The Party “Democratic Bulgaria” (PP-DB) proposes to transfer to Ukraine about 100 armored personnel carriers from the warehouses of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, Euronews Bulgaria reports citing MP Ivaylo Mirchev.
“The APCs, produced in the 1960s and 1970s, were purchased by the then “Internal Troops” (today’s gendarmerie) but were not used and are no longer needed. Bulgaria pays a lot of money for storage and maintenance of this equipment,” the newspaper quoted the MP as saying.
According to him, the initiative involves Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov, Defense Minister Todor Tagarev, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense Hristo Gadjev, as well as the leader of the party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) Boyko Borisov.
It is noted that the draft decision of the National Assembly will be presented on Thursday and supported by the PP-DB, GERB and DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) parties.
Mirchev hopes that Bulgaria will still be able to take advantage of the promised US military aid in exchange for providing Ukraine with Soviet-era equipment.
In addition, he noted that the sale of nuclear equipment to Ukraine “is also a very favorable deal, because in this way we (Bulgaria – IF-U) will not only help the Ukrainians to complete their NPPs and return a significant part of our investments”.
Moldovan Railways has agreed to grant a discount of 27% to the existing tariffs for transit transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products through the territory of the Republic of Moldova in the direction of the ports of Reni, Giurgiulesti and Galati, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskiy, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova Volodymyr Bolia and the head of the Moldovan railroad agreed on the discount at an online meeting. The meeting was attended by representatives of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC.
According to the message, tariff conditions for transit cargoes will be calculated as a discount to the base tariffs if all forwarding organizations comply with transportation volumes.
For recalculation of the tariff it will be necessary to fulfill one of two conditions – to produce the established volume of cargo transportation for the month or to keep the average monthly volume of transported cargo for the last three months at a level that exceeds or corresponds to the established volume of cargo transportation for the month.
The new tariff conditions will take effect on July 15, 2023.
You can familiarize yourself with the size of the tariff coefficients here:
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted in the first reading draft law No. 7457 on regulating the circulation of cannabis plants for medical, scientific and industrial purposes.
The adoption of the document as a basis was supported by 268 people’s deputies at the plenary session on Thursday, said co-chair of the faction “European Solidarity” Irina Gerashchenko.
“The long-suffering bill on medical cannabis was adopted in the first reading. It was supported by 268 deputies, including part of the faction “EU” (“European Solidarity”). “I also voted in favor, although there are many questions to the bill, it needs to be finalized for the second reading,” she wrote in her Telegram channel.
The parliamentarian emphasized that such a law should help in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain reduction in cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.
“Unfortunately, this bill is not so much about medicine as it is about industrial cannabis cultivation and the government’s corrupt schemes regarding permits and the development of huge funding streams. Our faction will submit amendments, will finalize the bill for the second reading, so that the emphasis was exactly on medicine and pain relief, but not on industrial cultivation,” – specified the parliamentarian.
As noted in the explanatory note, the bill proposes to create regulatory conditions for the legal limited circulation of cannabis, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures of cannabis for the purposes defined by this document, in particular, for their use for medical, industrial purposes, scientific and scientific-technical activities, as well as its varieties in certain areas of activity.
The Government considers it necessary to regulate the issues related to the organization of activities at each stage of such circulation of cannabis, including operations on import, export, transportation on the territory of Ukraine, storage and sale of cannabis, to contribute to the improvement of the level and quality of medical care of the population by ensuring the realization of the right to health care with the use of more effective medicines and methods of treatment, in particular in the field of palliative care, which, among other things, are based on symptomatic treatment.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted the draft law No. 7457 to the Verkhovna Rada in June 2022. The profile committee of the Parliament on the health of the nation recommended to accept it as a basis. Later, in September, the head of the committee, Mykhailo Radutskyy (Servant of the People faction), said that there would probably not be enough votes in the Rada to support the bill on medical cannabis.
Ukraine will have to attract an additional 4.5 million employees to the labor market over the next ten years to make a post-war recovery, the Economy Ministry predicted on Thursday following a seminar with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
“Labor market recovery is not a consequence of victory, it is a path to victory,” the ministry quoted Deputy Economy Minister Tatyana Berezhnaya as saying.
It is pointed out that even before the full-scale invasion Ukraine was facing a labor shortage, but now that more than 6 million Ukrainians have been forced to go abroad, the labor situation in the country has become even more critical.
It is noted that the IOM and ILO plan to continue to support the Ministry of Economy in paving the way for labor market recovery to achieve key priorities.
“We look forward to working closely together to help the state on its road to recovery and shape a more promising future for Ukraine and its people. Economic recovery is paramount to this process,” said IOM Representative Office Chairman Anh Nguyen at the seminar.
The event was attended by 40 participants from the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, State Employment Service and State Migration Service, Office of the President, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ministry of Culture and State Border Service, as well as IOM, ILO and NGOs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its July outlook released improved its forecast for Ukraine’s corn crop in the early 2023/24 marketing year (MY) to 25 million tons from 24.5 million tons in the June release, and its export forecast to 19.5 million tons from 19 million tons.
Meanwhile, the overall forecast for feed grain exports in this MY is lowered to 21.33 million tons from 21.53 million tons due to a reduction in the crop estimate to 31.47 million tons from 31.67 million tons.
For wheat, the forecast is kept the same: harvest – 17.5 million tons, exports – 10.5 million tons.
In the update, USDA estimated last MY 2022/23 wheat crop at 21.5 million tons vs. 33.01 million tons a year earlier and exports at 16.8 million tons vs. 18.84 million tons, respectively, with transitional residues reduced from 5.27 million tons to 1.63 million tons.
According to the USDA, the feed grain harvest fell to 33.93 million tons last year from 53.51 million tons in MY 2021/22, while exports fell to just 30.75 million tons from 32.93 million tons due to a reduction in transitional residues from 8.67 million tons to 2.16 million tons.
Including corn harvest in the past MY decreased to 27 million tons from 42.13 million tons a year earlier, while exports increased to 28 million tons from 26.98 million tons, including due to a reduction in transitional residues from 7.59 million tons to 1.39 million tons.
Bali authorities have decided to levy a tourist tax on foreigners from 2024, with the funds to be used to preserve cultural heritage, The Jakarta Post reported.
“Bali attracts millions of foreign visitors every year, and the island is trying to capitalize on its popularity to replenish the treasury and protect cultural heritage. From 2024, foreign tourists traveling to Bali from abroad or other parts of Indonesia will be charged a one-time tax of $10,” the Post writes.
As the newspaper notes, payment of the tax will be made through an electronic payment, which will have to be made before arrival on the island.
Bali Governor Wayan Koster believes that the new levy will not lead to a decrease in tourist traffic.
“I don’t think the numbers will be lower. We plan to use the revenue from the tourist tax to preserve the environment and culture, build better infrastructure to make traveling to Bali more comfortable and safe,” he explained.
In 2022, more than 2 million foreign tourists visited Bali, but since the beginning of 2023, the island has seen an increase in violations of cultural norms and migration laws by foreign tourists, so the authorities no longer want to develop mass tourism.
