Ukraine has registered a Chinese vaccine against COVID-19, CoronaVac made by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, its authorized Ukrainian representative, the Kyiv-based Lekhim told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
Under its contract with the Health Ministry for 1.9 million doses of the Chinese vaccine, Lekhim is to supply the first 700,000 doses this month.
Lekhim Group and Sinovac Biotech reached the agreement after ten months of talks over cooperation on the distribution and localization of the vaccine production for a five-year period.
Earlier, Ukraine registered the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
In 2021, Polish company PCC Intermodal S.A. plans to increase the number of container train connections between Poland and Ukraine from one to three per week, according to the company’s website on the occasion of the first anniversary of the service, which connects several cities in Poland with the Ukrainian station of Mostiska.
“We did the first tests and tried to launch regular services to Ukraine already in 2011. The economical and political situation in Ukraine has stopped this project, until last year. In the spring of 2020, we successfully returned with the project. In the spring time 2020 we have successfully came back with the Ukrainian project! The customers being satisfied while having easy access to the alternative logistics solution, using rail connections, keep us developing the intermodal services to Ukraine. We have already booked the new platforms for this connection and are happy to welcome everyone on board of our regular trains,” the company’s press service said.
Curently, the company offers regular intermodal connections, once a week to/from Mostyska in relation with: to Gdańsk, Gdynia, Central Poland, Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, Berlin, Hamburg, Duisburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.
The most common goods transported to/from Ukraine at the moment are: chemical products, polymers, fertillizers, ferroalloys.
The volume of construction work performed in Ukraine in January 2021 decreased 11.2% compared to January 2020, to UAH 7.2 billion, the State Statistics Service has said.
According to the statistics department, in January, the volume of construction work performed decreased by 80.3% compared to the previous month (according to seasonally adjusted data – by 14.6%), while compared to November 2020, this figure decreased by 1.2%.
The State Statistics Service reported that in January 2021 compared to January 2020, the growth in the volume of construction work was observed only in the segment of construction of engineering structures – the figure was 44.8%. At the same time, in residential construction, the decline in the volume of construction work amounted to 9.1%, in nonresidential – 6%.
The share of new construction of the total volume of completed construction work was 43.1%, repairs – 27.6%, reconstruction and technical re-equipment – 29.3%.
An increase in the volume of construction work in January 2021 compared to January 2020 was recorded in Sumy (by 0.2%, to UAH 88.7 million) and Khmelnytsky (by 128.1%, to UAH 285.8 million) regions.
In other regions of Ukraine, there was a decrease in the volume of construction work, in particular, in Zakarpattia region (by 59.4%, to UAH 22.8 million), Vinnytsia (by 55.6%, to UAH 96.8 million) and Luhansk (by 48.5%, to UAH 12 million). In Kyiv city, the indicator decreased 18.2%, to UAH 1.8 billion.
The data are given excluding the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The duty-free tariff quota for the import of eggs from Ukraine to the U.K. in April-June 2021 will be half of the amount determined by last year’s agreement (204.5 tonnes) due to lack of applications for imports of these products in January-March, the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
The ministry said that the Rural Payments Agency in the U.K. has announced the start of accepting applications for the import of Ukrainian poultry eggs for the second quarter of 2021.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its website quoted the rules for distribution of this quota for poultry eggs and albumin from Ukraine in accordance with the provisions of the Political, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in October 2020.
According to the document, the administration of quotas for these products is managed by a system of import licenses, and the volume of the quota is distributed quarterly in parts – 25% of its total volume. The import license will be valid for the nine months (until December 31, 2021), and can be obtained by any British company that imported at least 25 tonnes of similar products in the period from September 17, 2019 to September 16, 2020 or September 17, 2018 through September 16, 2019.
The insurance premium for the import license is set at GBP 17 per 100 kg of product.
Ukraine expects to receive some $2.9 billion in financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021, for which the parliament is supposed to pass legislative amendments on reforming the judicial system, presidential economic advisor Oleh Ustenko said.
“We expect to receive an IMF tranche this year. Our program envisions $5 billion, and we have already received $2.1 billion,” Ustenko said on Ukrainian television on Monday.
“Ukraine’s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund is continuing,” he said.
“The Verkhovna Rada is supposed to pass legislative amendments essential for receiving the next tranche. I am talking about the need for judicial reform and [legislation] ensuring the functioning of anti-corruption infrastructure,” he said.
He said “the requirements of the program of cooperation with the IMF coincide with the program of the President of Ukraine, on which the head of state has repeatedly said.”
Ustenko also said, in order to amend the Ukrainian legislation in terms of the judicial system, the president held many meetings, communicated with Ukrainian and foreign experts and persuaded the MPs of the Verkhovna Rada.
“The program is taking place. As soon as the relevant legislative initiatives of the president are voted in the Verkhovna Rada, we can say that on our part we have fulfilled what we promised. We promised to fulfill not only the IMF, we do not do it for someone, we do it for Ukrainian people,” the advisor to the head of state said.
Ustenko said that successful cooperation with the IMF will give Ukraine the opportunity to make more profitable borrowings on the international market and is a good signal for foreign investors.
He also added that 2020 was a difficult year in terms of attracting investment, but the Ukrainian economy could receive about $3 billion in foreign direct investment in 2021.
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.
