Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has discussed the possibility of increasing natural gas supplies to Ukraine through the territory of Slovakia with Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger.“Slovakia is one of the main partners of Ukraine in the energy sector. Today, we have discussed the possibility of increasing natural gas supplies to Ukraine through the territory of Slovakia. This can happen in accordance with the agreements of the gas transmission system operators of our countries,” Shmyhal at said a joint briefing with Heger in Zakarpattia region on Friday.In addition, he said that in the transport sector, an important component of cooperation could be the provision of rail container traffic on the Asia-Europe route.Shmyhal announced Ukraine’s interest in increasing additional freight traffic through the country. “A promising area of cooperation is the creation of multimodal logistics terminals for handling cargo at the Ukrainian-Slovak border,” he added.The parties also discussed the development of border infrastructure, in particular, the functioning of joint checkpoints and joint customs control.“Cooperation with Slovakia in the customs sphere is no less important for us. We are working on mutual recognition of the results of customs control,” he added.The Prime Minister of Ukraine said that in the near future the dates of the meetings of the Ukrainian-Slovak Commission on Economic, Industrial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, the Commission on Cross-Border Cooperation and the Commission on National Minorities will be determined.Shmyhal also thanked Slovakia for supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
The net assets of Ukrainian banks in July-September 2021 increased by 2.1% – to UAH 1.932 trillion, due to the revival of lending to corporations and individuals, according to data released on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to its data, in July-September, the assets of banks with foreign capital grew by 6.3% – to UAH 604 billion, private banks – by 11%, to UAH 411 billion, PrivatBank – by 1%, to UAH 375 billion, while as the assets of state banks decreased by 7%, to UAH 543 billion.
“The growth of bank assets in the third quarter was provided mainly by lending. Net hryvnia loans to businesses and the population in annual terms grew by more than 40% and 30%, respectively, mortgage loans “accelerated” to almost 55% year-on-year. This indicates the ongoing post-crisis growth of “credit appetites” on the part of both supply and demand,” NBU Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said on Facebook.
He noted that the share of non-performing loans in the third quarter decreased by 3.9 percentage points, to 33.3% due to the largest write-off of non-performing assets this year and accelerated lending.
According to the survey, in July-September, the volume of household deposits in hryvnias decreased by 1.4%, mainly due to funds on demand as a result of a seasonal increase in consumer spending. At the same time, in annual terms, the volume of hryvnia funds of individuals increased by 15%.
It is indicated that funds of business clients in the national currency increased by 6.9% in the quarter and by 28.1% year-over-year.
According to the NBU, the factors of profitability are the continued growth of operating efficiency and a significant reduction in provisions to reserves.
ARX Insurance Company in January-September 2021 collected more than UAH 2.5 billion in insurance premiums, which is 30% more than in the same period a year earlier, according to a press release from the insurer. It is also noted that payments to customers for the reporting period amounted to more than UAH 942 million, which is 29% more than a year ago. The volume of premiums collected for KASKO insurance amounted to more than UAH 1.4 billion, which is more than a third more than in the same period last year (32.7%). The amount of payments exceeded UAH 664 million. The amount of collected premiums on OSAGO stood at UAH 38.8 million (up by 29.7%), on voluntary medical insurance – more than UAH 379 million of premiums (more by 32.5%), more than 140 million insurance claims were paid, property insurance collected UAH 288.5 million (more by 23.5%), payments amounted to more than UAH 27 million. The press release notes that the sum of the collected premiums of the life insurance company ARX Life for the specified reporting period amounted to UAH 192.7 million (more by 23%). The amount of payments was UAH 37.4 million. The profit of both companies for the nine months of 2021 amounted to UAH 200 million. As reported, ARX has been operating in the insurance market for 26 years and has been the leader in KASKO insurance for the 12th year in a row. It ranked first among Ukrainian insurers in terms of net insurance premiums and net insurance payments for 2019. It is part of the international insurance holding Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Canada). AXA Group (France) in February 2019 completed the sale of its subsidiaries in Ukraine: PrJSC AXA Insurance and AXA Insurance Life. On July 1, 2019, AXA Insurance changed its name to ARX Insurance Company. AXA Life Insurance began operating under the ARX Life brand.
Kronospan company plans to launch the production of particle boards (chipboard) at a new site in Horodok of Rivne region in November this year, Executive Director of Kronospan Rivne Pavlo Piltiay has told Interfax-Ukraine.As reported, the plant was previously expected to start operating in late October.The expert recalled that Kronospan is investing EUR 200 million in the new plant, and the same amount is planned to be invested in the implementation of the second stage of the project – the production of oriented strand board (OSB).As reported, the estimated launch date for this production is the third quarter of next year.Kronospan began investing in a new site back in 2018, but only in mid-2020 received permission to start architectural and construction work, and it took another six months to obtain various permits.The new enterprise is introducing an ecological system/filters to protect the environment from dust and other chemical contamination. It also installed a special module for monitoring the environment around the factory (formaldehyde, steam, other pollutants). Chipboard production in Horodok is designed to produce 900,000 cubic meters of products per year, it is planned to create 200 direct jobs and about 2,000 in related industries, the average salary is UAH 18,000 per month. Some 40% of the production is planned to be exported.
Ukrainian citizens who have received a full course of vaccination against coronavirus infection COVID-19 will be able to enter Ireland if they have supporting documents, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.“Ireland has become the ninth EU country left open for travel by Ukrainians. The conditions are full vaccination, a certificate of recovery or a negative PCR test. You still need to have a visa to travel to Ireland,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.All conditions of entry are available on the website of the Consular Service of Ukraine at: https://tripadvisor.mfa.gov.
Ferrexpo plans to invest more than $2 million in educational equipment, Yuriy Arsenyev, the Director of Information Technology and Automation at Ferrexpo, said during the presentation of Ukraine’s first Privat Network using LTE technology at 5.7 GHz.“We are negotiating the purchase of simulation cabins and software with companies from South Africa and Australia,” he said.The mining simulator cab recreates the cab of a dump truck or excavator.“The technology allows you to simulate even choreography, the interaction of different pieces of equipment. That is, we can simulate the simultaneous operation of an excavator, a bulldozer and a dump truck,” he added.The technology studied by Ferrexpo allows you to scan real careers, load this data into the program and create a simulation that matches 100% real conditions.“Such tools make it possible to train personnel more efficiently. First of all, upon receipt of new equipment, we will be able to improve our qualifications in just a month, teach them how to work with it. The second point is that such simulators will allow us to work out emergency situations, for example, ice in a quarry,” Arsenyev said.One such complex for one type of equipment is about $1 million.“We are negotiating the purchase of three sets, for bulldozers, dump trucks and excavators. But we want to buy one base, a container with hydraulics, which costs about $500,000. Replacement control kits each cost the same. We want to take one base and several replacement kits,” the expert said.According to him, the conversion from one type of equipment to another takes about a day. “You can train personnel for one type of dump truck, re-equip in a day – and prepare for another,” he noted.
