The state-owned enterprise Forests of Ukraine has shipped the first batch of round timber under a contract with the Ministry of Defense, the company’s press service reported on its telegram channel.
According to the report, 11,021 thousand cubic meters of pine have already been shipped from the branches of Polissia, Stolychne, Slobozhanskyi, Northern and Central forest offices to the frontline regions for the construction of engineering and military facilities. The final destinations will be Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
It is explained that the timber is intended for five military units of the Engineer Troops engaged in the construction of fortifications of the first line of defense – dugouts, fireworks, trenches. The delivery price includes the cost of removal from the intermediate warehouse, loading into railcars and delivery by rail. To reduce costs, the railcars are lined with boards to increase their capacity.
As reported, in September 2024, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” signed an agreement with the Ministry of Defense for the supply of almost 65 thousand cubic meters of round timber. In total, this year, 10 contracts have been concluded with military units for the supply of 97 thousand cubic meters of wood, most of which have been completed by 95%.
“This year, we have supplied 185.2 thousand cubic meters of wood worth UAH 335.5 million, which is almost twice as much as last year. We close all applications by 100%, because we understand the importance and significance of wood for the construction of fortifications,” summarized the Forests of Ukraine.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of raw wood at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project for the procurement of timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
Insured losses from natural disasters for 9 months of 2024 exceeded the average and amounted to USD 102 billion, which is higher than last year’s USD 88 billion and the average of USD 79 billion.
This is reported in the report of the global brokerage group Aon “Global Catastrophe Review for the third quarter – October 2024” published on its website.
It is noted that the consequences of Hurricane Milton and other events expected by the end of the year may lead to annual insured losses exceeding USD 125 billion recorded in 2023.
According to the report, since the beginning of 2024, at least 280 major natural disasters have occurred around the world, resulting in economic losses of at least USD 258 billion, which is approximately 27% lower than the figure for the nine-month period of 2023 of USD 351 billion, and below the average of USD 277 billion.
Aon notes that between the first and third quarters, insured losses from major risks were relatively low, and no event demonstrated the potential to significantly impact the broader reinsurance market.
In fact, USD 59 billion, or 58% of insured losses for the period, were caused by severe convective storms (SCS), and USD 21 billion, or 21%, by tropical cyclones.
According to Aon, in the third quarter, losses were caused by three costly hurricanes, SCC events in the United States and Canada, and floods in Central Europe.
In addition, Canada is experiencing its largest year of insurance losses on record, with most of the impact coming from four events that occurred within a single month in the third quarter, and expected payouts will exceed $5.9 billion.
According to Aon, in other parts of the world, Typhoon Yagi, the deadliest event of the year and the most expensive event on record in Vietnam, was the third most damaging event in the period under review.
According to Aon, by the end of the third quarter of 2024, natural disasters had killed about 13 thousand people, the lowest number since 1986.
2022-2024 goods trade balance forecast (USD billion)
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During the Week of International Cooperation Initiatives, which took place on October 17-25 in Tashkent, Anthony Bringazen, Vice President for Central Asia of the Saudi company ACWA Power, said that the company is implementing large-scale projects in Uzbekistan worth about $15 billion.
This fund has been allocated for 15 projects. Most of the projects are related to wind energy. In particular, 87% of the investment will be directed to green energy projects, and the rest to the production of green hydrogen. All 15 projects are planned to be commissioned by 2030.
Anthony Bringaisen noted that after Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan accounts for the largest volume of the company’s investments.
It is noted that the $1.1 billion TPP project in the Syr Darya will provide electricity to more than 3 million households and hundreds of industrial enterprises. The first phase of the green hydrogen project will produce 3 thousand tons of hydrogen. Next, the focus will be on mineral fertilizer processing and the construction of a 52 megawatt wind farm.
As of October 22, farmers in all regions of Ukraine planted 5.7 million hectares of winter crops, up from 5.4 million hectares last week, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, winter crops are being sown in all regions. In total, they have already sown almost 4.7 million hectares, which is 90% of the forecast. In particular, winter wheat has been sown on 4.1 million hectares (3.8 million hectares a week earlier), which is 92% of the projected area under the crop, barley – on 486.1 thousand hectares (421.3 thousand hectares) and 76%, rye – on 66 thousand hectares (62.5 thousand hectares) and 94%, rapeseed – on 1.05 million hectares (1.048 million hectares) and 94%.
Agrarians in Volyn, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil and Chernihiv regions have completed sowing winter crops. Farmers in 12 regions have completed sowing winter rape.
According to the Ministry, the leaders in terms of sowing of winter grain crops are farmers of Mykolaiv – 503.1 thou hectares (100.5%), Zaporizhzhia – 100.8 thou hectares (99.9%) and Khmelnytskyi – 238.8 thou hectares (99.5%) regions.
As of the same date a year earlier, Ukraine planted 5.4 mln ha with winter crops, 3.733 mln ha with wheat, 403 thou ha with barley, 76 thou ha with rye and 1.142 mln ha with rapeseed.
The U.S. Treasury Department has published rules on its website designed to limit U.S. investment in technologies that could be used in the military of China and some other countries.
“Countries of concern are using U.S. investments in ways that could lead to accelerated development of sensitive technologies and products that undermine our national security interests,” the White House said in a statement on the publication of the rules.
The rules prohibit U.S. citizens from investing in technologies that could threaten America’s national security and require notifying the Treasury Department of a number of related transactions.
The White House noted that “the administration is committed to ensuring America’s security by preventing the People’s Republic of China from developing key technologies that are critical to modernizing its military.”
The rules mention semiconductors, microelectronics, quantum information technology, and artificial intelligence because these technologies could form the basis for new products in the military.
“U.S. investments, including intangible benefits such as management assistance and access to the investment and human resources networks that often accompany capital flows, should not be used to help interested countries develop their military, intelligence, and cyber capabilities,” said Assistant Treasury Secretary for Investment Security Paul Rosen, quoted by the Treasury Department.
China's technology, U.S. investments, U.S. Treasury Department
