The Czech Republic intends to open its consulate general in Dnipro, Czech President Petr Pavel said.
“We seek to strengthen our presence and deepen cooperation in Ukraine. To this end, we will delegate two persons who will work in Dnipro. We will open a consulate general there,” he said Friday at a joint press conference with the presidents of Ukraine and Slovakia in Kiev.
In particular, the work of the consulate will be connected with facilitation of projects of mutual cooperation of the Czech Republic in energy, economy, transport and housing in the reconstruction of Dnipropetrovsk region.
The timing of the opening was not reported.
Ukraine’s state budget on Friday received another tranche of $1.25 billion in grant funds from the United States.
“Funding was provided through the World Bank Trust Fund as part of the fourth additional funding for the Supporting Public Expenditures for Sustainable Governance in Ukraine (PEACE) Project,” the Finance Ministry pointed out.
He specified that Ukraine has already received about $16.7 billion in grants from the U.S. since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The partnership with the U.S. and the World Bank team during the war allows the Ukrainian government to fund priority social expenditures in full. At the same time, aid in the form of grants does not increase the debt burden and helps stabilize the financial system,” said Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.
As reported, the external financing needs of the state budget of Ukraine in 2023 is more than $ 42 billion.
Since the beginning of this year, by April 26, according to the Ministry of Finance, funding from international partners has already reached $15.285 billion, compared to $32.144 billion for the whole of last year. That includes $3.5 billion in grants from the U.S. this year. The EU, with $6.501 billion, the IMF, with $2.706 billion, and Canada, with $1.757 billion, have also already provided large loans.
Domestic financing from government bonds this year amounted to $4.839 billion.
Insurance company “VELTA” (Kiev) in January-March 2023 collected UAH 1,382 million of net premiums, which is 4.7 times less than during the same period a year earlier, according to an interim financial report of the company in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NKTSBFR).
The report says that gross premiums of the company in the first quarter decreased by 2.2 times – to 2,727 million UAH, premiums transferred in reinsurance – 2.5 times, to 1,064 million UAH.
The company paid out UAH 73 ths in three months of 2023 against UAH 2 ths in the same period of 2022.
Its administrative costs decreased by 15% to UAH 2.034 mln and sales costs decreased 3.3 times to UAH 429 th. in the first three months of the year.
Financial loss from operating activities amounted to UAH 868 th., net loss – UAH 1,902 mln.
IC “Vielta” was registered in 1995, specializing in risky types of insurance.
“AT Market” LLC (Kiev), specializing in bottling Carpathian highland water under Voda UA trademark, has invested $600 000 to expand its product line and launched production of a beverage made from the tea mushroom – kombucha.
“We built a factory in Irpen before the war. During occupation of Irpen the plant suffered, but it was quickly restored”, – said the owner and founder of the company Dmitry Nikiforov to the agency “Interfax-Ukraine”.
According to him, while making decision about investments the company was guided by the absence of real kombucha on Ukrainian market. “There are some surrogates and tea-based lemonades,” Nikiforov claims.
He noted that the company has decided to produce “the right product”, that is why the process is managed by a “super technologist” and everything is done technologically very right.
According to his information the plant may produce 2 tons of kombucha per day, which will be sold in 0.33 glass bottles under Kombucha uno trademark. It is planned to involve 800-850 HORECA outlets, as well as 5-6 retail chains. In May 2023 the producer plans to start producing flavored Kombucha with 5-6 different flavors.
Nikiforov indicated that he expects the popularity of kombucha to grow in Ukraine following the world as “a healthy alternative to various kvasses and lemonades.
In Ukraine, the market for this drink has been doubling annually since 2019. In the military year 2022, the market capacity was estimated at 120 million bottles. In 2023, consumption is expected to increase by 150%, the company expects.
Voda UA also produces waters under trademarks Goryanka and Karpatska dzherelna visokogirna.
According to opendatabot, the revenues of AT Market in 2022 decreased by 5.9% – to 26.78 million UAH, while net profit increased by 31% – to 0.58 million UAH.
The total number of medical personnel – doctors, nurses and paramedics in Ukraine in 2022 decreased by 14% compared to 2021, according to the results of research “Medicine during the war: the influence of a full-scale invasion of Russia on the health care system of Ukraine”, the Ukrainian Center for Healthcare (UCH).
According to them, the number of nursing staff decreased the most, which decreased by 16.5% compared to prewar levels.
“It is expected that the number of medical personnel decreased in regions where active hostilities are taking place or in the temporarily occupied territories of the Russian Federation,” the UCH press release said.
At the same time, it is noted that against the background of the reduction in the number of medical personnel in the frontline and de-occupied territories there was no noticeable influx of medical workers in the rear regions, except in Poltava region, where the number of doctors slightly increased.
“Such trends may indicate the scale of migration of medics abroad,” the UCH indicated.
At the same time, citing the Polish Ministry of Health’s response to UCH’s inquiry about the number of medics who received specialty work permits in Poland in 2022, the center cites data that as of late February 2023, just over 2,300 doctors and over 1,060 nurses and nurse aides were employed there, with nearly 1.8 million Ukrainian refugees registered in Poland, according to official figures.
“Since Poland has taken in the largest number of Ukrainians, it is expected that the flow of medics will match a similar scale. But less than 1% of the pre-war number of Ukrainian medics were employed in Poland,” the UCH states.
It is specified that the analysis was conducted using data from the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), which takes into account only those medics who worked in contracted with it medical institutions.
Large Ukrainian cable plant Odeskabel plans to produce and sell LAN-cables for UAH 570 mln, which is 45.8% more than in 2022, and keep output of fiber-optic cables (FOC) at last year’s level – not less than UAH 284 mln.
Such plans are outlined by the company in the financial report published in the information disclosure system of the Securities and Stock Market Commission (SSMSC).
“Priority areas for development and further investment remain fiber-optic, LAN cables and power wires,” the document says.
Power cables, wires and cords, including reinforced wires are planned to produce not less than UAH 860 million.
In addition, it is planned to output communication cables in the amount of 65,3 mln hryvnias, radio-frequency cables in the amount not less than 49 mln hryvnias, and heating cables in the amount of 40 mln hryvnias.
The company states that due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a decrease in production and sales was registered in 2022 for the main types of cable products, i.e. the share of fiber optic cables and LAN-cables decreased, but the share of power (energy) and other cables increased.
Commodity output of LAN-cable amounted to 46 thousand ukm 391 million UAH, which is 49.2% less than a year earlier, and the volume of sales decreased by 49.8%.
“LAN-cable was exported to 17 countries, and the share of its export was 46.8% of total sales of this type of product,” notes Odeskabel.
Fibre-optic cables were produced 279.9 thousand ukm for 283.4 million UAH, which is 23.7% less than in 2021, and the main markets were Ukraine, Slovakia and Moldova. A total of 149.8 million UAH worth of FOCs were exported.
“Due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the main types of cable products in 2022 marked a decline in production and sales, but despite this, an increase in production on four types of cable out of 22,” – noted in the document.
According to the report, net income of the company in 2022 decreased by 24.7% to 2021 – to UAH 1 billion 561 million, the loss made UAH 27.24 million against net profit of UAH 55.4 million.
The plant received UAH 326.74 mln in gross profit, which is 6.4% less than a year earlier, and operating profit was UAH 122.26 mln, which is 1.5% more.
In 2023, the company plans to export products worth at least UAH 590 mln, while in 2022 it exported products worth UAH 649.42 mln.
At the beginning of this year Odeskabel had concluded but not yet fulfilled contracts for 179.26 mln UAH.
According to the report, the most promising, popular in the domestic market and export-oriented types of cables are LAN-cables for structured cable systems and cables for computer networks, FOC, power cables of modern designs, sections and sets of heating.
“Fluctuations in demand for cable products depend on the activities of organizations for the construction of housing, industrial facilities and telecommunications networks. The most active sales periods are the second half of the first quarter, the second and third quarters,” the company notes.
The main consumers are telecom companies, private service providers of access to the Internet, cable TV and IPTV operators, enterprises of coal, mining and processing, power supply and intermediary companies.
By the beginning of this year, the company employed 858 people, 65 fewer than a year earlier.
