The decree of President Volodymyr Zelensky on planting 1 billion trees within three years will be implemented, it will be implemented on 170,000 hectares, the total cost of the project is about UAH 2 billion, Head of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine Yuriy Bolokhovets has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. “For planting 1 billion trees, about 170,000 hectares are needed. We have already found up to 100,000 hectares of our own territories that require afforestation. These are sites of fire, areas where forests have been destroyed as a result of various factors. Another 70,000 hectares are land of local authorities, the head of the agency said.
He said that the State Forest Resources Agency proposed that the territorial communities, which land plots were in the zone of implementation of the Green Country presidential program, either plant a forest on its territory, or transfer these plots to the agency for afforestation. According to Bolokhovets, today, more than 20,000 hectares are in the process of being transferred from the communities to the enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency.
“The second question is financing. We need UAH 2 billion for three years. I am absolutely sure that the forest industry, due to going from the shadows and more efficient work, is able to earn this money itself. And we will do it,” the head of the agency said.
Bolokhovets said that planting 1 billion trees is necessary to minimize the effects of global climate change, create protective belts of trees to protect against dust storms, as well as increase the country’s forest cover from the current 15.9% to the minimum required 20%.
The head of the State Forest Resources Agency also noted the increase in the procurement of seed material for forest reproduction several times. His agency is also creating infrastructure for large-scale seeding and building nurseries for growing quality planting material.
“This year we have already significantly increased the planting in comparison with previous years. Next year, we will at least double the planting. I am absolutely convinced that we will implement the President’s task,” Bolokhovets said.
PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE, PRESIDENT ZELENSKY, STATE FOREST RESOURCES AGENCY, TREES
Delta Wilmar Ukraine LLC, part of the group of the transnational corporation Wilmar International, plans to launch of the second bottling line for sunflower oil under the TM Chumak in three- and five-liter containers at a plant in the village of Novi Biliari (Odesa region), the company also brought the first bottling line launched in November 2020 to its design capacity.
“Our nearest plans are to launch a second line designed for large-volume bottles – three liters and five liters. The market for these products is the Middle East and Africa. Since people in these countries live mainly in large families, they accordingly buy oil in a large container,” Mykola Danyliuk, the leading specialist in the production and packaging of bottled products, said in a message of the company on Facebook.
Delta Wilmar said that 10 months after the launch of the first sunflower oil bottling line at this enterprise, the company brought production volumes to the design capacity – 3,000 bottles per hour for containers with a capacity of 2 liters and 6,000 bottles per hour for containers of 0.85 liter and 1 liter.
The company recalled that the volume of investments in the first bottling line exceeded $5.5 million, and 45 jobs were created.
Ukraine has registered 2,265 new cases of COVID-19, as well as 565 recoveries and 44 deaths in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Health Ministry’s press service said.
“Ukraine recorded 2,265 new cases of COVID-19 (including 275 children and 22 medical workers) over the past day, September 20, 2021. In the past 24 hours, 1,255 persons were hospitalized, 44 died, and 565 recovered,” the ministry said on Telegram.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Ukraine has seen a total of 2,350,646 coronavirus infections, including 2,231,417 recoveries and 54,919 deaths.
TOP 20 countries of Ukraine’s foreign trade partners Jan-June 2021 (thousand USD)
The monitoring system will include all the information about the oligarchs if the law is passed by parliamentarians, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov has stated.
“It [the system of monitoring oligarchs] is ready to work if [the law] is adopted by the parliamentarians. It has a high level of security. It is quite complex and combines all the information about all these people, their welfare, what they did, where they have taken everything. And then it will be clear who and where came from,” Danilov said on the air of Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech program on the Ukraina 24 TV Channel on Friday evening.
MONITORING SYSTEM, NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE COUNCIL, NSDC, OLIGARCHS
The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) published its decision of April 23 this year in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper on the application of a special duty on the import of wires to Ukraine, regardless of the country of origin for a period of three years: in the first year of the duty application it will be 23.5%, in the second – 22.3% and in the third – 21.2%. According to the announcement, the decision will take effect 30 days after publication. “This case is unprecedented, since the decision of the commission was not published for almost five months due to pressure from some MPs and officials who lobbied for the interests of importers,” Olena Omelchenko, a partner at Ilyashev & Partners, which represented the interests of Ukrainian manufacturers, said, commenting on this publication in a Tuesday release.
According to her, special duties will only apply to interchangeable goods to prevent problems with shortages.
According to the ICIT document, on July 28, 2020, at the initiative of the Odeskabel and Yuzhcable factories (in total, they produce over 50% of these products in Ukraine), the ICIT initiated a special investigation into the import of insulated wires, cables and other insulated electrical conductors to Ukraine, and also fiber optic cables. These are commodity codes according to Ukrainian foreign activity classifier 8544 49 20 00, 8544 49 91 00, 8544 60 10 10 8544 60 10 98, 8544 60 90 10 8544 60 90 90, 8544 70 00 10 8544 70 00 90.
During the investigation period – from the beginning of 2017 to the middle of 2020 – import volumes surged by 128.8%, the share of imports in total production – by 180.4%, in consumption – by 74.8%.
“The growth of imports of goods to Ukraine was due to such unforeseen circumstances as an increase in production, an increase in warehouse stocks and exports of goods from China, an exacerbation of trade tensions between China and the United States, a decline in demand in Belarus, global trends in the development of the renewable energy industry and the introduction of 4G technology,” the commission said.
According to the ICIT, as a result, with an increase in consumption by 30.9%, the volume of domestic production decreased 7.3%, sales fell by 8.6%, sales profit slid by 38.9%, while prices decreased 9.2%, and an increase in production costs by 3% was seen.
According to the State Customs Service, imports to Ukraine under code heading 8544 insulated wire, cable and other insulated electrical conductors, optical fibre cables in the first half of 2021 amounted to 30,200 tonnes by $310.95 million, having increased by 24.6% vs. 44.9%.
The export of these products in January-June-2021 amounted to 40,900 tonnes for $882.6 million, which, respectively, is 40.1% and 57.9% higher than in January-June 2020.
Among the countries from which most of the similar products are imported to Ukraine in monetary terms are Hungary (29.4%), Poland (17.2%), China (9.6%), Romania (11.4%), Czech Republic (7.7%) and Germany (7.4%), while the main countries of export of Ukrainian products are Germany (23.2%), Poland (19.7%), Romania (14.3%) and Hungary (13.8%).
The commission said that duties will not be applied to imports originating from a number of countries, including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic.
This list also includes Chad, the Union of the Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Republic of Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal , Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Timor Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Yemen, Zambia, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia.
The introduction of duties was supported by the Ukrelektrokabel association, which unites 16 enterprises, including 12 manufacturers of cable products, three manufacturers of basic materials and Ukrainian Research Cable Industry Institute. More than 95% of cables and wires used in Ukraine are annually produced at the facilities of the enterprises belonging to the association, with a total value of more than UAH 3.9 billion per year.
At the same time, the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine opposed it. “The potential introduction of additional import duties will actually be an additional tax for the telecommunications industry. This will negatively affect the investment ability of mobile network operators, since they will have to pay additional duties instead of investing in infrastructure,” the American Chamber of Commerce said.
