The Ministry of Reconstruction hosted the first meeting of the architectural and construction (attestation) commission, the ministry’s press service said.
“The urban planning reform the Ministry of Reconstruction is working on requires quality personnel at all levels, including at the level of architects, design engineers, technical supervision engineers and experts. Quality expertise and professionalism will help to avoid many mistakes at the stage of implementation of urban planning rules and building regulations. We look forward to cooperation of the community of architects, because the quality of life of millions of Ukrainians depends on our work together”, – the press service of the Ministry quotes Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Natalia Kozlovska, who headed the Commission.
According to the press release, attestation of architects will be held at three universities: the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, the Kharkiv National University of Municipal Economy named after O.M. Beketov and the Lviv Polytechnic National University, – the corresponding memorandums on cooperation were signed at the commission session.
It is expected that about 200 people will apply for the qualification certificate of architect. Nowadays in Ukraine there are about 4 thousand certified architects, 85% of them specialize on architectural volumetric planning and the rest 15% – on working out of town-planning documentation. All architects are obliged to improve their qualification every 5 years. In November 2022 the Ministry of Regional Development approved curriculums for raising the qualification of architects, besides the three above mentioned universities, also for the Pridneprovsky State Academy of Construction and Architecture.
In addition, the commission approved the procedure for examinations, which provides that architects will be able to take them both in written form and in digital form, using the software of universities. As expected, the new order is aimed at removing the human factor influence on the final result and reducing corruption risks during certification to zero.
“Now the Ministry is working on the possibility of taking exams online in the Unified State Electronic System in the field of construction (USESB). The system will independently verify the correctness of the answers, generate a qualification certificate of the architect and enter the relevant data into the register of certified persons EGESB. By completely eliminating the human factor, we will be able to reduce to zero any corruption risks in the attestation of architects,” commented Kozlovskaya.
Thus, after a year the attestation of architects has been restored. Until then, it was carried out by the National Union of Architects of Ukraine (NUAU).
As reported, earlier order of the Ministry of Regional Development № 71 from May 12, 2022 extended the delegated authority for the period of military operations to three of the four self-regulatory organizations: Association of Construction Industry Experts, Guild of Designers in Construction, Guild of Engineers of Technical Supervision of Architecture Construction. At the same time, the NSAU, which had previously certified architects, was absent from the order. This collision created difficulties in the work of the ESPSB: architects, whose qualification confirmation deadline had expired, could not upload their projects into the unified system or make changes.
As explained to Interfax-Ukraine by the press service of the Ministry of Restoration, the NSAU is currently unable to certify architects.
Rafael Goroyan, the owner and the head of the Prometey Group of Companies, a big Ukrainian grain trader, positively evaluated the initiative of the President of Ukraine to impose sanctions against Iran for 50 years.
The resolution, which was voted for yesterday by people’s deputies, envisages, in particular, a complete ban on trade operations.
“I welcome this decision of the state authorities of Ukraine. Today our country is one of the main suppliers of agricultural products to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I believe that the ban on trade will significantly affect the food security of Iran, the government of the country is likely to face starvation among the population.
The Islamic Republic will be left with one supplier of grain – the Russian Federation, on which it will be completely dependent. This means that the supplier will be able to dictate prices, which will certainly hit Iran’s economy,” Rafael Goroyan is sure.
Oil prices continue to decline Tuesday afternoon on concerns over the U.S. government debt ceiling.
Brent crude futures for July on London’s ICE Futures exchange stood at $76 a barrel by 1:44 p.m. Tuesday, down $1.07 (1.39%) from the previous session’s close.
The price of WTI crude futures for July on the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) was down by that time by $0.84 (1.16%), to $71.83 a barrel.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the debt ceiling agreement before it goes to the Senate.
Active opponents of the agreement in both houses of parliament could slow its passage, The Wall Street Journal noted. Some conservative lawmakers have already said they would not support the deal because it does not sufficiently limit budget spending, while progressive Democrats believe the spending cuts are excessive.
“This uncertainty is keeping oil prices up,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Suzanne Streeter, whose words are cited by Barron’s.
In addition, traders expect another OPEC meeting on Sunday.
The organization will not take any further steps until it sees the effect of lower production quotas, according to ANZ.
PJSC Vetropack Gostomelsk Glass Works (Kyiv Region) has resumed operations, having started warming up and bringing it to operating temperature, as well as loading the first glass furnace; the first glass is expected to be produced in June, the plant’s press service said.
“The domestic market is slowly resuming, and many companies have restarted production. We expect demand for food and beverage glass containers to increase by about 7% in 2023 compared to the previous year, in parallel with the development of our production facilities,” said Pavel Prinko, general director of Vetropack in Ukraine and Moldova.
According to the company, Vetropack will start with the production of colorless glass for food and beverages, as the company now sees the greatest demand for it. The second glass furnace will be commissioned in the near future.
Protection of employees will be a priority in the resumption of operations. In addition, the production site is prepared for all possible emergency scenarios. Vetropack Holding has developed various engineering scenarios to ensure power supply during a power outage. The power distribution system has been rebuilt and additional generators have been installed. There are also appropriate plans in place for possible natural gas outages, the company’s press office said.
The company reminded that before the war Vetropack in Ukraine produced different types of glass containers on three furnaces and eight production lines. On February 24, 2022 the production was stopped for security reasons. One of the three furnaces at the plant was destroyed due to military action. The losses forced the company to cut about two-thirds of its roughly 600 jobs at the plant. Vetropack has now hired 139 new employees to restart production from among its former employees.
In the summer of 2022, Vetropack created a fund to support employees who were seriously injured or whose homes or apartments were destroyed. Money was donated by employees of other businesses, business partners and customers, and CHF960,000 was raised in a few months. In early 2023, the Gostomel Holding Vetropack fund began its first payments. In April 2023, Vetropack supported more than 50 affected colleagues.
Vetropack Gostomel Glassworks PJSC since 2006 is a part of European Vetropack Group, a large producer of glass containers with production plants in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovakia. Produces containers for domestic producers of food and beverages – more than 600 million pieces per year.
The main market for manufactured containers is Ukraine, the main customers – Sun InBev Ukraine, Carlsberg Ukraine, Coca-Cola, Obolon PJSC, Radomyshl Brewery, Persha Privatna Brovarnya LLC, KIM Ltd.
“Vetropack Gostomel Glass Plant,” according to opendatabot.ua, in 2022, reduced its assets by 1.6 times to 1.52 billion UAH. The losses of the company reached 903.66 million UAH, compared with 140.88 million UAH of profit in 2021. Income of the company in 2022 decreased 3.9 times to UAH 621.52 mln.
Vetropack Group (Switzerland) currently has about 3 thousand employees in seven countries, produces about 4.5 billion pieces of glass containers annually.
Ministry of Economy suggests raising minimum wage from 2024 to UAH 7651 a month from the current UAH 6,700, according to Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FTU) at May 25 meeting of joint working commission of trade unions, employers and government on fixing minimum wage.
With reference to the Deputy Minister of Economy Tatiana Berezhnaya said that the Ministry of Economy has already sent a proposal to the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, the agency is in favor of increasing the official salary of the employee I wage rate level UTS, frozen since December 1, 2021 at the level of UAH 2893 to UAH 3443.
At the same time, it is pointed out that, according to the Ministry of Social Policy, the actual size of the cost of living for able-bodied persons in prices of April 2023 was 7782 UAH per month.
According to Berezhnaya, the Ministry of Economy is also in the process of revising preliminary indicators of macro forecast for the next budget period, which the Finance Ministry expects by June 19, 2023, as part of the preparation of the state budget 2024.
The deputy head of the FPU Vasyl Andreev and the head of the department of budget and remuneration of labor apparatus of the FPU Svetlana Makonyuk said that trade unions offer to set the minimum wage in 2024 at 9435 UAH – not lower than the actual size of the cost of living for employable persons in light of the forecast consumer price index 2023.
They also recalled that the EU recommends setting the minimum wage at 50% of the average wage
In turn, representative of the employers Sergei Bilenky noted that they expect to increase the minimum wage by 10-15% of the current level in 2024.
As reported, since October 1, 2022 the minimum wage in Ukraine increased by 200 UAH – up to 6700 UAH.
Stalkanat PJSC (Odessa) received net profit amounting to UAH 3 billion 227.799 million following the results of its work in 2022, while in 2021 it was not, because the enterprise was in the process of creation due to its separation from Stalkanat-Silur PJSC.
According to the company’s annual report, in 2022, Stalkanat received a net profit of 325.073 million UAH, while in 2021 it finished with a net loss of 309 thousand UAH.
The average number of employees of the company in 2022 – 916 people, in 2021 – 16 people.
According to the report, owners of the shares in 2022 were paid dividends amounting to 197.185 million UAH.
The auditors note that since the company was registered on December 6, 2021, the data for 2021 are not comparable for 2022.
As it was reported, in January-March of this year, Stalkanat increased its net profit by 2.2 times compared to the same period last year – up to UAH 77.304 million, net income for this period decreased by 3.2% – to UAH 701.047 million. Undistributed profit as of March 31, 2023 constituted UAH 234,019 mln.
The general meeting of shareholders, which took place on September 3, 2021, decided to separate PJSC Stalkanat-Silur and create a new company – Stalkanat with the transfer of its property, rights and obligations according to the approved distribution balance sheet. Assets of PrJSC Stalkanat were based on the distribution balance sheet and act of acceptance dated December 31, 2021.
PJSC “PA “Stalkanat-Silur” (Odessa) previously had two branches – in Odessa and Khartsyzsk, Donetsk region on NKT. On December 1, 2016, the company’s management officially notified about the shutdown of the company’s branch in Khartsyzsk – a relevant announcement was published in the Uryadovy Kurier newspaper. Later, the management of PAO Stalkanat-Silur PJSC stated about the seizure of the company’s branch in Khartsyzsk on NKT, sent a corresponding statement to the National Police.
According to the company, as of the end of 2022, David Nemirovskyy (Ukraine) has 50.0001% in PJSC Stalkanat, Anton Mikhalenko – 23.7%, Adery Liron (both in Israel) – 23.1% and Vitaliy Dubovych (Ukraine) – 3.1999%.
The registered capital of Stalkanat PJSC is UAH 17.736 mln, and the par value of one share is UAH 0.17.
