KYIV. April 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Verkhovna Rada has introduced a ten-year ban on the export of timber and lumber in its raw form (round timber), while a ban on word exports (except for pine) will be introduced from November 1, 2015, and that for pine trees – from January 1, 2017.
All in all, 233 deputies voted for the adoption of the bill at second reading and as a whole.
The law provides for the introduction of a ten-year ban on the export from Ukraine of timber and lumber in its raw form, in particular, round timber with the transport humidity being above 22%, as well as lumber with thickness exceeding 70 mm with a similar transport humidity.
While presenting the bill for second reading, the chairman of the committee on industrial policy and entrepreneurship Viktor Halasiuk said that the law eliminates the monopoly of the central executive authority on issuing certificates – they will now also be issued by forestries, permanent forest users, and a single electronic register will be introduced that will allow certificates to be traced.
He said that the wording of the bill has been agreed with timber processing enterprises and forestry establishments, as well as the Embassy of Poland, which “is one of the main interested parties – they will plant their plants.”
KYIV. April 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv), Ukraine’s largest airport, in March, and for the first time since the beginning of 2015, recorded an increase in passenger traffic by 9% compared to March 2014, to 459,300 passengers.
The airport’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine that in particular, in March it served 421,000 passengers on international routes and 38,300 on domestic routes.
“However, the amount of flights from the airport was 7% less than in the same period last year – 5,171 flights, of which 4,638 international and 533 domestic,” the press service said.
The average occupancy of aircraft in March 2015 was 71%, in March 2014 the average figure was 61%, and on some routes occupancy was between 30-40%.
In general, in the first quarter of 2015 the airport’s performance fell: in January-March it served 1.348 million passengers, which is 7% less than in the same period in 2014.
It served 1.242 million passengers on international flights during this period, and 105,861 on domestic flights.
The number of flights fell by 16%, to 14,983.
KYIV. April 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ernst & Young Audit Services LLC has won the tender on the procurement of audit services conducted by the State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia).
This was announced at the presentation of the winner of the tender on Tuesday.
The price offered by the winner was not disclosed at the presentation, while earlier it was reported that Ernst & Young Audit Services had requested UAH 19.8 million (value added tax included) for its services.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (Audit), which requested UAH 25 million (VAT included) for its services, also took part in the tender.
The tender was conducted to receive audit reports on the consolidated financial report of Ukrzaliznytsia for 2014 and 2015, a report on the survey of an interim consolidated report for H1 2015, and to confirm financial coefficients calculated by Ukrzaliznytsia under the conditions of credit agreements signed by the customer with banks-creditors as of December 31, 2015, June 30, 3015 and December 31, 2015.
KYIV. April 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Verkhovna Rada has adopted the law on amendments to some legislative acts concerning the decentralization of authority in state architectural and construction control and the improvement of urban planning legislation.
All in all, 306 deputies voted for law No. 1546.
The law transfers the implementation of state architectural and construction control from the central executive authority to local self-governance and executive authorities, and simplifies certain licensing and conciliation procedures in construction.
The central authorities which currently implement state policy on architectural and construction control will fulfill the functions until they are transferred to local authorities.
The law also improves the procedure of filing a declaration on the implementation of preparatory and construction work, shortens the term of issuing technical conditions in the relevant field, and increases legal responsibility.
KYIV. April 14 (Interfax) – The UN stands ready to provide $300 million in aid to Ukraine, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development Minister Hennadiy Zubko.
“The UN has made a preliminary announcement that it could make about $300 million in aid available to Ukraine,” the Regional Development Ministry’s press service quoted Zubko as saying.
Zubko also said that the Ukrainian leadership has drawn up a humanitarian plan for Ukraine, based on the current assessment of funding needed to rehabilitate Donbas, amounting to about $1.5 billion.
“It’s a very serious challenge: one million displaced persons and five million citizens in need of aid. No European country can cope with such a workload on its own today,” he said, adding that the plan has been drafted by the Regional Development Ministry in cooperation with the European Union, UN and World Bank.
Preparations are underway for an international conference on support for Ukraine, to which “many high-level foreign officials have been invited,” he said.
“Very much will depend on how well we will be prepared and what instruments we will propose for solving the problems. We hope many countries will start rallying around the problem facing Central Europe as a whole, not Ukraine alone,” Zubko said.
KYIV. April 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Health Ministry of Ukraine has initiated a new procedure on registering drugs and a separate procedure on drugs registered under the relaxed procedure, First Deputy Health Minister Oleksandra Pavlenko has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“In 2014, amendments to the law on drugs were passed and they introduced a relaxed procedure on registering drugs to treat tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cancer and orphan diseases which were registered in the country with the tough regulatory system. In addition, the law foresaw the limitless registration of drugs after their re-registration. The realization of the requirements [was] delayed, as resolution No. 376 that activates [this policy] was not passed for a long period of time. When we came to the Health Ministry, the resolution was not passed,” she said.
Pavlenko said that when the amendments were drawn up with representatives of pharmaceutical companies the Health Ministry realized that the revised procedure should be approved.
She said that the new procedure will foresee the submission of applications to register drugs directly with the state expert center of the Health Ministry.
Pavlenko said that the Health Ministry will present the draft procedure approved by representatives of pharmaceutical companies for those categories of drugs to which the relaxed procedure will apply.
“We’ve created a separate procedure for checking the materials,” she said.
She also said that the Health Ministry will present the regulations on relations between the Health Ministry and the state expert center when a decision of the Health Ministry on conducting clinical tests has been prepared.
Pavlenko added that the ministry has agreed a list of vitally important drugs covered by state procurement, utilizing budget funds, with international organizations, in particular, the WHO.
