The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is completing spring planting, during which it has already planted more than 113 million seedlings, which is 102% of the plan, said the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“We are continuing large-scale planting in the South, where no new forests have been created for many years. The areas for reforestation in Mykolaiv region have been agreed with ecologists so as not to harm the steppe ecosystem. Among other regions, the leaders in planting were the Kyiv Forestry Office and the Polissia Forestry Office,” he wrote on Facebook.
According to Bolokhovets, in 2024, foresters are not only reforesting, but also increasing the area of new forests, in particular, reforesting areas transferred to the state enterprise by local communities as part of the Forest Recovery project.
“In total, more than 2.1 thousand hectares of new forests have been created this spring, which is more than all forestry enterprises did in the entire year of 2022,” he added.
In addition, Forests of Ukraine is increasing the production and planting of seedlings with a closed-root system (CRS), which demonstrate better survival, savings on care and allow planting larger areas with fewer resources. Prior to the reform, 1-2 million seedlings were planted with the SSS, while this year’s plan is to plant 20 million, Bolokhovets said.
“In general, the creation of high-quality planting material is turning into a promising business area for the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”. According to the latest news, we are preparing about 107,500 seedlings for sale to Estonia. Our network of seed-breeding centers is expanding and increasing its capacity,” summarized the CEO of the Forests of Ukraine.
As reported, the forestry reform was launched in Ukraine in 2016. As part of it, the sale of raw wood at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced a three-stage plan for the restoration of Ukraine “U-24″.
“We have already announced this plan. Let’s call it U-24. This is a plan for the restoration of Ukraine. There will be a corresponding recovery fund, which will take place in three stages,” Shmyhal said in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of the BBC.
According to him, the first stage is already underway, when the authorities are now restoring the destroyed facilities temporarily, promptly and quickly.
The second stage, according to the prime minister, is a quick recovery immediately after the end of hostilities.
“First of all, it is necessary to resume the supply of water and electricity so that people can ensure their existence in the destroyed territories,” he added.
The third stage, according to the plan, is a big stage of a full-fledged renewal of Ukrainian cities, towns, buildings, infrastructure, and the country as a whole.
“This stage will be the most costly, the longest, but we want to implement it very quickly. This should be in parallel with the political processes of Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, as was recently written in the Versailles Declaration,” Shmyhal stressed.
The Prime Minister noted that Ukraine expects to receive a questionnaire in the coming days, which is one of the stages for the country to obtain candidate status as a transitional stage before joining the EU.
“All these things support the internal expectation of a speedy end to the war, our victory and the beginning of a powerful restoration of our state according to civilized European standards. We will get a very powerful developed European country here,” Shmyhal is sure.
Engineering and construction company Rauta has developed master plans for the construction of prefabricated camps for internally displaced persons, which provide for the construction of houses from sandwich panels.
“The concept of camps for migrants is based on the highest possible speed of construction, comfortable layouts and increased energy efficiency. The unification of production processes and ease of installation make it possible to ensure mass construction of camps in any region of Ukraine in a matter of months,” Andriy Ozeichuk, Director of Rauta, who was quoted by the press company service, said.
According to him, the master plans take into account various needs and funding opportunities. At the same time, houses made of sandwich panels can be effectively operated for several decades. Terms of implementation of small towns are 3-12 months, depending on building area.
In addition, if the need for settlements disappears over time, houses can be dismantled and moved to another location, as well as repurposed to perform new functions: recreation centers, administrative centers, outpatient clinics, small retail or office buildings, etc. Sandwich panels can also be efficiently disposed of.
Engineering and construction company Rauta is engaged in the design of buildings, supply, installation and maintenance of frames, sandwich panels, facades, prefabricated buildings, etc. The company acts as an exclusive supplier of products of the Finnish concern Ruuki to Ukraine.
Representatives of the top management of the industrial and investment group of PrJSC Smart Holding (Kyiv) and China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd. (China) discussed the opportunities of cooperation and implementation of common investment projects in transport infrastructure and logistics.
According to the company’s press release on Friday, during the meeting, the Chinese side was presented an investment project for the development of an industrial park based on a logistics hub managed by LLC Naval Park in Mykolaiv, as well as a development project for existing sea port of Ochakiv, including dredging and construction of new infrastructure.
The Chinese side has expressed interest in the projects and will continue to study them in detail. The parties agreed to continue the dialogue and organization of visits to the relevant facilities.
Director General Oleksiy Pertin, First Deputy Director General Yulia Kiryanova, other representatives of top management of Smart Holding, participated from the company’s side. Executive Director of the subsidiary of CRCC – CRCC14 Overseas Construction and Development Co Ltd Li Junqiang and Deputy General Manager of China Railway 14th Bureau Group Wang Chuang took part in the discussion from the Chinese side.
Commercial sea port Ochakiv is located on the Dnipro-Buh estuary in Mykolaiv region on the north-eastern outskirts of Ochakiv. At present, it has facilities for transshipment of goods in the amount of over 500,000 tonnes per year. The port has five berths with depths of up to 7.35 meters. As part of the investment project, it is planned to create one of the deep-water estuary ports on the Black Sea based on the existing small port. It is planned to construct coal and grain terminals in the port, as well as a terminal for transshipment of iron ore raw materials. It is planned also to deepen the port water area to 15-18 meters, as well as to lay 70 kilometers of an underwater railway line.
China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) is the second largest state-owned construction company in China. It is engaged in the construction of transport infrastructure, the production of special construction equipment, residential property, as well as logistics. The company has a representative office in Ukraine. Subdivisions of the company, within the relevant memorandums with the Infrastructure Ministry plan to implement projects in Ukraine for the development of railway infrastructure, as well as infrastructure for inland waterways.
Smart Holding owns 23.76% of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, some 95% of shares of the shipbuilding holding Smart Maritime Group, some 99.97% of shares of the trading and financial company Santis LLC. The company also owns large assets in the fuel and energy industry, development and agricultural sector.
The main beneficiary of Smart Holding is businessman Vadym Novinsky.
COOPERATE, CRCC, INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS, PLAN, SMART-HOLDING
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine has developed a detailed quarantine exit plan with concrete steps at each stage, President of American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine Andy Hunder told Interfax-Ukraine.
The main asset of any company is its people. Safety and security of employees are extremely important for every diligent employer. That is why the Chamber already has a detailed plan for exiting the lockdown that has been presented to its Board of Directors. Our employees are our strategic priority, thus we focused on soft and gradual return to work, Hunder said.
He said that the starting point for the Chamber will be the fourth phase of lockdown, which was announced by the government.
After that, we will introduce one week of mandatory work from home. We will recommend working from home in the second week. We will start to introduce flexible modes of work in the third week. So only in the fourth week we will be able to talk about returning to office, the Chamber’s president said.
The organization said that timely and transparent communication is critical in this process.
In the first and second weeks, the main steps are daily disinfection of office, procurement and provision of personal protective equipment for employees, reorganization of office to observe a social distance of 1.5-2 meters between workplaces. We will continue observing these requirements. We will also consider the possibility of conducting coronavirus (COVID-19) testing for all our employees, Hunder said.
According to the Chamber’s plan, temperature screening, the introduction of a clean desk policy, work in small groups or work in shifts (not all employees will be in the office at the same time) will be introduced during the third and fourth weeks. Participation in meetings will be possible only if absolutely necessary, in compliance with all safety rules, the Chamber’s president said.
The psychological aspect is also an important component of returning to office, thus the heads of the Chamber’s departments will meet with each member of their team. We hope that under these conditions, returning to office will be as safe and comfortable as possible for each employee, he said.
Hunder said that amid lockdown, the Chamber continues to actively provide information about businesses at the highest level, and also holds events for member companies in the online mode.
For some time after the Chamber’s team exits the lockdown, it is still planned to host events in the online mode, he said.
There is not a single business that, one way or another, would not feel the effect of coronavirus outbreak. Now the team of the Chamber and its member companies are actively preparing to exit lockdown, but the reality we will all return to will be different, he said.
Hunder also said that a month ago, the Chamber launched a video project on Facebook, titled Leadership in Times of Crisis, whose goal is to support businesses in difficult times and show how member companies respond to challenges and support their employees.
Hunder also said every day he holds several video interviews with the CEOs of the Chamber’s member companies. They are all sure of one thing – we have already started to live in a new reality. For each company, this reality is different, as someone adapts their business models, some companies completely work in the online mode, and some, on the contrary, strengthen their positions and provide even more services. Thus, after lockdown everything will change, namely, models, approaches, formats of work. Most importantly is the fact that the values and future strategies will be reassessed, he said.
Many companies are already successfully working remotely.
For example, Twitter whose 5,000 employees have been working from home since early March. Twitter management decided to keep their employees working remotely all the time. This is a new reality in action, the Chamber’s president said.
However, cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, the victory over the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery of the Ukrainian economy and the preservation of jobs are the top priorities for business, he said.
The Chamber continues to cooperate with the government of Ukraine in these directions. It will also review its detailed strategic priorities and initiate proposals to support the Ukrainian economy, Hunder said.
A plan on restructuring of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, which foresees division of the company into three operators (infrastructure, freight and passenger) and a production block, will be prepared by the end of 2019, Ukrzaliznytsia head Yevhen Kravtsov wrote on Facebook.
“We will fulfill the order of [President of Ukraine] Volodymyr Zelensky in time,” he said.
According to Kravtsov, a gradual plan would become a part of the implementation of the Ukrzaliznytsia’s strategy agreed with the Cabinet of Ministers and approved by the supervisory council in June 2019. After the plan is fulfilled and approved by the supervisory board, Ukrzaliznytsia will begin making certain steps under the control of the government, he added.
“[Infrastructure Minister] Vladyslav Krykliy, [Prime Minister] Oleksiy Honcharuk back European model. The main is that infrastructure remains under state regulation, when passenger and freight carriages are carried under the market conditions,” he said.
As reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to prepare a plan on restructuring of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia by the end of 2019.
The president appointed Honcharuk and Krykliy responsible for the preparation of the plan.
