Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting with top managers of the government and lawmakers has set a task to cut budget expenses on maintenance of officials by 10%. “We held a meeting to prepare the 2020 national budget for second reading. I listened to the Minister of Finance on the main indicators. I set the task to reduce national budget spending on officials for the next year by 10%,” Zelensky said in his Telegram channel on Friday.
The president said that this would save money and allow channeling funds to socially important budget items.
“This reduction should not affect teachers and doctors, those on whom the future of Ukraine depends,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine since the beginning of the new marketing year 2019/2020 (MY, July-June) and as of October 25, 2019 had exported 17.597 million tonnes of grain and legumes, which is 42.6% more than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, to date, the country has exported 10.76 million tonnes of wheat, 3.4 million tonnes of corn, and 3.2 million tonnes of barley.
As of October 25 of this year, farmers had exported 107,300 tonnes of flour.
As reported, Ukraine in the 2018/2019 MY exported a record 50.4 million tonnes of grain, legumes and flour, which is 23% more than in the previous MY.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in September raised its forecast for grain exports from Ukraine for the 2019/2020 MY by 400,000 tonnes compared with the August forecast, to 54.44 million tonnes.
Ukraine as of October 24 had threshed 62 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops from 13.5 million hectares (ha) with the average yield being 4.5 tonnes/ha, according to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine.
According to the report, farmers harvested 21.9 million tonnes of corn from an area of 3.2 million ha (66% of the forecast), 152,000 tonnes of millet from 81,000 ha (90%), 86,000 tonnes of buckwheat from 65,000 ha (95%). Early grain and leguminous crops were collected in the amount of 39.2 million tonnes from an area of 9.96 million ha.
In addition, 13.5 million tonnes of sunflower seeds were harvested from 5.6 million ha (95%), soybeans in the amount of 3.4 million tonnes from 1.5 million ha (94%), and 6.5 million tonnes of sugar beets from an area of 149,000 ha (68%).
As of October 24, Ukrainian farmers had sowed winter crops for the harvest of 2020 on an area of 6.6 million ha, or 91% of the forecast, of which winter wheat amounted to 5.7 million ha (91%), rye to 117,000 ha (96%), and winter barley to 834,000 ha (91%).
In addition, winter rapeseeds were sown on an area of 1.1 million ha.
A dealer network of PSA Group in Ukraine has opened another auto dealer in Kharkiv, which became the third DS Automobiles premium class showroom in Ukraine, a press service of a Peugeot Citroen Ukraine import merchant reported.
DS Store Kharkiv auto dealer with a square of 167,000 square meters can place three automobiles, and the service station is equipped by five elevator machines. The location of the auto dealer is convenient for the clients from the neighbor cities and regions: Dnipro, Poltava and Sumy.
The company said that the first dealer of this brand was opened in Kharkiv in July and the second one in Lviv.
Interfax-Ukraine was told that was Alfa Avangard dealer, which opened the auto dealer in Kharkiv.
According to the unified state register of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and public organizations, LLC Alfa Avangard with a charter capital of over UAH 2 million was registered in September 2019. Andriy Kyryk and Oleksandr Kyryk are its co-owners on an equal footing. The company also has Opel auto dealer in Kharkiv.
DS Automobiles brand has been working since June 2014. A DS 7 Crossback crossover worth UAH 1 million and higher presents the brand in Ukraine.
DS Automobiles brand presented in 32 countries. As of start of 2019, the network consists of 400 brand boutiques and auto dealers of DS STORE and DS SALON formats.
The resolution approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on October 23 proposes the introduction of a unified state register of pesticides and agrochemicals in Ukraine, Viktor Pohorily, the coordinator of the agrochemical committee of the European Business Association, said on Facebook. “Among the main innovations is the creation of a transparent and understandable system of laboratory powers for ecotox and biological testing, the rejection of paper certificates, the introduction of a unified state register of pesticides and agrochemicals, which will be used by both customs and the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumers’ Rights Protection,” he wrote.
According to the coordinator of the agricultural committee, it is also envisaged to strengthen fight against unscrupulous applicants, improve the system of protection of intellectual property rights.
“Finally, the Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection will be able to cancel registration if one factory is declared during registration and products are taken from another place,” the expert noted.
In addition, according to him, the government “intends to introduce a new re-registration procedure, which will allow reducing to a few days some procedures that previously took a year, as well as introduce the concepts and criteria of “minor changes” and simplify the conclusion of an environmental expert assessment of materials.”
“The complexity and incomprehensibility of these processes over the past two years has constantly raised questions,” he said.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority has completed work on operational dredging in Mykolaiv seaport.
According to the agency’s press service, the total amount of work exceeded 890,000 cubic meters. The implementation of the project allowed bringing the depths on the approach channel of Mykolaiv port to 11.2 meters, and in the water area of Dnipro-Buzsky port to 11.5 meters.
“Restoring passport depths allows private and state-owned stevedoring companies to fully utilize the technical capabilities of port infrastructure, reduces the cost of marine logistics and makes products of Ukrainian manufacturers more competitive in the world market,” the press service said citing Head of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority RaivisVeckagans.
The administration notes that Mykolaiv became the fifth of seven ports where the agency planned to conduct operational dredging in 2019.
As reported, for the nine months of 2019 volume of cargo transshipment in the port amounted to more than 23 million tonnes, which is 20.4% more compared to the same period last year.
