PJSC National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (PBC) has signed a sublicense agreement on the purchase of rights to broadcast the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Ukraine with the Discovery Communications media company, whose portfolio includes Eurosport TV channels.
“This will allow the public customer to broadcast the Olympics almost throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. The course of the competition will be broadcast in the SD and HD Simulkast format on the website of the UA:First television channel,” the PBC’s press service reported on Wednesday.
According to Anna Pak Burdin, Discovery Networks North-East Europe managing director, UA:First will broadcast important meetings and final stages of the main competitions, and those who want to follow each competition in full will have access to Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, and more than 4000 hours of broadcasting in Eurosport Player.
“The agreement with PBC is not just a contract. It is an opportunity to join the international holiday and feel like a part of the multi-thousand audience of the Olympics, see the flag of Ukraine and the national team in national uniforms, cheer for your athletes and get incredible emotions,” she said.
President of the National Olympic Committee and Olympic champion Serhiy Bubka, in turn, said that thanks to television broadcasts, Ukrainians would be able to see the competition “of the strongest athletes and cheer for their compatriots.”
The decision of the Japanese authorities to simplify visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens (holders of ordinary passports) for short-term visits to this country has come into effect.
So, on January 1, 2018, the Japanese authorities expanded the circle of applicants entitled to multiple-entry visas for short-term stay with business purposes and cultural and scientific figures, and the validity of visas was increased from three to five years maximum.
In addition to the existing single-entry visas, multiple-entry visas (with a validity of three years and a maximum stay of 30 days) for a short stay with various purposes, including for tourism, have been introduced.
In addition, in the case of an independent travel payment, the applicant is no longer required to provide documents from the guarantor.
As reported, the Japanese government’s foreign minister, Kazuyuki Nakane, during a visit to Ukraine on November 9, 2017, announced the decision of the Japanese authorities to simplify visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens from January 1, 2018 for short-term visits to Japan. According to him, simplification of visa requirements will help improve the conditions for tourists, entrepreneurs, citizens who revisit Japan, and will ensure further strengthening of contacts between people of the two countries.
The Ukrainian road industry in 2018 will receive about UAH 47 billion of financing due to the launch of the State Road Fund and additional sources, Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan has said.
“The Road Fund starts its work on January 1. For the first time the road industry will receive government-guaranteed financing. This year this is almost UAH 33 billion plus separate additional funding for a number of key highways for more than UAH 14 billion,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
In addition, the minister noted that from January 1 Ukravtodor will be responsible only for 50,000 km of roads, the remaining 120,000 km are transferred to the balance of regions with guaranteed financing from the road fund in the amount of 35% of its revenues.
“Now everyone has the right and should demand quality roads from the local authorities, rather than nodding disappointedly at Kyiv,” Omelyan said, noting that from January 1, 2018 the speed in settlements is limited to 50 km/h.
The minister added from January 1 fines are significantly increased. The fine for driving without a license will rise by 20 times, to UAH 10,200, and for a repeated violation some UAH 40,800. Persons deprived of the right to drive, violating the law, will pay a fine of UAH 20,400, and for the repeated violation during the year some UAH 40,800.
Public joint-stock company United Mining-Chemical Company, managing Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Combine (Zhytomyr region), seeks to more than double investment in reconstruction of production facilities, allocating over UAH 200 million for this purpose.
“This year the modernization of the branches of PJSC United Mining-Chemical Company was launched, and next year the company plans to seriously undertake the renewal of the main production facilities – concentrating mills 2018. I think that investments next year will twice more of the level of 2017. The final figure is still difficult to disclose, because engineers have not yet come to the conclusion which options for building mills to choose. There are several of them, but we will go beyond UAH 200 million and this will be our company’s next record,” Acting Board Chairman of United Mining-Chemical Company Oleksandr Hladushko said in the interview with the corporate publication.
According to him, now United Mining-Chemical Company’s experts calculate the cost and technical possibilities of building a new factory of rough concentrates at Irshansk Mining. The branch begins preparations for the development of new areas of the Mezhyrichynske field – the Bukynsky site of this field, which will be developed by the Irshansk Mining. It has reserves of 19 million tonnes of titanium ore.
The expected volumes of production of ilmenite concentrate are 700,000 tonnes, which is approximately three-year workload for the plant.
At the Vilnohirsk Mining, the option of building a factory for processing tailing dumps is being worked out. It will be needed when the reserves of titanium raw materials at the Malyshivske field, which the branch is developing, are exhausted.
It is planned to purchase new equipment for the laboratory of Vilnohirsk Mining.
The Energy Efficiency Fund has begun its work in Ukraine, and it will be a new and effective tool for implementing state energy modernization projects at the level of households and at the level of legal entities, according to the media liaisons department of the secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
It is expected that the fund will provide funds for implementing thermal modernization projects, introducing effective monitoring and control systems, establishing effective heating and cooling systems and equipment, as well as replacing existing systems and equipment with more efficient ones. The form of providing funds will be a partial refund of the cost of measures on energy efficiency to individuals and legal entities.
“We allocate a total of UAH 2 billion [for energy efficiency programs], including UAH 400 million for ‘warm loans’ and UAH 1.6 billion for large-scale energy modernization projects,” Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said.
According to him, in addition to budgetary allocations, funds are also to be received “from our European partners.”
“There is a decision to allocate 100 million euros – this is about UAH 3 billion. This tranche will be divided into several periods,” Groysman said.
He stated that all energy modernization projects would be implemented simultaneously with programs for the introduction of efficient consumption of resources, as well as a significant increase in the production of domestic natural gas.
According to government forecasts, over 3-5 years of the work of the Energy Efficiency Fund, annual gas saving due to efficient fuel use will reach at least 1.5 billion cubic meters and, at the same time, the launch of new production facilities based on the latest technologies will create an additional 75,000 new jobs.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on the Energy Efficiency Fund on June 8, 2017. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the document on July 20. On December 20, the Cabinet of Ministers created the state-owned enterprise Energy Efficiency Fund.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed the law on Ukraine’s state budget for 2018 (No. 2246-VIII), according to a statement posted on the official website of the head of state on Saturday.
The law comes into force on January 1, 2018.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian president, state budget revenues are estimated at UAH 917.9 billion and expenditures at UAH 991.7 billion.
The deficit of the state budget for 2018 is proposed to be set at UAH 80.6 billion, or 2.4% of GDP, which corresponds to the program of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The limit of the public debt was set at UAH 1.999 trillion, or 60% of GDP.
Planned state guarantees were set at UAH 24 billion.
Proceeds from privatization are projected at UAH 21.3 billion.
The size of the living wage will grow by 9% and the minimum wage by 16.3%. Spending on assistance to families with children, low-income families, persons disabled since childhood and disabled children, temporary assistance to children and allowances on looking after people of the first and second disability group are estimated at UAH 59.9 billion.
The budget foresees UAH 71 billion for the provisions of benefits and housing subsidies to the population to pay for housing and utility services.
The educational subvention is UAH 61.7 billion and the medical subvention UAH 57.4 billion.
The state road fund with total expenditures of UAH 32.9 billion will be created in 2018. In total, UAH 47.7 billion is to be allocated for road development.
UAH 1.6 billion is envisaged for the functioning of the energy efficiency fund and UAH 0.4 billion for the implementation of the state targeted economic program for energy conservation.
In 2018, support will continue to be provided to local budgets for the implementation of investment and regional development projects. In particular, UAH 6 billion is to be allocated from the State Regional Development Fund, UAH 5 billion is the subvention for measures on the socio-economic development of individual territories, and UAH 1.9 billion is the subvention for the formation of the infrastructure of united territorial communities.
As reported, the state budget for 2018 is based on the forecast of GDP growth of 3% with inflation of 9%, as well as on the hryvnia exchange rate of UAH 30.1/$1.
The minimum wage in Ukraine is to grow from January 1, 2018, by 16.3% to UAH 3,723 per month, and the government has been also instructed to study the possibility of increasing it after the first quarter of next year.
The living wage is set at UAH 1,700 from January 1, 2018, UAH 1,777 from July 1, and UAH 1,853 from December 1.
The Verkhovna Rada approved as a whole the law on Ukraine’s state budget for 2018 (bill No. 7000) on December 7, 2017. Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy signed the document and sent it to the head of state for signature on December 22.
