A bill which legalizes gambling in Ukraine was approved by the national government on September 29, according to a statement posted on the government’s website.
According to the bill, “gambling will be allowed exclusively on hotel premises through use of gambling equipment and software that comply with international standards.”
Seeking “de-criminalization of the economy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked the government and the parliamentary majority with elaborating and adopting before December 1, 2019, laws legitimizing the gambling industry and amber production.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed 36 deputy ministers and first deputy ministers from 12 ministries. In particular, Olha Trofimtseva, Viktor Sheremeta, Volodymyr Topchiy and Olena Kovalova were dismissed from the posts of deputy minister of agricultural policy and food.
Mykola Movchan, Yaroslav Voitovych, Mykola Danevych were dismissed from the posts of deputy ministers of sports, and Ihor Hotsul from the post of first deputy minister.
Yuriy Rybachuk and Tamara Mazur lost the posts of deputy ministers of culture.
Dmytro Zolotukhin was dismissed from the post of deputy minister of information policy, and Emine Dzhaparova was dismissed from the post of first deputy minister.
Roman Hreba and Maksym Strikha lost the positions of deputy ministers of education and science.
Ihor Pavlovsky was dismissed from the post of deputy minister of defense.
Svitlana Hlushchenko, Iryna Sadovska, Serhiy Petukhov, Ivanna Smachylo, Ivan Lishchyna, Denys Chernyshov were dismissed from the posts of deputy minister of justice, and Olena Sukmanova was removed from the post of first deputy minister.
Deputy ministers of health Pavlo Kovtonyuk and Oleksandr Linsky, as well as first deputy minister Ulana Suprun, were also dismissed.
Mykhailo Tytarchuk and Yuriy Brovchenko were dismissed from the posts of deputy minister of economic development and trade.
Lev Partskhaladze and Taras Tokarsky lost the positions of deputy ministers of regional development, construction, housing and utilities economy.
Hryhoriy Galagan was dismissed from the post of first deputy minister of veterans.
Deputy ministers for occupied territories and internally displaced persons Viktoria Voronina, Yuriy Hrymchak and Heorhiy Tuka also lost their posts. First deputy minister Yusuf Kurkchi was also fired.
Oleksandr Churkin was dismissed from the post of deputy minister of social policy.
Ukrainian manufacturers of agricultural machinery has said it is necessary to reduce the local contents of domestic complex agricultural machinery set for 2019-2021 that should be observed for receiving a partial compensation for the cost of machinery and equipment.
UkrAgroMash Association of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers addressed to First Deputy Premier of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv with the respective request, the text of which was made available by the National Committee on Industrial Development on Facebook.
“Under present intense competition with the companies from other countries, which can afford cheap loans and enjoy various incentives and financial support of their countries…it becomes more difficult for the Ukrainian producers to uphold their position in the market and increase the local content with having no such kind of support,” reads the report.
The association says current year business realities make it impossible for the manufacturers of the complex self-propelled machinery to gain local contents, which have been set in 2013, for 2019/2020.
Thus, it is proposed to set local contents for self-propelled combine harvesters on the level of 40% in 2019, on the level of 45% in 2020, and on the level of 50% in 2021 (now these indicators are 55% and 60% respectively in 2019 and 2020), to set 45% and 50% contents for tractors for 2019 and 2020 (previously 55% and 60%), and 55% for 2021.
Besides, the manufacturers propose to fix local contents for special-purpose agricultural machines this and next years on the level of 50% and 55% (previously 55% and 60%), and 60% for 2021, local contents for self-propelled spraying machines on the level of 40% and 45% (55% and 60%) and introduce 50% for 2021.
The farm producers also ask to introduce spraying trailer machines into the list setting 45% of local content for 2019, 50% in 2020 and 55% in 2021.
As reported, the program of financial support for agricultural producers (subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery, equipment, railway cars) is about UAH 881.8 million. Of these, partial compensation for the cost of agricultural machinery and equipment made in Ukraine is UAH 681.79 million, special vehicles for the transportation of grain, equipment for the production of bioethanol and electricity from biomass, which were purchased from domestic producers – UAH 200 million.
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY, GOVERNMENT, HARDWARE, LOCAL CONTENT, MANUFACTURERS
A new composition of the Ukrainian government will be endorsed shortly after the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, starts work, the Ukrainian president’s representative to the government Andriy Gerus, said on Thursday. “Everything will be very quick. I think a new government will be formed on the first or second day of the parliament’s work. I am convinced of that,” Gerus said on the TV channel 1+1.
He said he expected the parliament to gather for its first meeting within the first days of September.
Asked whether the Holos party could join a coalition with the parliamentary majority, Gerus replied, “If Holos wishes to join, it could enter the coalition on the first day of the new parliament.”
Parties that might wish to join a future coalition could reach a number of agreements in August so as not to lose time later, he said.
“We don’t have too much time. The country needs quick change so that the public feels a positive effect from reforms that need to be carried out quickly,” Gerus said.
Quick decisions and steps will be made every day so as to move ahead, he said.
Leader of the parliamentary faction Batkivschyna Yulia Tymoshenko proposes to begin consultations on the creation of a new coalition in the Verkhovna Rada.
“I think that now we need to hold the main discussion about whether there will be extraordinary or next ones – we still have half a year to restart – we need to start a discussion about creating a new coalition in parliament and creating a new government of Ukraine with a completely new strategy and tactics of governing the country,” Tymoshenko said at a meeting of the conciliatory council of faction leaders and parliamentary groups on Monday.
She noted that, otherwise, time will be lost and chaos will continue, which today, according to the politician, exists in the country.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers in 2018 has transferred 1.46 million hectares (ha) of agricultural farmland to more than 659 amalgamated territorial communities (ATC), also known as merged/unified territorial communities, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“We began transferring the land in February 2018. Over the year we gave 659 communities around 1.46 million hectares. Next year we will continue the process, so every newly formed, merged territorial community receives agricultural farmland,” Groysman said on Facebook. He added that on December 22 the government transferred more than 500,000 hectares to municipal ownership of 174 ATCs from 20 regions, completing the process for the communities created before 2018.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said the transfer of agricultural farmland to ATCs would continue in 2018 for the 185 communities which were formed in 2018.
As earlier reported, the government on January 31, 2018, adopted resolution No. 60-r on transferring ownership of state-owned agricultural land parcels to newly merged communities. The policy facilitated decentralization of land ownership without changing the current legislation.
Ukraine’s State Service for Geodesy, Cartography & Cadastre began the transfer of land from February 1, 2018.
During the first week, 99% of ATCs signed agreements with the service as the first step for receiving the land parcels.
According to the government, some 485 newly merged communities received 958,900 ha of state-owned farmland in the 11 months of 2018.
