KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy and Marshal of the Polish Sejm Marek Kuchcinski during a Tuesday meeting discussed cooperation and security issues in the region at the parliamentary level, the press service of the Ukrainian parliament has said.
Parubiy noted that “cooperation in the Baltic and the Black Sea dimension, in the zone of geopolitical alliance ABC (Intermarium) has a great future.” According to him, such cooperation “provides the mechanisms of the EU strengthening and the rapid integration of Ukraine into the European Union.”
The report notes that much of the time was devoted to the geopolitical prospects of cooperation and further development vision of the European Union.
Special attention was given to the decree of the Polish parliament, which has caused considerable resonance in Ukraine, according to the tragic pages of history.
The parliamentary chairman noted that there has always been a tradition between Ukraine and Poland to give an overall assessment of our tragic history.
“When some of peoples give the one-sided assessment of the actions, it causes resonance and leads to incorrect assessments and distortion of historical facts. Such things are unacceptable. Ukraine and Poland should find mechanisms for joint assessment of those events that took place on our lands, especially that they took place solely as a result of the occupation policy of the Russian Empire, which at that time was the Bolshevist Russia,” Parubiy said. According to him, the occupation of common lands by troops of totalitarian Russia has caused many tragic events.
The Verkhovna Rada chairman also said during the press conference that they discussed ways to overcome the misunderstanding that took place between our peoples.
“I think we were able to find mechanisms and ways to remove these misunderstandings and remember that now Ukraine protects not only the security of its state, but also of Poland, all the Europe and the entire free world. It is extremely essential for us to remember about our main front, which is located in the east as it was a hundred years ago,” Parubiy said.
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved some priority areas of activity, the implementation of which requires government approval.
According to decree No.612 dated August 8 published on the government website on August 29, the Finance Ministry was tasked with developing state policy measures and submitting them for consideration to the Cabinet on tax system reform, the Ministry of Health – health financing system modernization, Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities – implementation of government policy in the sphere of power engineering, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources – state supervision reform in the field of environmental protection, as well as reforming the system of subsurface use.
In addition, the Cabinet tasked the Infrastructure Ministry to develop a project for rehabilitating the nation’s road network and the formation of a qualitatively new system of governance, as well as financing road facilities, railway reform, to monitor the movement of freight transport on public roads, the accession of Ukraine to the European aviation area, improving governance on sea and river transport and merchant shipping.
The Culture Ministry is charged with developing new approaches to the perception of the state language, the Ministry of Information Policy – reforming of foreign broadcasting system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – reforming of the diplomatic service, the Ministry of Education and Science – the concept of the new Ukrainian school.
It is expected that the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food should propose solutions in the field of privatization and efficient management of state assets in the agricultural sector, land reform and state support of agriculture system.
The State Audit Service was assigned to handle the issue of reforming the system of public internal financial control from 2016 to 2020.
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said acceleration of privatization is one of the priority reforms in Ukraine and expects new laws expanding the list of state-owned enterprises to be sold off.
“We are not only talking about the Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant (OPCP), Centrenergo and energy transmission networks,” Poroshenko said at the opening of the National Reform Council meeting in Kyiv on Monday.
The head of state noted the necessity of demonstrating political will along with ensuring the transparency and efficacy of privatization.
Poroshenko said the point at issue is to attract investors not only from Europe but also from other regions, including investors from southeastern Asia, with whom he met recently and who demonstrated huge interest in Ukraine.
Planned privatization revenues to the state budget in 2016-2017 total UAH 17 billion, but a mere UAH 42 million were received during the first six months of 2016.
The tender for selling the OPCP for UAH 13.175 billion set as the starting price failed in June, however the State Property Fund plans to fulfill its plan by re-auctioning off the enterprise and sell shares in six regional energy-generating companies (oblenergos).
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – British Crown Agents plans to supply children and adult oncology medicines to the tune of $1 million by the end of September.
“By the end of September, we expect to have delivered a further US$ 1 million worth of items within the child and adult oncology programs, which constitutes over 84% of the medicines under the adult oncology program and 51% under the child oncology program, 80% of reagents and medical products of the total item volume and budget,” Crown Agents said in a press release.
Crown Agents reports that due to certain misunderstandings with regard to customs clearance of several deliveries by Ukrainian distributors, a number of deliveries for the child and adult oncology programs worth $5.1 dollars are still stuck at the customs terminal in Boryspil airport.
As of August 29, 2016, Crown Agents has supplied, in monetary terms, over 50.34% of medicines for the child oncology program, 80.3% of medicines within the centralized procurement program for adult oncology and 48.02% of the requested reagents.
Crown Agents also stated the saving of more than 45%, or UAH 500 million, in procurement of medicines on children and adult oncology programs for the funds of the 2015 national budget compared to purchases in 2014.
Crown Agents earlier said it was unable to additionally buy medicines at the expense of funds saved from previous tenders, as it was not stipulated in a contract with Ukraine’s Health Ministry.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers on August 23 issued resolution No. 560 on amendments to Cabinet resolution No. 787 from October 8, 2015, to allow specialized international organizations to purchase additional pharmaceuticals using funds saved from previous purchases.
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Funds under the loan agreement between Naftogaz Ukrainy and China Development Bank for a total of $3.65 billion will be available for use until December 25, 2017.
“The Chinese side made the decision at a meeting of the trade and economic cooperation subcommittee of the commission for cooperation between the governments of Ukraine and China on August 25 this year,” reads a press release from Naftogaz.
Extending the loan availability period will allow Ukraine not to lose the opportunity of using “long” and competitively priced funds for modernization of the energy industry and should be sufficient to agree on a common position on the use of these funds among all Ukrainian agencies.
KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and India are working on expanding military and technical cooperation, the parties are in talks on cooperation in modernization of T-72 armored vehicles for the Armed Forces of India, a source in the defense sector has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“India is interested in placing an order for modernization of T-72 armored vehicles in Ukraine. Currently the parties are negotiating on organization of cooperation. The estimated need of Indian customers for upgraded T-72 armored vehicles, according to some estimates, exceeds 1,000 units,” the report reads.
According to the source, among the basic requirements of the Indian customer is re-motorization of the armored vehicles with replacing engines for Ukrainian 6TD-2 engines with a power of 1,200 hp, as well as equipping the vehicles with air conditioning and autonomous power systems.
Ukraine plans five-fold increase in military-technical cooperation with India and to bring its volume to $500 million a year by 2019.
