Ukraine in 2020 climbed from 80th to 63rd place in the Social Progress Index among 163 countries with score of 73.38 points versus 66.97 in 2019, according to the index data.
“It is important that in the year of the pandemic, Ukraine improved its position in this global ranking. This means that at least part of the challenges we responded correctly,” Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the study, the average score of the index among all studied countries is 64.24 points. Last year, the group of countries with a very high standard of living and a moderately high quality of life narrowed from 104 to 71.
“I would also like to note that among 15 countries with a similar level of GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity, Ukraine ranked fifth in terms of this index,” Lazebna said.
In addition, the minister noted the high assessment of Ukraine in the areas of equal access for women and men to basic knowledge, protection of property rights for women, equality of political power by gender.
“Also, Ukraine has demonstrated high rates of vulnerable employment, secondary school attainment, availability of affordable mobile telephone subscriptions, access to electricity,” the head of the Ministry of Social Policy said.
However, Ukraine showed significantly worse results in comparison with other countries in terms of life expectancy at 60 years (117th place among 163 countries), and also lags behind in a number of other indicators.
“According to the results given by the authors of the index, Ukraine has high inequality of political power by socioeconomic position, corruption, high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, large number of outdoor air pollution attributable deaths, high number of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases,” Lazebna said.
The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of its citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progress shows the relative performance of nations. Under the technical guidance of Professors Michael Porter from Harvard Business School and Scott Stern from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the group formed a U.S.-based nonprofit called the Social Progress Imperative and launched the Social Progress Index for 50 countries in 2013.
Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine (UAH for $1, IN 01.04.2021-30.04.2021)
Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger will visit Ukraine at the end of this month, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said following a meeting with the head of the Slovak government.
“Pleased to meet with Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger to discuss trade, investments, energy and infrastructure cooperation. Ukraine and Slovakia remain reliable partners and friends. Looking forward to welcoming Prime Minister in Ukraine in two weeks,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Citizens of Ukraine are afraid that the land will be bought by foreigners, and this is one of the main reasons why two-thirds of voters in the “land referendum” will vote against the sale of land, which now embodies power, Director of the Rating sociological group Oleksiy Antypovych said.
During the roundtable conference titled “Ukrainians’ Attitude to Land Market” hosted by Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of the survey published the day before, which his company conducted at the end of April, the sociologist said that 77% of residents support the referendum against the sale of agricultural land and 75% intend to take part in it.
“We asked very clearly, how would you vote in a referendum on such a question: ‘Do you support the introduction of a market for the purchase or sale of agricultural land in Ukraine?’ We see that 36% would vote for the introduction of a land market, while 64% would vote against it. Two-thirds are against, a third are for,” Antypovych said.
According to him, Ukrainians are especially frightened by the intention to allow the purchase of Ukrainian land by foreign citizens and companies, some 79% of respondents are against this.
“The fear that the land will be bought by foreigners is one of the main factors causing great resistance or great disagreement by Ukrainians to the idea of selling land, and there is no difference between residents of the West or the East, or respondents from different age groups,” the sociologist said.
It is planned that the land market in Ukraine should start working as early as July 1, 2021.
The participants of the event said the amendments to the Land Code, recently adopted by the votes of a mono-majority, allowed the sale of Ukrainian land to foreigners, canceled the ban on the sale of especially valuable land and provided the preferential right to purchase land to persons who are going to be engaged in mining.
At the same time, the parliamentary faction of the Batkivschyna party of Yulia Tymoshenko, which was the only one in the Verkhovna Rada that did not give a single vote for any “land” law, is now organizing an all-Ukrainian referendum in defense of the land.
Tymoshenko’s team has already opened a special hotline and has appointed a meeting of the initiative group, which already has more than 12,000 people, for May 22.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has signed a framework agreement with the French government on loan financing of projects to modernize water supply systems in Kyiv and Luhansk region in the amount of EUR 70 million each.
According to the draft decree of the Cabinet of Ministers on the signing of a framework agreement, a concessional treasury loan in the amount of EUR 70 million will be directed to the reconstruction of water supply facilities of the Dnipro and Desnianska waterworks. The project will improve the quality of water for a quarter of the capital’s population, says the government’s press service.
The second loan in the amount of EUR 70 million will finance a project to reconstruct the infrastructure for the production and distribution of drinking water at Popasna District Vodokanal utility company. As a result of modernization, it is planned to achieve a volume of water flow of 135,000 cubic meters per day, which will provide drinking water for more than 20 settlements.
Under the terms of the agreement, the loan is provided for 40 years, including a 15-year grace period. The loan rate is 0.0092% per annum. The condition for the provision of funds is the purchase of goods and services from France in the amount of at least 70% of the loan amount for the implementation of the project.
In addition, in order to obtain a loan, contracts between French suppliers and the project implementer must be accepted for execution by the end of 2022, and the loan must be selected by the end of 2026.
The framework agreement signed on Thursday by the governments of Ukraine and France, providing for the supply of 370 rescue vehicles-car lifters for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the amount of up to EUR 300 million, provides for the provision of financing by the French side in the amount of EUR 255 million (85% of the contract amount). According to the text of the framework agreement at the disposal of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the support will consist of a treasury loan of up to EUR 100 million provided by the French government represented by Natixis, and a bank loan of up to EUR 155 million, which will be provided by a bank or consortium banks from the EU. Bpifrans Assurance Export will act as a guarantor for it.
The agent bank will be Ukreximbank (Kyiv), the equipment supplier will be the French company Desautel SAS.
According to the agreement, financial support is provided for the purchase of goods and services from France, and also provides for the purchase of Ukrainian or foreign goods for the implementation of the contract in the amount of up to 50% of the amount of financial support.
The maturity of treasury and bank loans is no more than 10 years.
The terms of the agreement stipulate that in order to receive financing through a loan, the contract must be accepted for implementation no later than December 31, 2023, and the loan must be selected by the end of 2028.
The supply of goods and services from French suppliers, as well as the import and use of related goods for their production will be subject to VAT, other taxes and duties at a “zero” rate.
As reported, within the framework of the contract, the production of firefighting car lifts to provide extinguishing fires and rescue people from high-rise buildings will be partially concentrated in Ukraine. The first samples will be made in France.
According to Mykola Chechetkin, chairman of the State Emergency Service, at the present time, the service units have only 290 units of high-altitude lifts at their disposal, of which 260 have worked out their resource.
