Egypt expects an increase in the flow of tourists from Ukraine in the autumn and expects by the end of 2020 to “catch up” with the indicators of 2019, when the country was visited by more than 1.7 million tourists from Ukraine, Managing Director of ODEON Tours, the host of Coral Travel in Egypt, Abdallah Tarek has said.
“We expect that after the end of the crisis, which lasted three or four months, the number of Ukrainian tourists in Egypt will be the same as last year. Namely, 1.7 million tourists from Ukraine. Given that the season in Egypt begins in winter period, we are now in a low summer season and expect growth in the autumn,” he said.
According to him, this year Egyptian hotels have kept prices at the level of the previous year.
To encourage tourists, the Egyptian government has canceled tourist visa fees for Ukrainians until October 31, 2020. In addition, if Ukrainian tourists have contracted with coronavirus COVID-19, all costs associated with the disease will be fully covered by state-suspended insurance.
At the same time, according to Tarek, the guest will be accommodated free of charge in an isolated room or hospital until complete recovery. And if Egypt enters the “red zone” again, the tour operator Coral Travel will provide its guests with free testing upon their return to Ukraine.
“I can say with confidence that it is now very safe to come to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada. Each beach hotel has one isolated floor or a separate building in which each infected guest will be isolated with the support and accompaniment of the Ministry of Health, as well as the hotel itself and tour operator Coral Travel,” the managing director of ODEON Tours said.
He also said that as part of measures to counter the spread of COVID-19, the tour operator has created a new application, Coral App, which will contain all relevant information about the tour, aircraft schedule or transfer. Also, all printed materials have been removed, now the information is available in the application.
According to the requirements of the Egyptian government, only hotels that have received the Hygiene Safety Certificate are eligible to receive guests. To ensure that all standards and protocols are adhered to, each hotel has a dedicated health and safety manager and hotel occupancy rates must not exceed 50%.
“We adhere to all the rules introduced by our government, in particular, 50% occupancy during transfers, the obligation of guests to wear masks and disinfect their hands before getting on the bus. All guides undergo mandatory training on how to act, how to protect guests from the threat of the spread of COVID-19, study their responsibilities, including drivers,” Tarek said.
Among the hotels that have received the necessary state certificate and have already opened for guests are five-star Otium Family Amphoras Beach Resort, which is part of the OTI Hotels & Resorts International network, and Rixos Premium Seagate (both in Sharm el-Sheikh).
The European Business Association (EBA) has addressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal with a request to resume the work of the system of state registration of pesticides and agrochemicals, which was suspended in late May 2020, according to a statement posted on the association’s website on Tuesday.
According to the member companies of the EBA Agrochemical Committee, the problems have become relevant since the renaming of the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine and the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
“At the end of May, the Scientific Expert Council at the Ministry recommended 100 chemical products as a result of the meeting. However, as of today, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources has not yet made a decision on their registration. Therefore, the abovementioned chemical products are not included in the State Register of pesticides and agrochemicals approved for use in Ukraine,” the EBA said.
The association also noted that if chemicals are not included in the State Register, Ukrainian and international importers and manufacturers of plant protection products will not be able to provide farmers timely with a significant number of next-generation products.
“Due to this situation, legal businesses suffer losses as they fail to sell their products. As the result, the state budget lacks revenues from taxes and customs duties estimated at millions of hryvnias,” the association said.
In addition, the EBA noted that the use period of PPPs is quite short. Accordingly, the farmer will buy what is available on the market.
“Due to the lack of high-quality registered PPPs, there is a risk of a significant increase in demand for gray imports and counterfeit products. Thus, the quality and security of the future harvest, and, consequently, the export potential and currency stability of the country may be threatened,” it said.
Therefore, the business community appealed to the prime minister to pay attention to this situation and adjust the work of relevant departments, offices, and divisions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection so that to restore the system of state registration of pesticides and agrochemicals and, in general, to ensure quality conditions for doing business in the country, which is one of the tasks of the reorganized ministry.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 28/07/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of July 28
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Cheap loans and mortgage should be based on economic stability, otherwise it is impossible to regulate such programs manually, General Manager of Alfa-Bank Rafal Juszczak has said.
“The idea of making [banks] to open deposits at 5% will reduce the interest rate to 10% indeed. But where is confidence here? The bank is confidence. The economy is stability, predictability. Would you deposit your private money at 5% under a threat of devaluation? Such actions will provoke a response – we won’t see deposit inflows,” the banker said in an exclusive interview to Interfax-Ukraine.
Juszczak also spoke in favor of a free market as long as market mechanisms operate there and it is impossible to force people to do anything.
“I would focus on economic stability. Hence, the interest rates will gradually decrease,” he said.
Alfa-Bank’s general manager also noted that a slowdown in rates could promote changes in banks as their interest income would decrease.
He also said that Alfa-Bank’s interest rates remain at the market level, although they may keep decreasing.
“I don’t rule out that against the background of such a positive dynamics in interest rates we will be able to offer a new product with a very attractive rate so as to get an additional market share due to the price,” Juszczak said.
At the same time, the banker mentioned that the future of the crisis is still not clear.”I agree with out macroeconomist Oleksiy Blinov: he is not as pessimistic as other analysts. Today many of them say that Ukraine, thanks to the specifics of its economy, will get even stronger after this crisis than many other countries,” he said.
As of June 1, 2020, Alfa-Bank ranked sixth among 75 banks operating in the country in terms of total assets (UAH 94.113 billion).
Тhe Ministry of Health of Ukraine intends to fully implement 2D coding [special labeling of packages to prevent counterfeiting] of medicines in Ukraine in two and a half years, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
“Yesterday, I had a meeting with representatives of leading pharmaceutical companies in Ukraine. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss an action plan in the ministry regarding the pharmaceutical market. The first thing we voiced was the introduction of 2D-coding of all the medicines that are used in Ukraine. When this is implemented, the number of counterfeit medicines in pharmacies will be reduced to almost zero. We believe that in two-two and a half years we will be able to completely switch to 2D coding. We will move gradually: first, we will transfer to 2D coding all medicines according to the reimbursement program, and only after that all import goods,” he said.
According to the minister, it is also planned to completely switch to electronic prescriptions.
“E-prescription is now used in the Affordable Medicines program. We believe that the electronic prescription should be expanded as much as possible in our country, including gradually getting rid of paper prescriptions so that medicines are dispensed exclusively on prescriptions that can be controlled. It also has an economic effect, in this case we envisage a reduction in the prices of medicines. The e-prescription contains the active ingredient, and in the pharmacy you can choose a drug for a suitable price,” Stepanov said.
