The Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) will exhibit new medium-haul transport An-77 and An-178 aircraft at the Eurasia 2018 Airshow to be held on April 25 through April 29 in Antalya (Turkey). The press service of the enterprise told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday that the new Ukrainian transport aircraft arrived to Turkey on April 22 will take part in the flight show of the exhibition and will be presented to potential customers at a stand.
The press service said that Antonov plans to hold a series of meetings and negotiations with representatives of government agencies, industrial enterprises and air carriers of Turkey and other countries to discuss areas of cooperation in the medium-haul transport programs for An-178, the family of regional passenger new generation An-148/ n-158, An-77 transport aircraft with short take-off and landing and unmanned aerial systems. “All these programs are planned to develop and implement within broad international cooperation,” the enterprise said.
The new An-178 aircraft is created to replace An-12 planes and is designed for the effective fulfillment of its tasks as a transport aircraft, including logistics and transportation of equipment. Some experts say the An-178 aircraft can serve as a modern replacement of the C-160. The aircraft has a modified form of fuselage, a ramp for loading and unloading of bulky cargo and can lift up to 18 tons of cargo, including heavy maritime containers. The industrial cooperation program for the An-178 involves about 200 companies from fifteen countries. The Antonov Enterprise is promoting the aircraft in the Middle East and Central Asia. The United Arab Emirates, China and Azerbaijan expressed interest in the new Ukrainian transport aircraft.
According to the sources of Interfax-Ukraine in the industry, currently the Antonov State Enterprise is also negotiating with the European NATO countries on the joint development of the An-178 program. The new medium-haul military transport An-77 aircraft is a modification of the military transport An-70 aircraft with short take-off and landing with a maximum carrying capacity of 47 tonnes.
AIRSHOW, ANTONOV, EURASIA 2018, MEDIUM-HAUL AIRCRAFTS, TURKEY
The Ukrainian Cabinet’s Secretariat and the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDLR) at Stanford University have signed a memorandum of cooperation in reform of public administration in Ukraine. The memorandum was also signed by the Professional Government Association (PGA) and Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Professor of the Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law at Stanford University Francis Fukuyama attended the signing ceremony.
The document was signed during a meeting with the state secretaries of ministries and civil servants who were appointed to new positions in ministries within the framework of the state administration reform.
“This initiative, I hope, will become very close cooperation between my institution and the Ukrainian government. I hope that this cooperation will help Ukraine to move in the right direction in providing public services and public administration,” Fukuyama said.
Groysman, in turn, noted that society is not yet fully aware what civil service reform is.
“It is very important that we began to change not only the system of public service, but we began to change the system of governance of the country,” he stressed. He noted that in order for the public to feel improvements in the civil service, it is necessary to hire personnel who can make high-quality decisions and provide high-quality services. Under the memorandum, the parties agreed to implement the Civil Service Feedback Cycle project, which provides for a basic survey of public service in Ukraine in the format of interviewing various categories of officials on several key parameters and developing recommendations for improving the performance of state employees.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has spoken for the adoption of a special law on the confiscation of real estate and funds in bank accounts that have no official explanation, and believes that the need for such a law may be used in an electoral campaign to the Verkhovna Rada.
“The most urgent issue is an introduction of a law similar to the recent British one – a special law that allows the confiscation of real estate or accounts that have no official explanation. This is the law that Ukraine has needed for a long time,” the prosecutor general said on air of the 112.ua TV channel on Tuesday after the debate in the European Parliament on corruption in Ukraine.
He recalled that the Verkhovna Rada had several times considered the bill on the so-called special confiscation, but failed to pass it. Therefore, at the moment, the law-enforcement agencies confiscate property obtained through criminal means based on the provisions of the old law, and the confiscation procedures are very complicated and “often subject to attacks by interested persons, both publicly and legally.”
“Therefore, we need a law on special confiscation, and it is very important to take into account the British experience, which is very simple and clear: if a law enforcement system asks a question of any citizen or guest of the UK: ‘Please show the sources of, for example, a five-story house in central London’ and if these sources do not exist, this property passes into the state ownership and later is sold at an auction. The same goes for the funds that are frozen in the accounts. From my point of view, such procedure would speed up cleansing Ukraine of corruption and criminality,” Lutsenko said.
At the same time, the prosecutor general said he doubted that such a law could be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of the current convocation. “I think that this law will not be passed by this parliament, but it can become one of the key concepts around which it is possible to build the next election campaign to the next parliament,” he said.
CONFISCATION, DUBIOUS SOURCES, GENERAL PROSECUTOR, PROPERTY, UK-STYLE
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Euroins Insurance Group (Bulgaria), which includes Euroins Ukraine (Kyiv), in 2017 increased revenue by 19%, for the first time exceeding BGN 1 billion (EUR 512 million), and quadrupled net profit to BGN 42 million (EUR21.5 million), according to a press release from Euroins Ukraine.
It is also noted that in general the income of Eurohold Bulgaria AD, which includes Euroins Insurance Group, in 2017 increased by 18% compared to the previous year and amounted to BGN 1.2 billion (about EUR615 million). Net profit increased by almost 2.4 times, to BGN 24.4 million (EUR12.5 million), while operating profit (EBITDA) by 65%, to BGN 57.6 million (EUR29 million).
The holding’s net worth as a whole increased to almost BGN 215 million (EUR110 million), while its assets grew by 17%, to BGN 1.33 billion (EUR681 million).
The press release says on April 17, 2018 Euroins Insurance Group purchased Ukraine’s European Travel Insurance (ERV) from the German company ERGO, owned by MunichRe concern.
PJSC Euroins Ukraine has been operating in the Ukrainian insurance market for 25 years. The regional network of Euroins Ukraine covers 26 cities of Ukraine. The weighty share in the company’s portfolio is occupied by KASKO, which is one of the priority activities. The strategy of Euroins Ukraine foresees occupying 5-10% of the Ukrainian insurance market.
