South Korean President Yoon Seok-yol has arrived in Ukraine on an unannounced visit, South Korea’s Ryonhap news agency reported.
“Yoon and first lady Kim Kyung-hee arrived in Ukraine from Poland,” the agency quoted the president’s senior press secretary Kim Eun-hye as saying Saturday.
Yoon reportedly visited the site of mass killings in Bucha near Kiev and then visited Irpin.
According to the news agency, the South Korean president “plans to lay a wreath at a war memorial before holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.”
The visit comes at the end of a two-stage trip of the South Korean president, during which he visited Lithuania at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit and then Poland on an official visit.
The government of the Republic of Korea plans to support the public and private sectors in the implementation of Ukraine’s reconstruction projects worth $52 billion, The Korea Herald reported, citing South Korean Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok.
“In May, through the channel of intergovernmental cooperation, Ukraine asked Korean companies to participate in about 5,000 construction projects estimated at $20 billion,” The Korea Herald quoted the secretary as saying on Friday.
He said the Korean government will begin evaluating construction sites where modular units will be built to quickly build infrastructure such as schools, housing and hospitals. The sites will be inspected with official development assistance funds.
In addition, the Republic of Korea plans to provide technical assistance for the rehabilitation of water infrastructure, and to supplement the humanitarian aid offered for the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which was undermined by Russian occupiers.
The secretary also added that support will also be provided for the private sector-led reconstruction project, which is currently estimated to cost about $32 billion.
“The project covers various sectors, including: nuclear power plants with small modular reactors, airport reconstruction, construction equipment, rail transportation and information technology,” the statement said.
“Although the war continues and the reconstruction work is in its early stages, we will prepare for our role in the reconstruction project as diligently as the Ukrainian government wishes,” Choi Sang Mok emphasized.
Population structure of Ukraine as of 06.06.2023 (estimated data)
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The Screen Actors, Television and Radio Artists Union (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike Friday, following screenwriters after negotiations for a new contract with studios and streaming services collapsed.
Hollywood’s two major unions are striking at the same time for the first time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild, MarketWatch notes.
SAG-AFTRA, whose members include 160,000 movie actors, journalists, announcers, presenters and stuntmen, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents employers including Disney, Netflix and Amazon, failed to reach an agreement after the previous three-year contract expired.
During negotiations, the Screen Actors Guild demanded a number of issues be addressed, including low wages, the need to shoot video auditions at their own expense and the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.
The AMPTP said it offered the Guild a favorable agreement that included the largest minimum wage increase in 35 years, an increase in pension and health contribution limits, and an “innovative solution” to artificial intelligence that would protect actors’ rights to use their digital image.
“Unfortunately, the union has chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for thousands upon thousands of people involved in the film industry,” the alliance said in a statement.
According to the rules of SAG-AFTRA, during the strike actors can not participate in film production, including shooting, auditions, rehearsals and voice-overs, as well as attend premieres and in any way promote projects with their participation. The current bans call into question the actors’ appearance at the 75th ceremony of the prestigious Emmy Awards, which will be held in September.
Earlier, the writers’ strike halted work on the show “Saturday Night Live” as well as several TV series, including “Very Strange Things,” “Sly and Family Guy.” The number of paused TV shows and movie projects is expected to increase following the breakdown in negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP.
Agricultural Corporation Krupets (Rivne region), which owns one of the largest farms for the production and sale of chicken eggs in the western region of the country, is completing the construction of a poultry farm, where it will grow 400 thousand laying hens with the prospect of further export of products to the EU.
The head of Rivne Regional Military Administration (OVA) Vitaliy Koval emphasized that by investing in new projects and supporting the “economic front”, the agro-corporation gives a very important message to all those involved in business – not to stop despite the challenges of wartime.
The report on the OBA website specifies that the construction site of more than 6 hectares is located on the site of a former abandoned farm in the village of Sytnoye, Dubensky district. The works are performed by the local construction company “Renome-Eurobud”. The launch of the enterprise is scheduled for November 2023. The poultry farm is planned to be certified according to European standards for further export of products to the EU.
More than 20 high-paying jobs will be created at the poultry farm. It is expected that it will annually transfer about UAH 3 mln of taxes to the local Krupets community.
Agrocorporation “Krupets” operates with a land bank of 7 thousand hectares, specializing in growing crops, production of chicken eggs, broiler meat, mixed fodder, drying and storage of grain.
The structure of the agricultural corporation includes elevator and drying complexes for simultaneous storage of 60 thousand tons of grain, feed and oil extraction plants, soybean processing line, four poultry complexes.
The enterprises of Krupets agro-corporation (Poultry Farm Krupets, Krupets Feed Mill) are one of the largest farms for production and realization of edible chicken eggs in the Western region of Ukraine.
The negative balance of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-May 2023 increased nine times compared to the same period of 2022 – to $8.975 billion from $1.004 billion, the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) said on Friday. According to its data, exports of goods from Ukraine for the period compared to January-May 2022 decreased by 15.6% to $16.448 billion, while imports increased by 24.1% to $25.423 billion.
The State Statistics Committee specified that in May-2023 compared to April-2023, seasonally adjusted exports decreased by 0.8% to $3.221 billion, while imports increased by 2.8% to $5.488 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in May-2023 was negative at $2.267 billion, while it was also negative at $2.093 billion in the previous month.
The export-import coverage ratio in January-May 2023 amounted to 0.65 (0.95 in January-May 2022).
The State Statistics Service specified that foreign trade operations were conducted with partners from 223 countries.
