VILNIUS. Feb 10 (Interfax) – The Lithuanian government has decided to facilitate the employment of some experts from third countries and hopes to attract such workers from Ukraine, Prime Minister of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis has said.
“If you look at the statistics of recent years, people of those professions, we are talking about, come from Ukraine. I think that we see the same process in the neighboring Poland. The situation is more liberal there. According to our data, thousands of Ukrainians have successfully integrated into the labor market. They are creating additional cost and allow the business to grow,” the prime minister said in an interview with Ziniu radijas radio station on Thursday.
According to him, the government, making employment of foreign experts easier, has created sufficient guards in order not to hurt the growth of wages of local residents.
On Wednesday, the Lithuanian government approved the list of professions for easy order of specialists’ employment of certain areas from abroad, in particular, programmers, experts in the field of information technology, engineers of various fields and technicians. These provisions will apply to immigrants not from the EU countries. Within the community itself all its citizens can work in another country without permission.
KYIV. Feb 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) Cheese imports in January 2017 totaled 559 tonnes, which was 38.6% up on January 2016. Imports in monetary terms totaled $2.5 million ($1.6 million in January 2016).
At the same time, exports of butter from Ukraine in January 2017 increased by 1.8 times, to 605 tonnes. Butter exports in monetary terms amounted to $2.3 million against $0.99 million in January 2016. Imports of this product, according to the State Fiscal Service, fell by 27% in January 2017, to a mere 39 tonnes ($185,000) from 49.6 tonnes ($177,000).
Exports of condensed milk and cream in January 2017 increased by 1.8 times, to 3,100 tonnes. Condensed milk and cream shipments totaled $4.9 million in January 2017, which is almost two times more than in January 2016 ($2.4 million).
KYIV. Feb 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry hopes to repair the runway at the Odesa international airport in 2017, Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said at a meeting with journalists in Kyiv late on Wednesday.
“The aviation development program is working. I hope that this year we will start repair of the runway at the Odesa airport,” he said.
The minister added that the funds may be provided for some other directions.
As reported, in July 2016 now-resigned Head of Odesa Regional Administration Mikheil Saakashvili said that the Odesa airport could stop operating due to the bad state of the runway.
In February 2017 Vice President of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) mentioned the bad state of the runway in Odesa.
Odesa International Airport is in the top three largest airports in Ukraine on the number of passengers in the first half of 2016. It performs regular and charter flights between the cities of Ukraine, the CIS, Western Europe, Asia, and Africa.
KYIV. Feb 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine in January 2017 exported 10,993 tonnes of poultry, and this was 50% more than a year ago, the State Fiscal Service has reported.
In money terms poultry exports rose by 21%, to $13 million.
Poultry imports shrank by 20.2%, to 6,900 tonnes and in money terms it decreased by 24%, to $2.8 million.
According to customs statistics, pork exports in January fell by 31%, to 380 tonnes for $690,000 compared to $470,000 in January 2016.
Pork imports to Ukraine over the period plunged by 78.7%, to 64 tonnes. Pork for $125,000 was imported to the country and this was 68.8% less than in January 2016.
As reported, Ukraine in 2016 exported 3,160 tonnes of pork, which is 88.4% less than in 2015. Pork imports in 2016 decreased by 23.2%, to 2,840 tonnes.
Poultry exports in the past year grew by 48.9%, to 240,160 tonnes. Poultry imports in 2016 rose by 36%, to 83,300 tonnes.
KYIV. Feb 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Wednesday adopted a decision to extend for 2017 the public program to partially compensate the cost of loans for modernization of heating efficiency and increase of energy efficiency in the Ukrainian housing sector (the ‘warm loans’ program), the press service of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving reported.
“The government has extended the popular ‘warm loans’ program for 2017 and improved the procedure for provision of compensations under this program. Soon, Ukrainians will be able to make full use of its capabilities and raise non-repayable financial aid from the state for energy efficiency measures,” the agency head, Serhiy Savchuk, said.
According to him, the list was of banks participating in the program has been extended in particular to include PrivatBank, which according to Savchuk, will allow enhancing competition among banks, reducing the cost of loans, and attracting more participants.
In addition, a mandatory commercial accounting for the activities on improvement of heating efficiency of apartment block will be introduced.
“Thus, homeowner associations will be able to control the actual consumption of energy at home and assess the efficiency of the implementation of energy efficiency measures. As before, homeowner associations will get 40% non-repayable financial assistance for such measures,” Savchuk said.
As reported, UAH 400 million of the 2017 national budget will be sent to provide non-repayable financial assistance to households and homeowner associations to take energy efficiency measures: insulation of buildings, installation of water and heat meters, heaters with thermostatic regulators, replacement of windows, modernization of lighting and other things.
KYIV. Feb 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Athens is interested in developing cooperation with the Black Sea region of Ukraine.
“Greece is extremely interested in development of cooperation with the Black Sea region of Ukraine due to historical links of Greece with these regions, in particular, in cultural and economic aspects. And we are very keen to develop closer links with the Black Sea regions,” the prime minister of Greece told after a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in Kyiv on Wednesday evening.
According to Tsipras, the two countries have historical ties. About 100,000 ethnic Greeks live in Ukraine, and Greece is interested in their safety, keeping in mind that some of them are living in the conflict zone in Donbas.
