Almost half (46%) of Ukraine’s population see the need for an early presidential election and just over half (54%), for early parliamentary elections this year, according to the findings of a poll conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of the Future (UIF) on January 27-February 5. Corruption was the most cited reason (49%) for such negative attitudes, and unprofessionalism was cited by 27% of respondents, according to the findings unveiled at an Interfax-Ukraine press conference on Thursday.
Respondents in the west tend to see corruption as the main obstacle to development; in the east, unprofessionalism and outside control are seen as the biggest problem. Asked where their country is heading to, 74% said “in the wrong direction” and only 14% said the opposite.
A survey of confidence in statesmen and politicians showed 48% distrusting current President Volodymyr Zelensky.
If a presidential election were to be held this Sunday, he would be favored by 18.4% of respondents. That is a drop from 29.2% in June 2020.
On the other hand, his possible rivals Petro Poroshenko and Yuriy Boiko would fare worse, with 11.4% and 9.5%, respectively.
President Zelensky’s disapproval rating also dropped since June 2020. When asked “Which candidate would you not vote for under any circumstances?” 17.8% said the incumbent; the figures for Poroshenko, Viktor Medvedchuk, Boiko and Yulia Tymoshenko were 24.8%, 10.3%, 9% and 6.5%, respectively.
At the same time, Zelensky remains the most trusted politician, with 12% trusting him fully.
Were a parliamentary election held this Sunday, 15.8% of all respondents would vote for the Opposition Platform – For Life, 13.1% for Servant of the People (a significant drop from 27.1% since last June), 11.8% for European Solidarity, and 8.6% for Batkyvschyna.
At the same time, a survey of disapproval ratings of the parliamentary parties found that under no circumstances would 22% vote for European Solidarity, 17.8% for Opposition Platform – For Life, and 15.6% for Servant of the People.
Data suggest that confidence in local authorities was higher overall than in the central government. A quarter (26%) of respondents said their local authorities represented the interests of the population; 35%, the interests of local elites, and 27%, the interests of big business. The highest level of confidence was in mayors, at 48%.
The most trusted institution is the army (53%), followed by mass media (34%) and national police (31%). The least trusted were anti-corruption agencies: National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAPO), 10% each, and the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (8%).
When asked “What could raise the efficiency of authority?” 39% were inclined for its full reset with young and competent people with no experience in politics but in other areas. A third (34%) wants to see a strong leader, 19% want the current central government to be reinforced with new professionals and 17%, with experienced professionals who were in government before.
The face-to-face survey of sociopolitical sentiments was conducted among 2,400 respondents aged 18 and older by the UIF in conjunction with New Image Marketing Group in every region (except the temporarily uncontrolled territories).
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 19/02/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
The single counterparty exposure limit (H7, should be no more than 25%) as of February 1 was violated by Prominvestbank (65.76%), Industrialbank (50.9%) and Sberbank (52.37%), according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to the regulator, the related party transactions exposure limit (H9, should not exceed 25%) was violated by Megabank (28.43%), First Investment Bank (51.46%) and Unex Bank (28.71%).
The limit on bank total long open FX position (L13-1, should be no more than 10%) was violated by Prominvestbank (93.24%), Oschadbank (127.7%), PrivatBank (103.67%) and Industrialbank (10.6%).
The limit on bank total short open FX position (L13-2, should be no more than 10%) was violated by Prominvestbank (93.28%).
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of February 19
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The construction of a new airfield at the international airport in Dnipro has begun, the work is to be completed in 36 months, the head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine (Ukrinfraproekt), Kyrylo Khomiakov, said on Facebook.
He said the new terminal of the airport, in turn, will be built and put into operation in 18 months.
“The first phase of construction includes all earthworks, the construction of a new apron and taxiways to connect the new terminal to the old lane during the construction of the new lane. This means that passengers will be able to use the new terminal and aircraft will be able to use the new apron by the end of next year!” he wrote.
The old runway will be operational during construction.
As reported, the state enterprise Financing of Infrastructure Projects (Fininpro) signed an agreement with Altis-Construction LLC for the purchase of works on building a new airfield at Dnipro International Airport with an offer 30.6% lower than the expected cost for UAH 3.95 billion.
According to Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy, back in September 2020, preparatory work began at the facility to ensure the continuous operation of the airport during construction. At the same time, a private investor, NS Dnipro, began to build new passenger and VIP terminals.
It is planned to build a runway with a length of 3.2 km at Dnipro airport. The cost of the project, according to the state examination report, is UAH 6.23 billion.
For the current year, the government has allocated UAH 1.4 billion for the construction of the airfield.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted at the second reading law on the unification of the rates of customs duties for light industry goods (bill No. 4410).
As a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine reports, 307 MPs voted for the bill at the second reading, with the required 226 votes.
According to the explanatory note to the bill, the unification of duty rates will speed up the customs clearance of such goods. The bill provides for the establishment of equal preferential rates of import duty on homogeneous goods of the light industry by reducing (by 255 subcategories) or increasing (by 25 categories) the current rates.
The bill, in particular, establishes preferential rates of customs duty: 0% – for raw materials that are not produced in Ukraine (yarn, fibers, threads 50-53 group of the Ukrainian Classifier of Goods for Foreign Economic Activity), as well as for artificial fibers of commodity items 5505, 506 and 5507.
In addition, a preferential rate is set from 1% to 8% for finished products – fabrics, felt, wicker nets, twine and ropes. At the same time, the bill retains the current preferential rates of 5% for mixed cotton fabrics (code 5211).
As for the increase in the rate of duties, they are increased to 10% for light industry goods in those subcategories where such rates are below 10% (some 105 commodity subcategories).
As stated on the website of the Ministry of Finance on Friday, this bill was drafted in cooperation with the Ukrainian Association of enterprises of textile and leather industry.
The Ministry of Finance said that the provisions of the bill do not apply to goods originating from countries with which Free Trade Agreements had been concluded.
Earlier, owner of the Textile-Contact Group, member of the Presidium of the Council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine Oleksandr Sokolovsky spoke in support of the adoption of this bill.
“Today, the average rate of customs duties on fabric is from 0% to 5%, some up to 8%, while the nomenclature of groups 50-59 of the Ukrainian Classifier of Goods for Foreign Economic Activity includes more than 1,500 items of commodity subcategories, which even a specialist cannot visually distinguish without a laboratory. And laboratories are overloaded and examine the fabric for up to two or three months, and the production technologies go ahead and it is often problematic for them to deal with the codes,” he said.
According to him, the unification of rates will make it possible to simplify the work of inspectors, reduce the costs of importers of raw materials, and also create clear rules of the game for business.
