Ukraine and Israel will complete the preparation of a free trade agreement (FTA) in the coming weeks, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy has said during a meeting with Speaker of the Knesset Yuli-Yoel Edelstein in Israel.
“Now the matter actually concerns weeks when the work on this agreement is technically completed and when both Ukraine and Israel are able to ratify this agreement. I am sure this will be a very important step in the economic relations between Ukraine and Israel. This is our near-term prospect,” Parubiy said.
According to the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, he and his Israeli counterpart agreed to make efforts for the parliaments of the two countries to ratify the document as soon as possible.
In addition, the speakers discussed cooperation of the two countries in the field of security and defensive weapons.
“This is one of the topics on which certain agreements were reached, which will be implemented after our meetings,” he said.
As reported, Parubiy is on an official visit to the State of Israel (Tel-Aviv) on May 29-31.
The Digital Transformation of Sumy region campaign from Google Ukraine has become the 12th digitalization event after Kyiv, Lviv and nine more regions, the company has said in a report.
The Digital Transformation of Sumy region campaign was conducted by Google Ukraine in cooperation with Sumy Regional Administration and it is intended to increase investment and tourism attractiveness of the region.
“An important component of the campaign was a series of educational projects for representatives of local government, small and medium-sized businesses, government officials, teachers and students on the basics of digital literacy and Internet security,” the report says.
Under the project, the special website “Discover Sumy region” contains information on the most interesting tourist sites in the region. This resource has replenished previously created regional projects on the discover.net.ua portal and contains 3D panoramas and 3D tours of the most interesting places in the region.
In particular, you can take a virtual walk through the Golitsyn’s Palace and the “Round Yard” Manor in Trostianets, see a unique 220-year-old apple tree in the town of Krolevets and explore the architectural complex of the Orthodox male Sofroniivskyi Monastery.
Housing commissioning in Ukraine in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 3.1% compared to the first quarter of 2017, to 1.854 million square meters.
The State Statistics Service said these figures are given without taking into account the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
According to the report, 1.218 million square meters of housing were put into operation in cities in Q1 2017, while 636,100 square meters in rural areas. At the same time, 47.4% of the total volume of housing was commissioned in single-apartment houses, 52.6% in houses with two or more apartments.
In total, 22,400 apartments were put into operation over the quarter, in particular 16,800 apartments in urban areas and 5,600 apartments in rural areas.
The average area of apartments was 82.8 square meters, while the average area of apartments in urban areas was 71.5 square meters, in rural areas some 113.7 square meters.
Cadogan Petroleum Plc with assets in Ukraine has increased oil production at the Monastyretske field (Lviv region) 2.5-fold, to 225 barrels per day (bpd) thanks to the work-over on three wells, the company has reported on the website of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Under the programme, the work-over was carried out at Blazh 1, Blazh 3 and Blazh-Mon 3 wells.
Cadogan is an independent oil and gas company which operates exploration and production licenses in western Ukraine.
The Epicenter K Group, which was developing agricultural business in the past two years, plans to boost silo capacities to over 600,000 tonnes in 2018, Head of the Agricultural Division of the group Vitaliy Stavniychuk has said.
“At present, we have five silo complexes that can store 284,000 tonnes of grain. This year we are building and boosting the silo capacity. We will boost them to over 600,000 tonnes,” he said in an interview with the Business publication.
Stavniychuk said that the group plans to use silos in two stages – early crops (winter wheat and winter rapeseeds) and for the second stage is maize and sunflower.
Another strategic direction for the group is development of livestock breeding, Stavniychuk said.
“The top priority task is to increase numbers of high-quality milking cows. We plan to build farms with modern fodder and breeding system,” he said.
The group seeks to slightly increase its land bank in 2018, but the main goal is not the area, but the highest production efficiency.
The group plans to strengthen positions of agricultural business in the medium term outlook.
JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia has discovered a new field in Kharkiv region, getting commercial gas inflow of 249,000 cubic meters a day from a wildcat, the company’s press service has reported.
The press service said that at the stage of geological exploration the possible reserves were 0.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) and prospective resources are estimated at over 1.5 bcm.
The company said that after receiving the deposit use license, the field and the well were launched in short terms – in 17 calendar months.
The press service said that the period from the issue of a license to commercial use of fields is from two to four years. If new licenses are issues, next gas inflow could be seen no earlier than in two years.
Poltava Regional Council for two years refused to approve licenses over 60 times, and the country would not receive around 1 bcm of gas in 2018.
“The development of new fields is a laborious process that requires the consolidation of scientific, engineering and significant financial efforts. The receipt of licenses does not guarantee 100% of the start of economically expedient exploitation of a field, especially since this process is stretched in time, therefore the company constantly announces the current problem regarding delays in the issuance of new licenses that have not been solved for a long time,” Director of Geology of Ukrgazvydobuvannia Myron Kucher said.
