The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved in the early hours of Tuesday $135 million in Additional Financing for the Serving People, Improving Health Project, to scale-up Ukraine’s health sector response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the bank said in a statement.
“This additional financing will help Ukraine upgrade up to 40 hospital emergency departments and stroke units, enabling hospitals to perform complicated medical procedures using hi-tech equipment and appropriate treatment protocols,” World Bank Acting Country Director for Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine Alex Kremer said, adding that patients will have an opportunity to choose any hospital in Ukraine, and their costs for surgical operations will be covered by the state budget.
The World Bank recalled that the ongoing Serving People, Improving Health Project, with the initial $215 million investment, provides assistance for renovation of urban hospitals and rural health posts, purchasing of modern equipment, and improvement in the quality of health services. The funds were focused on supporting health reforms, improving services delivery (including primary and secondary prevention, early detection, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer), as well as enhancing the efficiency of the health care system.
The additional $135 million will help Ukraine with important hospital upgrades and reforms, and also help train thousands of Ukrainian doctors in the provision of modern medical services, the bank said.
The project will also help fund people’s medical needs, from the state budget, and provide $35 million for COVID-19 emergency response activities. These funds will be used to buy essential materials and equipment for the country’s COVID-19 response, provide much-needed training for medical personnel, and support communication of essential public information. It will also cover reimbursement of financing to Ukrainian providers of health care for COVID-19 patients.
From May 1 to May 9, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines of Ukraine (UIA) will operate 11 special international flights for the repatriation of Ukrainian citizens and non-residents from abroad who have the right to enter our country.
The UIA press service said on Tuesday that the ticket sale will be opened for the following special flights:
– May 1, 2020: Amsterdam – Kyiv, Tel Aviv – Kyiv;
– May 3, 2020: Geneva – Kyiv, Dubai – Kyiv, Sharm El Sheikh – Kyiv;
– May 5, 2020: Toronto – Kyiv, Dortmund – Kyiv, Prague – Kyiv;
– May 7, 2020: Madrid – Kyiv, Milan – Kyiv;
– May 9, 2020: Munich – Kyiv.
In addition, foreign citizens, respectively, will be able to use UIA flights backward for departure from Ukraine on the same dates.
State-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) is considering a scenario to repurchase its eurobonds from the market with their replacement with cheaper and longer-term resources, chairman of the financial institution Yevhen Metsger has said.
“As one of the working scenarios, the repurchase of our eurobonds from the market is considered, the rate at which is about 10% in dollars, and replacing them with cheaper and longer-term resources from the International Monetary Fund, he said.
In addition, Metsger said that the bank is holding a dialogue on additional capitalization with the Finance Ministry as a representative of the owner and with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“Formally, the management will first discuss the situation and forecast of activities with the supervisory board, then ask it to apply for additional capitalization to the government. For the entire cycle, we assume that it will take us time until the end of the second quarter,” he said.
The chairman of the board of Ukreximbank said that the bank needs additional capital to enable it to develop.
He said that without additional capital, the bank will also not be able to provide the necessary support during a pandemic to a number of clients and key sectors of the economy.
“To rely on itself, make a profit, then invest it in net worth is a long way to go, given that the bank’s financial results for 2019 do not allow to reinvest profits in capital. Our former management declared over UAH 600 million of income. However, in reality, I am afraid that we will get a much more modest figure,” the banker said.
According to him, the bank now has quite negative dynamics in operating income, resulting in, there is no way to quickly accumulate financial results to cover one-time effects, and it will take time for the new management team to reproduce the working business model and reverse the trend.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law a bill amending a number of Ukrainian legislative acts on the conditions for the turnover of farmland, which the Verkhovna Rada passed on March 31, 2020.
“The document provides for the formation of a legislative framework for introducing market-based turnover of farmland. The law signed by the president will empower citizens to exercise their constitutional rights to freely dispose their property and will provide for transparent terms for acquiring ownership of agricultural plots of land by citizens of Ukraine,” the president’s press service said on Tuesday.
Vilnohirsk state mining and metallurgical combine (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk state mining and processing combine (Zhytomyr region), incorporated in PrJSC United Mining-Chemical Company, have claimed the absence of operational guidance by the head office, threatening a failure to comply with international obligations and large fines.
To normalize the situation in the company, the directors of the branches of Vilnohirsk combine and Irshansk combine sent letters to the president and prime minister of Ukraine, as well as to the SBU, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Property Fund with a request to intervene the situation and stabilize the work of the branches and the company in general.
According to the letters, copies of which the Interfax-Ukraine agency saw, the branches and representative offices are separate divisions of the legal entity United Mining-Chemical Company and cannot independently conduct business activities. At the same time, a situation has now arisen when branches operate under conditions of limited authority and in the complete absence of managerial decisions on the part of the management of United Mining-Chemical Company.
The top managers of the branches are also concerned about the possible financial difficulties in their activities, stating that the management of United Mining-Chemical Company does not respond to letters from the branches regarding the provision of proper management of the financial and economic activities of the branches by the management of the parent company.
Due to the lack of funding for the activities of Vilnohirsk combine and Irshansk combine, there is a real threat of a complete shutdown of enterprises, the branches said in the letters.
The directors’ appeals provide data on the payment of taxes and it is noted that if the branch are halted, local budgets will not receive significant funds. In addition, failure to fulfill contracts for the supply of products will result in fines of approximately $15.541 million for Irshansk combine and $67.392 million for Vilnohirsk combine. At the same time, the total loss from halting Irshansk combine will be about UAH 800 million, and Vilnohirsk combine – UAH 1.2 billion.
Given this, both branch directors appealed to the country’s leadership, ministries and departments with a request to take urgent measures to ensure effective management of the company and divisions.
The total volume of operational dredging performed by technical fleet of Delta-Pilot branch of state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority exceeded 500,000 cubic meters from the beginning of 2020, which is more than 30% of the annual plan, the press service of the Sea Ports Authority said on Monday, April 27.
The authority said that there was a scheduled repair of most of the branch’s technical fleet vessels in 2019. Three Rion dredging convoys were docked, while Inhulsky and Meotida dredging pumps were classified. It limited the dredging volume at the level of 824,700 cubic meters for 2019, but made it possible to establish plans for operational dredging by the own fleet at 1.6 million cubic meters for 2020.
In 2020, dredging was provided on the Buzko-Dniprovsko-Lymansky sea canal, Kherson sea canal, the sea access channel of the Danube-Black Sea deep water canal, the access channels of ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk and on the access channel of Dnistrovsko-Tsarehradsky.
Operational dredging is planned by technical fleet of Delta-Pilot branch in water areas and on the sea access channels of the ports of Odesa, Pivdenny, Mariupol, as well as on Kherson sea canal and on the sea access channel of the Danube-Black Sea deep water canal by the end of 2020.
The dredging fleet of Delta-Pilot branch of the of SOE Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority consists of three dredging pumps (Inhulsky, Meotida, Tylihulsky), as well as a dredging convoy as part of multi-bucket dredger Rion, two sludge vessels (Krymska-3, Krymska-9), and a MZ-318 multicat (an anchor handling vessel).
