Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has adopted at the first reading bill No. 3087-d on the creation of the Bureau of Economic Security, which should become a single body for combating economic crimes and remove the duplication of these functions from various law enforcement agencies.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the bill was supported by 245 MPs with the required 226 votes.
According to the document, the director of the Bureau is appointed based on the results of a competition and dismissed by the president. However, by the second reading it is planned to amend the bill to reassign the head of this body to the Cabinet of Ministers, said the co-author of the bill and Head of the committee on finance, tax and customs policy Danylo Hetmantsev.
According to him, this is necessary taking into account the decision of the Constitutional Court on the unconstitutionality of the appointment of Artem Sytnyk as director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
As the text of the bill shows, it is proposed to set the maximum number of the Bureau’s employees at 4,000 people. In turn, Hetmantsev said that the current number of employees of the tax police is 4,600.
“The director is accountable to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” Hetmantsev said.
Pivdenny Sea Port (formerly Yuzhny Sea Port, situated in Odesa region), the largest seaport in Ukraine in terms of transshipment volume, increased transshipment by 25.5% in January-August 2020 as compared for the same period in 2019, to 42.045 million tonnes.
According to the website of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), in the eight months Pivdenny port increased transhipment of export cargo by 26.5%, to 31.704 million tonnes, of import cargo by 21%, to 5.245 million tonnes and of transit freight by 18.3%, to 4.818 million tonnes. There were 22 times more coastal freight handled, 277,970 tonnes.
According to goods nomenclature, the port increased handling of bulk cargo by 26.4% in January-August 2020, to 3.673 million tonnes, of dry bulk cargo by 27%, to 35.215 million tonnes and packaged goods by 10.8%, to 3.156 million tonnes.
Transhipment of containers accounted for 165,591 TEU (up by 26.7%).
Pivdenny seaport was founded in 1978.
The importance of investing in the development of the agricultural sector was noted by CEO of Austrian Agricultural Cluster Hermann Wieser, who proposed to create create a technical agricultural school for young farmers in Ukraine.
“Ukraine has land with excellent resources. The point is that you can process agricultural products into high-quality products and export them to the world,” Wieser said at the Ukrainian-Austrian business forum in Vienna on Tuesday attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.
Wieser called on the president of Ukraine to join the implementation of this project.
Spanish-based Inditex SA, one of the world’s largest clothing retailers, launched an online store of the Stradivarius brand in Ukraine on September 10.
“From September 10, Ukrainians will be able to buy Stradivarius goods online. There will be available certain types of delivery of goods purchased online, such as home delivery, shipping to a pick-up point or to a store chosen by the buyer,” the company announced in its press release.
At the same time, as of September 14, the website of the online store has no information about pick-up points. The company’s couriers carry out home delivery. It costs UAH 149 and pickup from the selected store is free.
Inditex Group was founded in 1963. It unites 7,400 stores in 92 countries under nine brands, namely Zara, Zara Home, Zara Kids, Oysho, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius and Uterque. Inditex brand stores are located in 400 cities on five continents.
Inditex Group has been represented in Ukraine since 2008. The Spanish group opened its first stores of Uterque brand in Ukraine (at the end of 2016) and Zara Home (2018) in the Gulliver shopping mall.
As of September 2020, the group’s network in Ukraine comprises 72 stores.
The Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture and the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine are developing a program for a radical renovation of the country’s railway industry.
At present, working groups have been created in the ministries, and regular meetings are held for relevant discussions, the press service of the Ministry of Economy said on Thursday.
“The tasks of developing the railway industry are to increase the economic efficiency and safety of transportation, as well as to protect national interests. The result should be the preservation of jobs, the revival of the car-building industry and the support of the added value of related sectors of the economy,” the press service quoted head of the department Ihor Petrashko as saying.
According to him, the specified program concerns the renovation of the park of passenger and freight cars, the purchase of new diesel trains.
Thus, the initiative to solve the problems of the freight car market is based on the introduction of restrictions on the operating age for the main groups of freight cars; encouraging demand for new railcars from Ukrainian manufacturers due to government compensation for the interest rate on loans for the purchase of railcars; restricting the import and operation of old wagons from neighboring states to Ukraine; the use of a technical tool for additional repairs and inspections of old cars, which will become more expensive in service.
“The result of the initiative should be a radical renewal of freight cars in the next 10 years and an additional GDP growth of 2.7% per year,” the minister said.
According to him, to solve problems in the passenger carriages market, one of the options may be to renew the rolling stock through partial government funding under government guarantees.
“Previously, such a program for the renewal of passenger rolling stock requires the commissioning of at least 100 new passenger cars per year … It is only possible to make our railway industry safer, more efficient and technologically advanced by concentrating the integrated efforts of all market participants. Renewal of this area is not an easy task, but especially relevant in the period of economic recovery,” the minister said.
