The cost of square meter of housing in new buildings in Ukraine in January-June 2021 grew by 10-20% depending on the readiness of the facility and the region, Director General of the Financial and Investment Management Association (FIMA) Viktoria Volkovska has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have analyzed dozens of housing facilities throughout Ukraine that work with construction financing funds. The overwhelming majority indicate an increase in the cost of square meter. At the same time, we have a situation where the cost of housing is growing faster than the price,” she said.
According to a survey conducted by FIMA, 76.9% of respondents reported an increase in the cost of square meter by 10-20%, and 7.7% told about an increase of more than 20%. Only 15.4% of respondents said that the cost of housing has not changed significantly.
In addition, only 10% of respondents reported a decrease in the volume of construction work, while 40% reported an increase of more than 20%, 10% – a 20% increase, and 20% – a 10% increase.
The FIMA study is based on an online survey of construction finance fund managers conducted following the results of the first half of 2021.
The Financial and Investment Management Association (FIMA) was established in May 2020 in connection with the entry into force of the law on amendments to certain legislative acts concerning improving the functions of public administration of financial services markets. It unites 41 financial companies that manage FFS funds in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv.
Decentralization in Ukraine is far from completion, considers the local government expert, director of the Practical Policy Program of the Institute of Political Education, Alexander Solontay.
“Today we are far from having a decentralized country, we have done only the first basic steps, but we are moving towards this”, – Solontay claimed in comments on features and problems of the decentralization process in Ukraine
on the Youtube channel “Club of Experts“.
In the expert’s opinion, now has arisen a situation in which the implemented reforms had led to greater autonomy of urban and rural communities. At the national level, however, politicians are chosen by a paternalistic population. These policies support communities’ autonomy on the one hand and, on the other, want the Centre to continue to provide guidance locally.
“From above, the mechanisms for interaction with autonomous communities have not yet been worked out. The politicians act in the old way – to pass laws, to direct an order, to allocate funds, and so on. It’s vertical management. How to manage in a new system, where the bottom is independent and the top has limited possibilities, authorities have not yet learned», – says the expert.
Solontay noted that in our environment, where the shadow economy and corruption have not been overcome, the law enforcement agencies are under-reformed and the local power is increasingly independent, a systemic crisis has arisen in interaction of Center and regions.
«Whatever situation would appear in the country, we are always condemned to conflict between authorities and local self-government», – the expert summarized.
DECENTRALIZATION, EXPERT, EXPERTSCLUB, POLITICS, SELF-GOVERNMENT, SOLONTAY
According to political scientist Daniil Bogatyriov, in recent weeks, international relations are characterized by an escalation in confrontation between various centers of power.
According to the expert in international affairs, the beginning of not one, but two cold wars is characteristic of the current geopolitical situation in the world: between Russia and the United States in Eastern Europe and between China and the United States in Southeast Asia.
“For example, a recent meeting of the representatives of the U.S. Department State and the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Alaska only exacerbated contradictions between the countries. At the end of the meeting, unambiguous confrontational statements were made. The American side expressed to the Chinese one claims about the violation of human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the increasing pressure in Taiwan. The Chinese, in turn, pointed to the facts of human rights violations in the United States during the suppression of the BLM protest movement,” Bogatyriov said.
According to the political scientist, a similar level of confrontation has also been achieved between the United States and the Russian Federation.
“Today we see attempts to eliminate internal opposition in Russia and Belarus. Thus, the Russian authorities have launched a process to recognize the structure of Alexei Navalny (the Anti-Corruption Foundation) an extremist organization. It is no coincidence that the so-called conspiracy of the opposition intelligentsia has been uncovered in Belarus just now,” the expert said.
He noted that all these processes in the future may lead to the formation of the phenomenon of “large spaces” in various regions of the world, which will in fact be zones of direct influence of one or another large state.
“We are entering the world of “large spaces,” the world of zones of influence, where a cold war will flare up between them and in the future serious restrictions on the movement of citizens and any other cross-border activities are not ruled out. Such things will be possible only within the framework of their large space, that is, this will lead to the lowering of the very real “iron curtain,” as it was in the last cold war,” Bogatyriov summed up.
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The introduction of vaccination passports, which would be mandatory for international travel, is not a close prospect, head of the National Technical Group of Experts on Immunoprophylaxis, Associate Professor of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fedir Lapiy said.
“Most likely, vaccination passports will not be introduced in the first half of 2021. This issue is only being discussed at the level of Europe, the United States and other countries, because apart from Israel and the Emirates, very few people are covered by widespread vaccination. Speaking about the United States, Germany, Great Britain and other countries, many people have not been vaccinated yet, so these are only discussions for now. This is not a very close prospect in fact,” he said during the online event entitled “Vaccination brings us closer,” dedicated to the current situation on vaccination in Ukraine, held with the support of the GSK Ukraine company on Tuesday.
Lapiy predicts that a decision at the level of individual states or at the global level regarding the so-called vaccination passports will not be made in the first half of 2021.
At the same time, he noted that at present in Ukraine, everyone who is currently being vaccinated against COVID-19 is entered into the electronic database.
“Ukraine is negotiating on the recognition of these electronic databases,” he said.
In turn, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Services and Medicines of the National Health Service of Ukraine Hanna Fenchak, noted that the National Health Service of Ukraine is currently studying the possibility of combining information on vaccination from the e-health system with international databases.
“We are studying WHO’s requirements for the information that is downloaded from our unified e-health database to be accepted in other countries of the world,” she said.
The competition for the election of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) may begin in December this year, and taking into account the possible lockdown, it will be completed by spring 2021, Acting Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Maksym Hryschuk has said.
In an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Hryschuk said that the competition committee had already held a number of meetings. “When they decide on the regulations, they will announce the start of the competition. Perhaps it will be in December,” he said.
Answering the question on whether he will take part in the competition, Hryschuk said: “I still want to keep an intrigue. The competition has not yet been officially announced, so it is unethical to talk about participation in it.”
Speaking about when we can expect a new head of the SAPO, elected at the competition, he said that it takes time to submit documents and conduct three stages of the competition, and the situation with the epidemic should also be taken into account.
“I think it will be around January-February. And if a lockdown is introduced now, it may still drag on,” he said.
The full text of the interview will be published on the Interfax-Ukraine website in the public domain.
It’s no secret that the food industry both in the world and in Ukraine can no longer do without chemical additives. Dyes, preservatives are used by manufacturers of confectionery products, dairy products, drinks, sausages and much more.
The Club of Experts project and Doctor of Biological Sciences Sviatoslav Morozov analyzed all food additives and made a rating of the top ten most harmful food additives.
The expert notes that in the 21st century many products cannot be produced without special additives due to the technical nuances of their production. Most of the additives are intended to extend the shelf life of food for transporting these products both across the country and around the world.
The Club of Experts and Sviatoslav Morozov defined ten main additives in products among those undesirable for frequent use: E211, E122, E124, E110, E952, E131, E105, E107, E222, E126. A conscientious manufacturer, according to the law, must indicate the full composition of the product on the packaging, therefore, when buying a food product, one should pay attention not only to the expiration date, but also to what this product is made of.
How harmful E additives are, what can be the consequences for health, which human organs they can affect and how to minimize such an effect on the human body, watch the new issue of the Club of Experts project on the YouTube channel
CLUB OF EXPERTS, DIET, E ADDITIVES, EXPERT, HARMFUL ADDITIVES, SUPPLEMENTS
