Employee health and mental well-being, as well as attracting and retaining top talent, have risen from third to second and from sixth to fourth place in the list of key challenges facing companies over the past six months, according to a survey of its members by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Ukraine.
According to the survey, 70% of respondents mentioned health and psychological issues, up from 65% six months ago, and 56% of top employees, up from 43%.
Employee safety and security remains a key challenge, but its “rating” has dropped from 91% to 85%, while Russia’s missile attacks on critical infrastructure and business assets have dropped from 66% to 61%, moving it to third place.
The challenge of economic and consumer recession has also dropped to fifth from fourth, but 54% of respondents mentioned it, compared to 45% six months ago.
While in early fall, the top five expected problems were access to electricity, water and heat supply, and mobile communications with a 44% share, now it is not even among the top 11.
At the same time, logistics and transportation problems have become a concern for 43% of respondents, up from 30% six months ago, regulatory challenges – 39% instead of 23%, and pressure on business from government agencies – 28% instead of 23%.
Among the top three priority steps that businesses would like to see the government take, the top three are real and effective judicial reform (22%), ensuring a clear and transparent booking procedure (22%), and strengthening national security and defense and de-mining of Ukraine (21%).
Less frequently, company representatives chose to ensure predictability and stability of tax legislation (14%), protect supply chains by addressing the situation with border logistics and maritime transportation (7%), ease currency restrictions on repatriation of dividends and/or payment of interest on foreign loans (6%), and expand insurance coverage of political risks (3%).
According to the survey, 86% of companies are fully operational, 12% of the surveyed companies continue to operate partially, and 2% do not operate at all, while 84% were fully operational six months ago.
58% of all respondents had no damage to their property during the two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 7% had their assets occupied, and 30% had their companies’ plants/factories/ facilities/warehouses/offices damaged: 75% of them have minor damage, 25% have irreparable damage.
According to the survey, 84% of AmCham member companies in Ukraine have employees in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 31% of companies, employees were wounded, 29% were killed in action, and 2% were missing.
“Despite the difficulties, the business community, inspired by brave defenders, continues to work and believe in Ukraine, supporting the economy, paying taxes and creating jobs for Ukrainians. 86% of member companies are fully operational after two years of full-scale war in Russia. Security and judicial reform are the highest priorities for business,” commented AmCham President Andy Hunder.
The survey, conducted from February 12-22, 2024, involved 125 CEOs and top managers of AmCham member companies.
Within the first competitions of the NEXT Romania-Ukraine cross-border communities development program for the period 2021-2027, 120 projects with a non-refundable value of EUR87 million have been submitted, according to the project’s press service.
The press service of the Romanian Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration told Interfax-Ukraine that the submitted projects include 153 partners from Romania and 158 from Ukraine.
The Interreg NEXT Romania-Ukraine program has a budget of EUR54 million in grant funds, to which the national contribution will be added. Projects that will benefit border communities in Satu Mare, Maramures, Botosani, Suceava and Tulcea counties (Romania), as well as in Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi and Odessa regions (Ukraine) will be eligible for funding.
According to the press service, a call for standard projects (projects with an infrastructure component of at least EUR500,000) was announced in August 2023. EUR12.6 mln allocated for this competition will be used for investments in healthcare and education. Within the framework of the competition 49 projects were submitted, the grant value of which is EUR60 mln.
The Small Projects Competition was launched in September 2023. This competition has a budget of EUR14.5 million, which will be directed to measures on climate change prevention and control, biodiversity conservation, health, education and border management. Seventy-one projects were submitted, with a total value of EUR27 million in grant funds.
According to the press service of the Romanian Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, the most applications – 29 standard and 13 small – were submitted in the direction of ensuring equal access to health care and increasing the sustainability of health care systems, including primary health care, as well as promoting the transition from institutional to family-based care.
The second most popular focus area is educational. 20 standard and 17 small projects were designed to improve equitable access to inclusive and quality education, training and lifelong learning services through the development of accessible infrastructure.
15 small projects focused on improving the protection and conservation of nature, biodiversity and green infrastructure, including in urban areas; 13 small projects focused on disaster risk prevention, strengthening resilience through ecosystem approaches.
Border crossing management was addressed by 13 small projects submitted.
The projects will be subjected to an evaluation and selection procedure in the following period.At this stage, a detailed analysis of the submitted projects is underway and the results of the selection process will be presented tentatively in early summer, with contracts ideally signed by the first quarter of 2025, but “the actual duration of the process will also depend on the quality of the applications submitted and the number of clarifications required”.
All submitted projects will go through two stages of evaluation: eligibility and quality. Applications that pass all these stages will be subject to approval by the Monitoring Committee (a joint structure composed of members from both countries).
Funding will be awarded to projects that best meet the requirements of the Applicant’s Guidelines and that will actually contribute to community development in the border region.
Interreg NEXT, the EU’s cooperation programs with neighboring regions, comprises 184 regions with a population of 260 million people in 33 countries and is located along the EU’s external borders from the northern periphery to the Mediterranean region and from the Atlantic to the Black Sea basin.
Interreg NEXT cooperation programs for the period 2021-2027 include EUR1.1 billion from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Neighborhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) and the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA).
CLIMATE CHANGE, cross-border communities, EDUCATION, HEALTH, Interreg NEXT
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Kocia said Thursday that President Recep Erdogan’s health is fine, Turkish media reported.
“I was with him this morning. He is fine. The effects of the infection he contracted have diminished,” the minister wrote on social media.
For his part, Fahrettin Altun, head of the Turkish presidential administration’s communications department, denied reports about Erdogan’s serious condition that appeared earlier in the media, and said that the Turkish leader continues to work.
“The opposition is trying to gain political advantage by spreading unfoundedly distorted information even about our president’s health condition. Our president continues to serve with great strength, health and energy,” Anadolu quoted Altun as saying.
The agency recalls that the day before the Center to Combat Disinformation of the Communications Department denied reports in some social media accounts that Erdogan “had a heart attack and was hospitalized. According to the center’s statement, they do not reflect the truth.
Turkish and foreign media reported that Erdoğan felt unwell during an interview on Tuesday night, for which he had to interrupt his live broadcast. Allegedly, it was an acute digestive disorder.
“There was quite intense campaign work yesterday and today, and because of this work, my stomach got sick,” Erdoğan explained on Tuesday.
Because of his health problems, Erdogan cancelled campaign events that were scheduled for Thursday. At the same time, Anadolu writes that the president cancelled plans to rest after a number of his campaign events.
All health care institutions in Ukraine must register and start working in the electronic health care system (EHS) by March 31, 2022.
As the Ministry of Health reminds on its website, this is stipulated by the licensing requirements for economic activities in medical practice and applies to all business entities.
In particular, the Ministry of Healthcare specifies that all legal entities carrying out medical practice business activities must be registered in EHS, except for entities engaged in business activities in the forensic medical areas.
In particular, the Ministry of Health notes that laboratory institutions, sanatoriums, and educational institutions that provide medical care within the institution should be registered in the EHR.
“The full transition to digital recording of all medical records will occur gradually and will involve additional changes in other regulatory and legal acts,” the department notes.
Scientists from the US National Institutes of Health recently found that tea has a beneficial effect on human health.
So, according to the study, those who drink at least two cups of black tea a day are more likely to live a long life than those who do not drink tea at all.
The researchers analyzed data from the British Biobank Genetic Information Repository of nearly 500,000 men and women aged 40 to 69 living in the UK.
As it turned out, 85% of these people regularly consumed tea. This is not surprising, given the love of the British population for tea and the traditions associated with this drink.
The results showed that the risk of death in the middle age group from diseases associated with the cardiovascular system is 9-13% lower in those who drink at least two cups of tea per day than in those who refuse this drink in general. .
At the same time, the authors of the study note that it does not matter exactly how you drink tea – with milk, sugar or lemon, the presence of the drink itself in your diet is important.
Professor of Medical Sciences and one of the authors of this work, Fernando Artalejo, however, notes that it is still impossible to say categorically that it was tea that caused less mortality in the studied population category. According to him, it cannot be ruled out that there were other factors not related to the use of tea.
Meanwhile, Chinese scientists have also reached similar conclusions about a possible connection between tea consumption and health effects. They found that the risk of dementia and heart attack is lower in people who drink two to three cups of coffee a day, or three to five cups of tea a day.
Have you noticed how picky and demanding we have become for things like leisure? We plan it in advance, calculate everything down to the smallest detail, we are interested in new products on the market, nuances, reviews… In short, we do everything possible to feel as comfortable and safe as possible. And search time imperceptibly becomes a real test for the nervous system.
So let’s hurry to help you. Here are seven benefits of a comfortable stay in one of the best complexes in Western Ukraine – the hotel and resort complex Karpaty:
1. Do you dream of choosing a universal recreation complex, which has a variety of services, locations, entertainment and amenities such as transfer services, modern communications or child care? Expectations are clear, but today not all Ukrainian health resorts can boast of their scale and versatility, as the hotel and resort complex Karpaty, which infrastructure is impressive in scale and diversity.
2. Your priority is recreation, which includes diagnosis and treatment. It is the right choice, given the hectic pace of modern life. We have an opportunity of doing the minimum list of health screening tests only in two cases: when we get ill and we already feel bad, or during the holiday resorts. Use the second option and choose for yourself our complex with modern medical equipment and skilled medical staff which practices updating the medical base, training for doctors, and medical conferences. Here your health will be kept safe.
3. Is the comfort and convenience of the room important to you? It is quite clear and logical, because you spend a lot of time in your room, so why not spend this time with maximum comfort and enjoyment: with comfortable and modern furniture, satellite TV, safe box, minibar and, of course, the most beautiful view from your own window or a balcony. And it does not have to be a VIP room. The main thing is that you feel comfortable in it. We can boast of a variety of rooms: you can choose single, double rooms, as well as junior suites, suites and apartments in the Karpaty complex. All rooms are equipped with refrigerators, TVs, safe boxes, telephones with local and international connections and bathrooms.
4. Nutrition during the holiday is an important component. It is desirable that it was three times and dietary. Today’s reality is the obligatory buffet system, but this is more of an advantage than a disadvantage, because you will get a few more conveniences – the choice of dishes and the size of the portion as you like. The Karpaty complex has the best buffet food, but its main feature is that the dishes of incredibly delicious diet cuisine are prepared from home-made products brought from a local eco-farm.
5. Do you dream of SPA and active recreation for the benefit of the body? We will offer a full range of relevant services: swimming pool, sauna, hydromassage, fitness, aerobics, beauty salon, sports attractions and recreation areas. We have taken care of your active recreation and offer activities in the pool with a coach and aqua aerobics classes. And of course today, fitness and Nordic walking are in demand, we have a modern gym.
6. Choose a place to rest based on the principle: “I want new experiences!”. If new impressions and emotions are an important factor when choosing a place, then you place the right accents. Modern people have made this factor a trend, and the search for new experiences is the main component of recreation. Find out if there is a disco bar or karaoke in the complex. The complex has concert and dance halls, restaurants, museums, a water park or a mini zoo. We have taken care of a variety of excursion programs: excursion services can be provided on the basis of our complex.
7. You are a modern person and you are an active user of social networks. This means that it is important for you to have photo areas, places where you can make the most of the atmospheric photos, which will be good memories of the vacation. And do not forget about the humorous rule of all vacationers: if your photos are not on social networks, consider that you have not been anywhere. Of course, we will not let you down, because you will not only get a lot of impressions of great locations, but also replenish your photo archives with photos.
If you like these features of good-quality vacation and wellness, we are pleased to welcome you to our hotel and resort complex, which meets all the criteria for quality rest.
We invite you to visit our picturesque place and it is guaranteed that you will get a quality vacation, lots of fun and full of happy memories! See you in the Karpaty complex!
Hotel and resort complex Karpaty
• +38 (03247) 62 747
• +38 (095) 27 62 000
• +38 (067) 82 62 000
e-mail: info@san-karpaty.com.ua
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Lviv region, Truskavets, 2, Karpatska Street
