Business non-governmental organizations (NGOs), medical workers and scientists demand that the Ukrainian government propose a national strategy for developing Ukraine’s health care system and involve professionals in the review of the state of health care. A respective address was sent to the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers following debates at the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE).
The document was signed by the heads of the ULIE, the Federation of Employers in the Health Care Sector, the National Academy of Medical Sciences, the League of Insurance Organizations, the Heart Institute under the Health Ministry of Ukraine, the Trade Union of Health Care Workers of Ukraine, and others.
The next step should be the creation of an expert council under the Cabinet of Ministers for the development of a national strategy. The latter should clearly define national policy on health care, form the basis for drafting detailed programs, specifying technology, human resources, infrastructure, and the sources of funding that will be involved.
The document stresses the need for a clear analysis of the current state of the health care sector in Ukraine and the health of its citizens. Its findings will become the basis of an annual national report.
Health care workers and their partners from NGOs hope for the beginning of joint work with government officials and parliamentarians in health care reform.
Bilateral and mutually responsible dialogue between the government and the industrial community with experts and business representatives is crucial for the formation of public policy. It is feedback from civil society, experts that makes government decisions efficient and ensures their detailed feasibility research and forecasts for possible consequences. This was discussed at a meeting of the business association consisting of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE), the Association of Employers’ Organizations, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
“We’ve shared our vision of the social and economic situation in the country, concerns about de-industrialization trends, and the loss of high-tech industries. The prime minister supported our commitment to strengthen industrial policy, to make cooperation in this area between the government, the National Bank and businesses more efficient,” ULIE President and head of the Association of Employers’ Organizations Anatoliy Kinakh has said.
Representatives of the business community noted a further deterioration in professionalism at the ministries and agencies, which is seen across the entire executive branch of power. These circumstances, in their opinion, hinder the development of high-quality and modern economic policy.
The sides also discussed the situation with tariffs and prices in the country. Members of the public stress that the national regulators, including the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NERC), should pay much more attention to feasibility study on the tariffs and be more open and transparent. And the government must monitor that all changes in the tariff policy should to the maximum take into account the real economic situation and the solvency of the population.
The Ukrainian prime minister and representatives of the business associations agreed to step up communication, regularly exchange views, more actively involve the business community in the formation of the country’s effective economic policy.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Investments in the launch of a line for production of sunflower seeds in the village of Stasy (Poltava region) will amount to $5 million, the company’s director for integrated operations in Europe has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“A new line for production of sunflower seeds worth $5 million is under construction at our seed production facility in the Stasy village. It will be commissioned this year,” he said.
The line’s capacity is 200,000 sunflower seeds. After its launch, the plant’s total capacity will be more than 700,000seeds (corn and sunflower together).
According to the expert, $40 million was invested in the construction of the plant prior to 2013, another $11 million in the line for production of maize seeds in 2014.
The total amount of DuPont Pioneer’s investment in the seed plant after the start of the sunflower seeds line will be $56 million.
DuPont Pioneer sells its seeds in more than 90 countries around the world.
The company opened its representative office in Kyiv in 1998 and began work on testing new hybrids of corn and sunflower. In 2001 Pioneer Nasinnia Ukraine LLC was registered, and on August 27, 2010 the company officially announced the opening of its research and development center in Kyiv region.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Board of public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia on March 29, 2017 decided to create the Energoremtrans branch in Vinnytsia.
According to a company report, the branch is intended to overhaul, modernize and build traction energy devices, local power lines for railways and third parties, provide for effective functioning and development of the industrial and technological complex of railway transport of general use, create conditions for increasing competitiveness of the sector and receive profit from operations.
Among the key functions of the branch are construction of power supply and telecommunications facilities; reconstruction, technical re-equipment, overhaul and maintenance of the contact network and other technological networks; electric installation works; design, construction, maintenance, operation, reconstruction, repair, modernization, technical re-equipment and other types of improvement of railway infrastructure facilities; construction of power supply and telecommunications facilities; ground transport support; repair of electric machines, manufacture of electric boards, electric lighting equipment and metal structures.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia earlier created a passenger company. Three out of six regional branches would transfer all production processes to the company from April 2017.
KYIV. March 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Over half of Ukrainian tourists visiting Turkey (60%) choose Antalya for their trips.
“Next popular cities with Ukrainian tourists after Antalya are Istanbul, Bodrum and Dalaman,” Director of Tourism Development Center Volodymyr Tsaruk said at a press breakfast organized by Coral Travel tour operator.
Commenting on the double increase of the number of Ukrainian tourists in Turkey in 2016, Head of the Federation of Turkish Hotels Osman Ayik said at present special programs to attract Ukrainians, who earlier went to Crimea, to trips to Turkey are being designed.
Ayik expressed hope that the permit to go to Turkey using national passports by Ukraine and Turkey would influence the tourist flow to both countries.
As reported, in February 2017 Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that Ukraine and Turkey will introduce the regulations of mutual visits of the two countries’ citizens without international passports.
In 2016, 1.25 million tourists from Ukraine visited Turkey.
