More than 40 professional medical associations are preparing to revive the Federation of Public Medical Associations of Ukraine, which was set up in 1998, for involvement of the medical community in the settlement of many important issues related to development of the healthcare system.
President of the Federation of Public Medical Associations of Ukraine Viacheslav Kaminsky said during a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday that the first congress of the federation will be held in Kyiv on August 28.
“We want to unite efforts for cooperation between the Verkhovna Rada, relevant parliamentary committee, Health Ministry and professional doctors’ associations in order to receive the right to participate in the development and introduction of common standards of providing medical assistance, social protection of medical workers,” he said.
According to Kaminsky, the organizations which had founded the federation current form its base.
“There were 54 of them at that time, and today these are 41 active organizations. The federation is undergoing modernization and is open for all professional medical unions,” he said.
The federation will focus, in particular, on important issues related to career guidance, vocational training and employment of medical workers, in particular abroad, as well as introduction of a contest system for professional and career development, support for the development of medical science, practice and medical education, coordination and regulation of alternative methods and models of private medicine through the creation, introduction and development of a public and state licensing system for medical activities.
Kaminsky also said the federation will be involved in the introduction of the mechanism of individual licensing for doctors, adding that this is not the key area of its activities.
“Today, there are a lot of important issues. The issues of licensing or re-certification of doctors are not the basic ones,” he said.
Member of the Federation of Public Medical Associations of Ukraine Mykola Prodanchuk, in turn, said “the federation has set the task to not only support its members – professional associations – but also to provide its maximum assistance to the adoption and introductions of the law on self-organization of medical professions.”
Member of the Federation of Public Medical Associations of Ukraine, Ukrainian MP of the 8th convocation Iryna Sysoyenko said the federation as a non-governmental organization, which unites public professional organizations, “will start discussions on the future law with the medical community.”
She also said the federation will suggest creating a register of medical errors.
“This information is invaluable as this is data on which training of doctors and medical workers must be based and developed. Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have such a register so far,” she said.
Secretary General the Federation of Public Medical Associations of Ukraine Andriy Tkachenko said the federation will use international experience in its activities.
“All activities of the federation will be based on the principles of internationals norms and standards,” he said.
Ukraine will attract a loan from Cargill Financial Services International, Inc. in euros in the amount of up to EUR 250 million, the loans will bear interest at a rate of 5.95% per annum for contracts with maturity in three years and 6.85% for contracts with maturity in five years.
According to resolution No. 717 of the Cabinet of Ministers dated August 17, posted on the government portal, interest income will be paid on a quarterly basis.
The document notes that state external borrowings are carried out within the framework of the law on the national budget for 2020.
The founders of Nova Poshta, Viacheslav Klimov and Volodymyr Popereshniuk, have become investors in the Kooperativ co-working space, which was opened at the end of 2019 in Kyiv’s Paladis business center at 23 Sichovykh Striltsiv Street (in the building of the former book factory Zhovten).
The creators of the project are Andriy Fedoriv, the founder of Fedoriv Group and Fedoriv Agency, Vasyl Grogol, the founder of Bursa hotel, and an entrepreneur from France.
“Somehow at the beginning of summer, the guys came to a meeting at Fedoriv Agency and saw how cool the completed Kooperativ had turned out. We started a long conversation, the result of which was the decision – Slava and Volodia will acquire part of the project’s shares and join Vasyl Grogol and me as partners,” Fedoriv wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, in the future, the partners will work on the development of the Kooperativ co-working space together.
“The first step will be the integration into Kooperativ of our legendary space in the Arena [Arena City business center] with an area of about 1,000 square meters. Fedorivhub will become Kooperativ Hub from September 1, and the former Fedoriv office will become a co-working space for about 100 residents … Despite a difficult year, it shows good results and as an operating company we are already expanding,” Fedoriv said.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal noted that the Ukrainian economy began to recover in the third quarter.
“In the third quarter, the Ukrainian economy began to recover. In addition to the recovery in consumption, this was positively affected by the harvest, which was actually postponed from the second quarter to the third due to weather conditions. Also, according to forecasts of the Ministry of Economy, in the next three years, GDP will grow on average more than 4% annually,” wrote Shmyhal on his official Facebook page on Saturday night.
The premier noted that the situation with the coronavirus is not only a serious blow to the medical systems of different countries.
“This is also one of the largest economic recessions in the past 70 years. Almost all world economies showed a rapid decline in GDP in the second quarter,” Shmyhal said.
From August 14 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine begins the centralized registration of Ukrainian electronic visas (e-Visa) for citizens of India, South Africa and the Philippines, the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.
“The Ukrainian e-Visa is issued for trips to our country for business, private, tourist purposes, for medical treatment, for activities in the field of culture, science, education, sports, as well as for representatives of foreign media,” the statement said.
So, to apply for an electronic visa, you need:
– register on the MFA web platform https://evisa.mfa.gov.ua/ (available from August 14);
– fill in the application form online, upload a photo and scanned copies of documents (passport, invitation, etc.), pay the consular fee with a bank card;
– receive a ready e-Visa by e-mail (sent in pdf format).
It is reported that to enter Ukraine, a person needs to print the e-Visa and show it with the passport to the border authorities of Ukraine at the checkpoints across the state border.
“At the same time, the standard procedure for issuing Ukrainian visas in foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine still remains in force for citizens of these states,” the ministry reported
The renewal of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine next year can give a new impetus to the development of the Ukrainian honey industry, strengthen the country’s position in the EU market and reduce its dependence on the supply of Chinese honey, which now forms about 40% of the total supplies in this direction, national consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Hanna Burka has said.
Now the Ukrainian honey market depends on supplies to the European Union, whose share in the total volume of Ukrainian honey exports exceeds 80% (in 2019 – 86%, in 2018 – 80%, in 2017 – 74% ). The EU countries are considered the largest honey importers in the world and about 40% of honey needs are met by imports, she said on her Facebook page.
“The signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, within the framework of which a deep and comprehensive free trade zone began to function, contributed to an increase in purchasing countries and an increase in the export of Ukrainian honey, and, accordingly, the flow of foreign exchange earnings into the country,” Burka wrote.
So, in 2017, Ukraine exported 47,100 tonnes of honey to the EU, in 2018 – 41,000 tonnes, and in 2019 – 45,000 tonnes.
“A year after the signing of the Agreement, the number of enterprises that had the right to supply honey to the markets of the European Union increased to 52, and by the end of 2019 it was 72,” the FAO consultant said.
In addition, the share of Ukraine in the import of honey to the EU countries also increased, if in 2013 it was 10%, then in 2019 it reached 22% (in 2018 – 20%, in 2017 – 23%). Accordingly, Ukraine became No. 2 supplier of honey to Europe, with China ahead.
“During the FTA, Ukrainian honey exporting companies are actively using the possibilities of duty-free tariff quotas. Both the main and additional preferential quotas for honey were used in the first days of the month. Despite the fact that the extra-quota volume is subject to an import duty of 17.3%, the export volumes of Ukrainian honey continue to increase. The current export volume is seven-eight times higher than the annual volume of the total quota, which confirms the interest of European partners in Ukrainian honey,” Burka said.
According to her, it is obvious that the current volume of the quota (in 2017, the main quota was 5,200 tonnes, in 2018 – 5,400 tonnes, in 2019 – 5,600 tonnes, in 2020 – 5,800 tonnes; additional 2,500 tonnes was not revised) does not suit both the demand of Europe and the possibilities of the Ukrainian honey industry.
“The next Ukraine-EU negotiations should be aimed at both increasing the duty-free quota and reducing customs tariffs. As an example, the EU-Mexico cooperation model can be used, for which the preferential quota is 30,000 tonnes at a rate of 8.6%,” said the expert.
