH 226 million, and in the mass segment – by 6.6%, to UAH 786 million.
Ukrtelecom notes that the connection of small towns and villages to high-speed optical Internet continues. Currently, work is underway in almost 150 settlements, where more than 4,500 km of fiber-optic cable have been laid.
“Throughout the country, 850 medical and 1,250 educational institutions, as well as 380 territorial communities are already using optical Internet from Ukrtelecom. Of these, 156 medical and 233 educational institutions, 21 territorial communities have been connected this year. Ukrtelecom is awaiting the announcement of tenders by local communities to participate in the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s program to provide modern optical Internet for social infrastructure and rural population,” the company said.
According to it, in January-June 2021, income related to asset management also increased, in particular, from receipts from commercial lease of property not involved in production processes. It amounted to more than UAH 213 million, which is almost 41% more than in the same period last year.
In addition, the operator has launched a three-year fleet renewal program, which provides for the replacement of more than 1,300 vehicles used in production activities, including for disaster recovery teams, deploying fiber-optic networks, connecting and servicing subscribers.
Capital investments in the first half of 2021 amounted to almost UAH 310 million.
“The problem remains with the debt of local budgets to reimburse the company’s expenses for telecommunications services provided to citizens entitled to benefits. As of June 30, this figure exceeds UAH 124 million,” the company said.
In 2021, Ukrtelecom has already paid UAH 975 million in taxes to the budgets of all levels.
The state budget in January-June 2021 had a deficit of UAH 43.2 billion, and the general fund deficit was almost UAH 50.2 billion, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine has reported.
According to the data on its website, the state budget deficit in June 2021 amounted to UAH 9.47 billion, including the deficit of the general fund reached UAH 18.4 billion.
As the State Treasury Service said, borrowings in the first six months of 2021 amounted to UAH 264.7 billion, including external – UAH 51.5 billion, while repayments for the specified period reached UAH 231 billion, including on external liabilities – almost UAH 24.7 billion.
According to the State Treasury Service, privatization in January-June of this year brought UAH 1.048 billion, while at the end of the year UAH 12 billion is expected to be received under this item.
In general, state budget receipts in the first half of the year amounted to almost UAH 592 billion, including UAH 505.9 billion in the general fund, and expenditures reached UAH 633.6 billion, including UAH 558.7 billion in the general fund, according to the data of the State Treasury Service.
The State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine has put up for electronic auction five hydrocarbon sites with a total starting cost of UAH 207.8 million (excluding the cost of geological documentation), the authority has said.
At the auction on October 20, 2021, in particular, Pivdenno-Rusanivska area (Sumy and Poltava regions) was put up for UAH 92.5 million (hereinafter without VAT), Zhukivska area (Poltava region) – for UAH 5.306 million, the Kitvan area (Ivano-Frankivsk region) – for UAH 1.925 million, Reshetylivska area (Poltava region) – for UAH 2.229 million and Tynivske area for UAH 107.847 million.
As reported, following the results of electronic trading in 2020, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil attracted UAH 826 million of direct revenues to the state budget. In 2021, a plan was announced to receive at least UAH 750 million.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) have signed an agreement to formalise their cooperation on low-carbon hydrogen and to develop hydrogen supply chains.
“I am very pleased that the EBRD and GTSOU are cooperating to support each other’s activities regarding hydrogen. Ukraine relies heavily on fossil fuels across all sectors of its economy and hydrogen can represent a good alternative for decarbonisation, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Supporting the green transition of our economies is a key priority for the EBRD,” EBRD Managing Director for Green Economy and Climate Action Harry Boyd-Carpenter said.
CEO of GTSOU Sergiy Makogon said that the challenge of hydrogen therefore is to develop technology to scale up hydrogen use, to create the necessary conditions and infrastructure for its production, transportation and consumption.
“All this requires time, effort and cooperation by all stakeholders. We recognise the role of natural gas as one of the key energy sources and transition fuel on the path to carbon-free economy, which will remain significant for this transition period. As the operator of the gas transmission system, our task is now to prepare our infrastructure for the decarbonised energy markets of the future,” he said.
According to the report, the EBRD recently launched a study on the potential for developing different segments of the hydrogen supply chain across many of the economies where it invests, including Ukraine.
