President of Finland Sauli Väinämö Niinistö has assured Ukraine of support in the area of energy sector reforms, in particular renewable ones.
“We are cooperating in the energy sector. We are interested in cooperation in the field of renewable energy sources and, I think, it will be for the benefit of both states. Therefore, we are ready to share our knowledge in this area,” he said at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
He emphasized that Finland had also done a lot of work on forests.
“For the forests not only contribute to the economy, but also improve the life of society,” Niinistö added.
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted as a basis and as a whole bill No. 1082 on the joint transit regime and the introduction of a national electronic transit system, which provides for a mechanism for the exchange of customs information with 35 countries.
According to a correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, 333 MPs supported draft law No. 1082 at a plenary meeting on September 12 with the quorum being 226 votes.
“This system provides that our customs will see the entire history of movement of goods that is in those countries and transfer its data to them. The bill provides for the functioning of this system in a test mode for about a year. Then it will be tested by our European partners, and after that we will join an agreement on joint transit,” Danylo Hetmantsev, the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, taxation and customs policy, has said.
Head of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov, in turn, said that “this is a simple beautiful story of customs visa-free travel that will allow Ukrainian players to leave Ukraine and travel to Portugal with one truck with one document, with one guarantee.”
In his opinion, it will make Ukrainian goods cheaper for Ukrainian consumers.
The National Commission for the State Regulation of the Financial Services Market received 2,598 complaints about the work of insurance companies in February-July 2019, which is 1.3% (62) less than for the same period 2018, according to the website of the regulator.
According to the commission, the leaders in the number of complaints received were ASKA (158, UAH 6.17 million paid), Omega Insurance Company (173, UAH 8.99 million paid), Oranta Insurance Company (136, UAH 2.71 million), and U.S.I. (88, UAH 1.3 million).
According to the regulator, a total of 555 complaints were received against these companies over the specified period. The total amount of insurance claim fee payments based on the results of consideration of applications was UAH 19.17 million.
In general, the total amount of insurance compensation by insurance companies following the consideration by the commission of applications for the indicated period was UAH 44.57 million.
The commission said complaints came from individuals and legal entities, including people’s deputies, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Office of the President, parliamentary committees, ministries, and departments.
The capacity of facilities generating electricity from renewable sources of energy in Ukraine by the end of 2019 could reach 5.473 GW, which is 2.6 times (by 3.356 GW) more than at the end of 2018.
This is evidenced by the presentation posted on the website of the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER).
Over the year, the total capacity of wind farms will be 1.136 GW (2.1 times more than the amount established at the end of 2018), solar stations some 4.087 GW (three times more), biomass some 140 MW (42.8% more), and small hydroelectric plants some 110 MW (up by 11.1%).
The estimated cost of energy produced from renewable energy sources in the period will double to UAH 28.016 billion.
According to the commission, as of September 10, the total installed capacity of renewable energy facilities was 3.387 GW. Since the beginning of this year, Ukraine has installed 1.27 GW of “green” capacities, which is 1.7 times more than for the whole of 2018.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has called on international business to invest in Ukraine and presented a number of promising projects.
“We have a number of projects to which I, under my personal guarantees, the guarantees of protection, invite foreign businesses. These are energy, infrastructure, transparent land circulation,” he said at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv.
In particular, Zelensky presented a project on land irrigation in the southern regions of the country, an inter-university IT cluster in Kharkiv, a film production center in Kyiv, a new resort on the Black Sea coast in a completely new city, ski resorts in Slavske and Borzhava, the development of Khortytsia island, a large-scale entertainment park for guests from Eastern and Central Europe.
“This is not a complete list of reasons why we invite you to invest in Ukraine,” the president added.
ENERGY, INFRASTRUCTURE, INVEST, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE, TOURISM
The new UAH 5 coin could be issued this autumn, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Yakiv Smolii has said.
“Now I am not ready to say when the issue of UAH 5 [coins] will be. But I think it is expected in the autumn,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Earlier, the NBU announced its intention to issue coins with a face value of UAH 5 in 2019, UAH 10 – in 2020.
From October 1, 2019, the NBU will withdraw from circulation coins in denominations of 1, 2, and 5 kopecks. The central bank will gradually withdraw from circulation a coin with a face value of 25 kopecks, but for now it will remain a means of payment.
