Ukraine has reduced its position in the ranking of world passports by two points at the end of 2019, according to the Henley & Partners Passport Index.
According to the report, over the past year, Ukrainian citizens received the right to visit Bahrain and Saudi Arabia without visas, but at the same time visa-free access for Ukrainians to Benin and Djibouti was stopped. Thus, the number of countries that Ukrainians can visit without a visa or with a visa upon arrival remained unchanged at 128, and the position in the ranking shifted from 41 to 43, which was shared with Nicaragua.
The leader of the rating for the third year in a row remains Japan, whose citizens can visit 191 countries without a visa. Singapore ranks second, while the third place is shared by South Korea and Germany.
Italy ranked fourth in the ranking, and three countries at once were fifth, including Denmark, Luxembourg, and Spain. The United States and the UK, who led the rating five years ago, fell to the eighth place.
The last place in the ranking was taken by Afghanistan, whose citizens can visit 26 countries without visas.
The Belarusian state petrochemical concern Belneftekhim intends to resume exports of oil products in January, Belneftekhim Deputy CEO Vladimir Sizov said.
“The resumption of [exports of oil products] is expected in January,” the state news agency BelTA quoted Sizov as saying on Saturday.
The resumption of exports “depends on how rhythmically and quickly the contracts are concluded,” he said.
“We expect that all possible restrictions will be lifted by the end of January – at least this is an optimistic scenario,” Sizov said.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 08/01/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of January 8
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukrainian farmers under the government-funded program to support acquisition of Ukrainian machinery and equipment bought it for the amount of over UAH 5.77 billion in 2019, which is 31.2% more than in 2018, Secretary of the National Committee for Industrial Development Olena Salikhova has said.
“At the same time, the amount of compensation [25% of the cost] for the purchased equipment according to the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, in fact in 2019 amounted to UAH 640 million (applications submitted by farmers in September were satisfied), while applications filed in October-November for the amount of UAH 563 million were not compensated, but the equipment was purchased,” she said during a Thursday working meeting with Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Taras Vysotsky with agricultural associations devoted to support programs for 2020.
In turn, Vysotsky said that this program was underfunded due to the fact that the budget provided for these purposes less funds (UAH 682 million) than the demand for this program.
“Farmers bought a lot more equipment under the program than there were funds in the budget, so we can discuss the possibility of considering this compensation in 2020. Our position is to complete all the programs,” the deputy minister said.
He said that in the fourth quarter, when there was no money left for compensation, farmers purchased equipment for UAH 2 billion, which means compensation for another UAH 500 million.
