Ukraine and Israel have agreed on a special commercial flight Kyiv-Tel Aviv-Kyiv in early March to return Ukrainians home, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko has said.
“Ukraine and Israel have agreed on a special commercial flight Kyiv-Tel Aviv-Kyiv at the beginning of March to return Ukrainians home. The Ukrainian Embassy in Israel will additionally inform on the exact date and conditions for purchasing a ticket. Israel’s borders for regular flights remain closed,” he wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Kazakhstan is increasing the number of regular flights with Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and the Maldives.
The relevant decision was made by the interdepartmental commission to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the civil aviation committee of the Kazakh Industry and Infrastructure Development Ministry said on Wednesday.
Thus, in accordance with the interdepartmental commission’s decision, the number of flights to Russia will increase by seven in general, from three to 10 flights per week on each side. This includes the number of Nur-Sultan-Moscow flights increasing from two to four per week on each side and Almaty-Moscow flights increasing from one to four per week on each side. Shymkent-Moscow flights, one per week on each side, and Aktau-Moscow, one per week on each side, are resumed.
The number of flights to the Maldives is up from four to seven per week for Kazakh companies on the Almaty-Male route.
The number of Almaty-Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) flights is increasing from two to three per week.
Along with this, the number of flights to Uzbekistan is increasing from three to four (on each side) due to one more Nur-Sultan-Tashkent flight per week. Since September 11, one flight has been performed on the Nur-Sultan-Tashkent route and two on the Almaty-Tashkent route.
The number of flights to Ukraine is increasing to two, due to the resumption of one flight per week on the Nur-Sultan-Kyiv route. In August 2020, flights on the Almaty-Kyiv route were resumed.
Insurance companies of Ukraine in 2020 paid profit tax to the state and local budgets in the amount of UAH 1.674 billion, which is UAH 334 million (24.5%) more than in the same period in 2019, and 51, 5% more than in 2018, Oleksandr Zaletov, the vice president of the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine (LIOU), has said.
According to him, as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant trend in 2020 was the revision of business strategies for almost all insurance companies without exception. The drop in sales for a number of types of insurance (Green Card, tourism, KASKO) encouraged insurers and insurance intermediaries to digitalize. To one degree or another, distance sales and settlement using Internet technologies have become the main strategic objectives of the digitalization of the Ukrainian insurance market. In fact, an indicator of the competitiveness and investment attractiveness of the insurer was the ability to remotely conclude or renegotiate an insurance contract, amend it, and provide documents to the insurer confirming the insured event.
According to Zaletov, unfortunately, the legal framework and technologies for remote servicing of insurance companies’ clients lag significantly behind the needs and need further reform. In addition, on the way of increasing the customer focus of insurers, the tasks of improving the legislative regulation of issues aimed at protecting the rights of consumers of insurance services and countering their discrimination in the field of insurance are of particular importance. In this regard, it should be noted that basing an insurance rate on a characteristic that cannot be changed is contrary to the ideals of the EU and fairness.
“The terms of insurance contracts must not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory, for example, direct or indirect restriction of citizens’ rights on the basis of race, color, political, religious and other beliefs, gender, age, health status, disability, ethnic and social origin, property status, residence, linguistic or other characteristics,” he said.
According to Zaletov, other representatives of non-banking financial markets, primarily financial companies, lessors and pawnshops, are also steadily increasing tax payments. So in 2020 they paid profit tax in the amount of UAH 604 million to the state and local budgets, which is UAH 196 million (47.1%) more than in the same period of 2019, and 149.6% more than for 2018.
President of the European Council Charles Michel intends to visit Ukraine and Georgia in March, his spokesperson Barend Leyts said on his Twitter page.
“The President met today with the Prime Minister of Ukraine and announced that he planned to visit Ukraine and Georgia in March, to convey EU firm position on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as recovery and reforms,” Leyts wrote on Tuesday.
According to him, the parties also discussed relations with Russia.
Ukraine intends to vaccinate up to half of the population against COVID-19 this year and early next year, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“We now identify the next priority in the fight against coronavirus – vaccination. Its roadmap is designed to ensure proper and equal access to the vaccine for all residents of Ukraine. Its main task is to cover at least half of Ukraine’s population during 2021 and early 2022,” Zelensky said at the opening of the “Ukraine 30. Coronavirus: Challenges and Responses” Forum on Monday.
He said that vaccines against COVID-19 from four companies will be delivered to Ukraine.
“We have agreed to supply the vaccine from the Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Novavax companies to Ukraine. The first stage of vaccination will begin this month. Our doctors, the military and the National Guard will be the first to receive the vaccine,” Zelensky said.
In addition, the president said that Ukraine has taken the smart and effective steps to counter the pandemic.
“Ukraine has something to be proud of in terms of countering COVID-19… From the first day of fighting COVID-19, our actions were smart and effective,” the president added.
In particular, the President noted the effectiveness of tough quarantine.
TOP 20 countries of Ukraine’s foreign trade partners in Jan-Oct of 2020 (thousand USD).
