Ukraine is ready for negotiations with the European Union to strengthen trade in 2020 and implement new opportunities, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has reported.
“Today, we sell 43% of exports to the EU market. We have free trade area agreements. In 2018 we revised and increased the quotas (for export). There will be an opportunity to revise trade conditions in 2020 and we are working to expand the volume and “horizon” of trade. Every citizen will benefit from this. This is my priority,” Groysman said on the air of the Svoboda Slova program on ICTV.
The international reserves of Ukraine in June 2019, according to preliminary data, increased by 6.4%, to $20.639 billion in equivalent due to the placement of eurobonds by the government and the purchase of currency by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the interbank market, the NBU said on its website.
Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov has met with Minister of National Defense of Canada Harjit Sajjan to discuss the issue of military cooperation between the countries, as well as the purchase of new technology, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. “The interaction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine with the Canadian armed forces and the purchase of new equipment were discussed with the Minister of Defense of Canada,” Avakov said at the 3rd International Ukraine Reform Conference in Ukraine in Toronto.
The parties also discussed security issues in Ukraine, in particular, during the extraordinary parliamentary elections on July 21.
“Today, the issue of security is not only a question of the boundary line of the conflict or the contact line. This is the issue of security in society, the mood of people. Therefore, the mechanism of democratic elections that we now provide is a key component of security,” Avakov said.
Ukraine and Canada will work on deepening economic cooperation and expansion of the bilateral free trade area (FTA) agreement to the sphere of services and investments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. “Trade, economic and investment cooperation have an important place in Ukrainian-Canadian relations, and we would like to strengthen it. Therefore, our sides will work to expand the scope of the bilateral free trade area agreement to services and investments,” he said in Toronto on Tuesday at a joint briefing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after their meeting.
Zelensky said that in the near future these agreements will be translated into documents.
“This means that Ukrainian IT specialists and entrepreneurs from different industries will be able to better cooperate with Canada without leaving Ukraine. This means more jobs, better relations between our countries,” he said.
Real wages in Ukraine in May 2019 compared with May 2018 increased by 7%, compared with April 2019 it fell by 1%, the State Statistics Service has said.
According to the agency, the average nominal wage of full-time employees in May 2019 compared with April 2019 fell by 0.3% and in annual terms it grew by 17.4%, amounting to UAH 10,239.
The service said in April 2019 it amounted to UAH 10,269, in March 2019 some UAH 10,237, February 2019 some UAH 9,429, and in January 2019 some UAH 9,223.
According to the statistics department, the largest increase in the average wage of full-time employees in May 2019 compared with May 2018 was observed in Kyiv (22.7%), Kharkiv (21.2%), Dnipropetrovsk (21.1%), Mykolaiv and Vinnytsia (by 20.2%), Zaporizhia (by 19.9%), Rivne (by 19.7%) %), Volyn (18.8%), Poltava (18.5%), Ternopil (18.4%), Luhansk and Lviv (by 18.2%), Cherkasy (18.1%), Khmelnytsky ( 17.4%) and Kirovohrad (17%) regions.
The highest level of wages in May 2019 was recorded in Kyiv city at UAH 15,157, the lowest one in Chernvtsi region at UAH 7,819.
Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are preparing for boosting defense cooperation in the sphere of joint production of new samples of weapons and equipment, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on developments of Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv).
The press service of the Ukroboronprom state concern reported that the potential of the bilateral military and technical cooperation between Kyiv and Abu Dhabi was the subject of negotiations held during Le Bourget 2019 International Paris Air Show by Head of the state concern Pavlo Bukin and UAE Assistant Undersecretary for Support Services Abdulla Al Hashmi.
Bukin said that among the promising defense cooperation projects considered by the parties are the establishment of joint production of UAVs based on the developments of the Antonov State Enterprise.
As the head of Ukroboronprom said, the reliable Antonov aircraft, capable of working in extreme climatic conditions, fully meets the needs of the military and rescuers, and it is in steady demand in the market, which was confirmed during the negotiations held during Le Bourget 2019.
“Today, the most promising market for us is the countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia,” he said, adding: “We expect that in the near future Antonov’s products will occupy a significant part of the market in these regions.”
According to the report, during the talks, the parties discussed a wide range of cooperation, including logistics support for the needs of the UAE Ground Forces.
