A large discussion on land reform took place during the Ukrainian Land Forum in Kyiv. Representatives of 490 agricultural enterprises from all over Ukraine took part in this event (of these 115 livestock complexes and 79 thsd of cattle stock). Their total land fund is 4.5 million hectares. The organizer of the forum is the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC).
Four contestants for the presidency, who gained 65% of population’s votes during the first round of elections — Yulia Tymoshenko, Yurii Boiko, Ihor Smeshko and Oleksandr Danyliuk (represented the team of Volodymyr Zelenskii) arrived to communicate with agrarians on land market establishment. People’s deputies, acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, international experts joined the Forum as well.
Presidential candidates and representatives of their teams expressed their vision of introducing land market in Ukraine.
Alexander Danyliuk, who represented Presidential candidate Vladimir Zelenskii, noted that their team is for creating a transparent land market.
Yurii Boiko has voiced that state support for small and medium agricultural business is necessary when opening the land market.
Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the authorities should create conditions of maximum preference for the development of small and medium agricultural producers.
In Ihor Smeshko’s view the land should belong to the people of Ukraine and be sold only to the citizens of Ukraine. The state’s task ‘number one’ is to support the medium-scale producer.
During the Forum, a deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Agrarian Policy and Land Relations Oleksandr Bakumenko presented four variants of the land market establishment, which were developed by the Committee to the Forum.
According to the presented options, citizens of Ukraine only will be able to buy the land. It is proposed to introduce the land market either both for physical and for legal entities, or to do so on a step-by-step basis for several years. The question of hectares to be purchased remains open. In the phased variants it is proposed to provide an opportunity to buy up to 20 hectares to private individuals. And legal entities – up to 200 hectares in the first three years, from the fourth year – maximum 500 hectares, and in the future – up to 20 thousand hectares. Another option suggests in the first three years already to allow the legal entities to buy up to 500 hectares of land, and from the fourth year — to 20 thousand hectares.
During the Forum agrarians could express their view on various aspects of land market establishment by interactive voting.
Thus, the lion’s share of respondents — 66.9% — convinced that competing with holdings, officials and oligarchs for the current land bank will be impossible.
According to the audience, if the land market in Ukraine will be introduced, the right of sale should be distributed on:
– State land and municipal property at first, and then on land of private property — 29.84%;
– the land of private property only — 21.59%;
– the land of private and municipal property at once — 26.03%.
The majority of voters (51,5%) agreed on the idea that private individuals should have the right to buy land at first, and after the end of transitional period this right should gain simultaneously private and juridical entities-agricultural producers whose owners are exclusively private individuals-citizens Of Ukraine. Another 22.46% of voters believe that the right to purchase land should have only private individuals -citizens Of Ukraine. Opinions concerning the maximum size of the land area for agriculture “in one hands” of the private individual divided: 38.51% support “to 200 hectares”, and 34.47% — “to 500 hectares.” Actually, as for the property of legal entities (and related persons). Thus, the maximum size of up to 5000 hectares was supported by 51.52%, and to 10000 hectares — 22.42%.
Kyivstar, the largest mobile communications operator in Ukraine, in a year after receiving the 4G license has built LTE network covering 4,587 localities where 58% of the Ukrainian population, the company reported on Wednesday. “Now Kyivstar has more than 24,700 towers. They provide 3G connection for 81% of the population and 4G connection for 58%,” the company said in a press release.
According to Kyivstar, the development of 3G and 4G communications in Ukraine cost Kyivstar UAH 22.5 billion in 2015-2018, of which UAH 7 billion was paid for licenses for new communication technologies, UAH 3.5 billion for using frequencies, and UAH 12 billion was invested in the construction of communication networks.
“In 2019, we intend to increase investment in the development of 4G, so that as many Ukrainians as possible get access to new communication technologies,” the press service said, citing Kyivstar President Alexander Komarov without specifying other details.
The company said that the rapid expansion of the 3G and 4G network made it possible to boost the volume of Internet traffic: over the year, data traffic grew by 300%. According to the press release, in March 2019, 46 petabytes were used in the Kyivstar network (of which 43% in the 4G network) – the same as in the entire 2016.
According to the company, in a 4G network, a subscriber uses an average of 5.6 GB of mobile Internet per month, while in a 3G network – 3.8 GB, and 70% of business clients in a 4G network upload data to cloud storage.
Kyivstar said that subscribers use 4G in locations where fixed-line Internet is not available or its speed is low. For example, in a number of villages in Kherson region, the average usage of 4G per subscriber is 75 GB per month, in Lviv region – 56 GB, and in Zaporizhia region – 50 GB. For comparison: in large cities, the average consumption of data traffic in a 4G network: Uzhgorod – 12 GB per subscriber; Kherson – 10.59 GB, Dnipro – 6.64 GB, Kyiv – 6.25 GB, and Odesa – 6.19 GB.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in April raised its forecast for corn exports from Ukraine for the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) by 500,000 tonnes compared with the March forecast, to 29.5 million tonnes.
According to the report on the USDA’s website, the increase in the export forecast is associated with a large harvest. The forecast of corn harvest in Ukraine was increased by 305,000 tonnes, to 35.8 million tonnes.
In addition, the USDA retained the forecast of wheat exports from Ukraine in the 2018/2019 MY at the level of 16.5 million tonnes, raised the crop forecast by 57,000 tonnes, to 25.057 million tonnes. The forecast for barley production was also slightly increased (by 204,000 tonnes, to 7.6 million tonnes), while the export forecast did not change (4.2 million tonnes).
In general, the U.S. agency raised its grain yield forecast in Ukraine to 69.7 million tonnes, exports to 50.4 million tonnes.
The USDA has not changed its forecasts for oilseeds processing (15.85 million tonnes) and oil exports (5.93 million tonnes), while the forecast for oil meal exports rose to 5.26 million tonnes (100,000 tonnes more) after a decline in the previous month.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is holding negotiations with the owner of the largest theme park in Germany – Europa-park – on attracting investment in the creation of the similar park in the capital of Ukraine, the press service of the mayor has reported.
“We are planning to create a large amusement park and active recreation in the territory of Kyiv’s Hydropark. This is an area of almost 130 hectares, an island not far from the city center. And today we need an investor who will invest funds, experience and ideas in implementing such a large project,” Klitschko said.
Klitschko noted the coziness and stylization of old times in Europa-park and said that such a park must appear in Kyiv.
“Everything is very interesting here: cozy, stylized as an old town with modern attractions, lots of interesting entertainment, and good nature. And for children there are locations not only for entertainment, but also with educational functions. In short, both children and their parents are happy here. I have been dreaming for a long time and I will do everything so that a similar park will appear in Kyiv,” he said.
Europa-park is the largest in Germany and the second most visited amusement park in Europe after Disneyland in Paris. Last year, Europa-park was visited by more than 6,000,000 people. They come here from Germany, France, Switzerland and other countries.
