Ukraine plans to open its embassy in Albania this year, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar said during a meeting with newly appointed Charge d’Affaires of the Republic of Albania in Ukraine Fation Peni.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (MFA), Bodnar informed the Albanian side about Ukraine’s plans to open its embassy in Albania in 2020 “which will mark the beginning of qualitatively new stage in the history of Ukraine-Albania relations.”
Peni passed the Ukrainian side Albania’s note on the opening of the country’s diplomatic mission in Ukraine.
The parties shared opinions about the preparations for the conclusion of an underlying agreement on friendship and cooperation between Ukraine and Albania, which will become the main document determining the framework of bilateral relations.
Bodnar and Peni also praised the resumption of air traffic between Ukraine and Albania from June 26, 2020 and the selection of Ukraine International Airlines for carrying out regular flights between the capitals of the two countries.
They also discussed intensification of the countries’ high-level political dialogue.
The change of approaches in the work of tax officers has shown a tangible result for the replenishment of Ukraine’s national budget, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during a Thursday press conference devoted to the current financial and economic situation and the state of the implementation of the budget.
In particular, in June 2020, the general fund of the national budget received UAH 112.9 billion, and the target was met by 105.5%. Additional receipts totaled UAH 5.8 billion.
In general, the June performance of the State Tax Service amounted to 107.7%, which is UAH 6.4 billion more than the monthly plan. At the same time, UAH 11.6 billion of VAT was reimbursed.
“Overperformance of the tax plan is the result of the fight against shadow schemes and tax evasion in the State Tax Service. This is an indicator of stopping schemes for paying [minimized] VAT and fictitious tax sparing credits. Such criminal phenomena are a thing of the past. Positive trends are indicated by the amount of VAT accrual (according to the May declaration), which is UAH 19.5 billion. This is almost UAH 1 billion higher than the corresponding figure of last year with a decrease in supply by 20%. In general, the tax efficiency for VAT today is 3.4%, and this is a record for one year and a half,” Marchenko said.
According to the finance minister, it was possible to stop the leakage of funds from the tax service due to increased transparency and accountability of the tax authorities, staff rotation, improved organizational structure of the STS, and improved quality of services provided to taxpayers.”The tax authorities themselves have changed their approach to work. Today, the focus is on the analytical component: adhering to a risk-based approach allows us to stay ahead, and not with consequences,” the finance minister said.
The sales of new commercial vehicles (including heavy vehicles) in June decreased by 21% compared to June 2019, to 760 units, Ukrautoprom reports.
According to the association, at the same time, the June sales result is 11.8% more than in May this year.
In June, Fiat demonstrated the best sales result, pushing Renault into the second position and managing to increase registrations by 16%, to 118 units.
Renault lost 35% of sales, completing the month with 106 registered cars, in third place, as a year earlier, was occupied by Ford with the registration of 82 cars against 80 in June 2019 and 50 in May this year.
Peugeot ranked fourth, having improved the position in the rating by one step and increased sales by 22%, to 77 vehicles. Belarus’ MAZ closes the top five of the June market of new commercial cars, with 64 registrations in its classification (15% less).
Ukrainian commercial vehicles were not included in the list of the 15 best-selling commercial cars, and Russia’s GAZ ranks 14th with the registration of 12 cars against 39 units in June 2019 and nine units in May of this year.
In total, in the first half of the year, the Ukrainian fleet of trucks and special vehicles was replenished with 4,100 new vehicles, which is a quarter less than in the same period last year.
At the same time, according to the statistics of the association, the bus market of all classes in Ukraine in June decreased by 5% compared to June last year, and almost doubled compared to May of the current year, to 94 buses.
The Business Activity Outlook Index (BAOI) calculated by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) grew by 9.6 points in June, to 45.5 points, which is lower than the neutral index reading of about 50 and means that pessimistic expectations of business prevail, the regulator said on its website on Wednesday.
“Ukrainian business is gradually recovering from the blow that the coronavirus crisis inflicted on it. The NBU poll indicates that the mood of entrepreneurs in June improved. Economic activity gradually recovered, both in Ukraine and abroad, after quarantine restrictions were eased,” the NBU said.
According to the regulator, the new wave of quarantine easing contributed to economic activity of retail companies – the diffuse index (DI) grew to 50.5 points from 37.6 in May.
The service sector also showed better expectations: DI grew by 12.3 percentage points, to 40.8.
Expectations of industrial enterprises, which DI grew from 40.4 to 49.2, also improved.
Construction enterprise expect the worsening of its activities: DI in June fell by 4.1 pp, to 36 points.
Employment assessments of all sectors retain pessimistic.
Dynamics of balance of payments of Ukraine (USD MLN)
The Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air has opened the second base in Ukraine at Lviv International Airport.
According to the press service of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine, in July the company will operate five new flights from western Ukraine, in particular, from Lviv to Billund (Denmark), Tallinn (Estonia), Lisbon (Portugal), Hamburg (Germany), and Szczecin (Poland).
Wizz Air also plans to expand its route network by opening flights from Kharkiv to Tallinn and Berlin.
“The Ukrainian aviation industry needs to be restored as soon as possible for a further stable functioning and growth. Therefore, it is very pleasant that both Ukrainian and leading international airlines do not lose optimism during the coronavirus crisis, but rather seek new opportunities for development, opening up new popular directions. Wizz Air is a leading low cost company, which was one of the first to enter the Ukrainian market back in 2008,” Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said.
It is expected that the opening of a new Wizz Air base will bring Lviv more than $100 million investment in 2020 and create more than 30 jobs.
“We are convinced that investments in opening the base and new routes will stimulate the development of the local economy, aviation and tourism,” Andras Sebok, the chief supply chain officer at Wizz Air, said.
The director general of Lviv Airport, Tetiana Romanovska, in turn, noted that 17 directions to different cities of Europe have already been opened from the airport.
