Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, at a meeting with the ambassadors of the G7 countries and the European Union, informed the diplomats about the progress of the corporate governance reform of state-owned companies, the press service of the head of state said on Thursday evening.
“The Head of the President’s Office invited the ambassadors and their countries to join the preparation of the draft law on improving corporate governance of legal entities, the shareholder of which is the state, which will ensure the implementation of modern international standards in Ukrainian legislation,” the message says.
In turn, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Yulia Svyrydenko noted that the goal is to clearly delineate the functions of the state as a shareholder and to prescribe transparent criteria for evaluating supervisory boards.
The reformatting of the juvenile prevention unit has begun in the National Police of Ukraine, the department of communication of the department reported on Thursday, May 13.
During the Ukraine 30 All-Ukrainian Forum, head of the National Police Ihor Klymenko said that now the department continues to recruit new personnel for the so-called “children’s police”, which will receive additional trainings from international partners. The police are also introducing two communication platforms in their work with children – “Children! Police! Society” and “Safe School”.
“We hope that international trainings and programs will significantly help police officers in working with children. We learn to communicate with children in the same language to recognize trouble even before it manifests itself. We have a common goal – to prevent crimes involving or against minors,” he said.
According to the head of the National Police, since the beginning of the year, the police have registered more than 1,200 crimes committed against children. In addition, more than 1,400 criminal offenses committed by children were recorded.
“There are 15,000 secondary schools in the state, several thousand colleges. We should know how children live, how they spend their free time, how they are brought up in a family,” Klymenko said.
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.
