Ambassador: Ukraine can’t reconcile Cuba and U.S.

News / 17 January 2013 | 17:09

Ukraine can not become an international platform, on which the conflict between Cuba and the United States will be resolved, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba in Ukraine Ernesto Antonio Senti Darias told a press conference on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, ForUm correspondent reports.

“This conflict can be resolved only by Cuba and the U.S. Ukraine and other countries have nothing to do with that,” he said.

He also recalled that Fidel Castro has voiced the initiative to improve relations with the U.S., but has never received a reply.

“Those proposals related to the fight against drug trafficking, terrorism, human trafficking, as well as environmental problems. We continue making such initiatives, but so far they remain unanswered. We want to live in peace and cooperation,” Mr. Ernesto Antonio Senti Darias said.

He recalled that in 2012 the UN General Assembly again condemned the blockade, in which the U.S. keeps Cuba for decades.

“This blockade does not make sense. This is a crime against the people. Cuba has suffered huge losses in the amount of 1 trillion 600 million dollars,” the Ambassador said.

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Yanukovych: Family doctor should be closer to patient

News / 17 January 2013 | 17:00

Health services should be brought to the new improved standards, President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych said at the meeting of the Committee on Economic Reforms, ForUm correspondent reports.

“This year, the pilot regions get closer to the new model of budget financing, the starting point of which is determination of the cost of delivery of health care. Testing of the new model of budget funding should be held in some general hospitals in order to ensure that the new approach provides stimulation measures to improve the quality and efficiency of using budget money,” he said.

The President also noted that other regions, included in this pilot project, also face very important tasks. “We must complete the reorganization of primary care infrastructure in accordance with the new standards,” Yanukovych said.

According to him, the family doctor should be closer to a patient. “In accordance with the new approach to reward for the timely identification of health problems,” he concluded.

The President also stressed that primary health care centers should be established throughout the country. “All regions should provide a new quality of emergency medical care. Refusal of ambulances to come to people should become unacceptable. The ambulances must come to a patient within 10 minutes in a city and within 20 minutes in a village,” the President concluded.

 

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President demands to grant autonomy to universities

News / 17 January 2013 | 16:55

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych wants to grant more autonomy to higher education institutions, he said at the meeting of the Committee on Economic Reforms, ForUm correspondent reports.

“Active control of the state over activities of the higher education institutions should be replaced by autonomy. In this regard, the government and the association of employers have to conduct a large-scale work. The Education Ministry together with higher education institutions should develop and implement educational qualification standards,” he said.

According to the President, it will help achieve the competitiveness of graduates in the labor market to meet the needs of economy.

Yanukovych noted that inclusion of the domestic universities in the ranking of the best international universities will be the best indicator of the successful modernization of higher education.

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Ministry for economic development and trade to deregulate construction sector

News / 17 January 2013 | 16:44

One of the priorities of the Ministry for economic development and trade for 2013 is deregulate construction sector, minister Ihor Prasolov told a session of the committee on economic reforms, ForUm correspondent reports.

“One of the tasks for 2013 is to deprive state officials of the possibility to interfere with construction and take biased decisions. For this, we will introduce strict criteria of classification of construction sites by category of difficulty,” the minister said.

The Ministry will also introduce a declarative principle for submission and allocation of building permissions and determine deadlines for issuing necessary documents.

Prasolov underlined that the Ministry would take a number of measures to protect the rights of investors, in particular, would improve the examination procedure of legal claims in order to prevent raiding.

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Prasolov will be engaged in deregulation of administrative services in business

News / 17 January 2013 | 16:30

One of the priorities in the list of issues of the National Action Plan for 2013 is the implementation of reforms in the field of deregulation of business development and reforms providing administrative services, economic development and trade minister Ihor Prasolov said at the meeting of the Committee on Economic Reforms, ForUm correspondent reports.

“This field takes 22% of general provisions of the National Action Plan for 2013. Our economy needs the modernization of investments and access to the world markets. We will reach it, if only Ukraine is an attractive country for business,” Prasolov said.

According to the minister, a practical implementation of the regulations that have been already adopted in Ukraine to implement the program of economic reforms will become the main task of the deregulation of business development, as well as reforms providing administrative services in 2013.

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Azarov: Year 2012 was difficult for Ukraine

News / 17 January 2013 | 16:16

Year 2012 was difficult for Ukraine, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said at the meeting of the Committee on Economic Reforms, ForUm correspondent reports.

“Last year was very difficult. The global economic crisis does not let any states have rest, and it also has a negative impact on the economy of our state. Unfortunately, the economic development indicators were not the same as we expected, and we had to finish the last year in a very economic mode. But we ended the year with positive results,” the Prime Minister noted.

According to him, Ukraine’s retail sales increased by 16%, average nominal wages grew by 15.4% and level of bank deposits by almost 60 billion UAH.

At the same time, he noted that not all planned changes were implemented in full. “Some Ministries were unable to realize the full amount of tasks. Therefore, the President’s decision to make staff changes in the government was absolutely logical,” Azarov stressed.

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Unauthorized landfills responsible for rabies, specialist says

News / 17 January 2013 | 16:01

Responsibility for distribution of rabies among animals lies with unauthorized landfills of broiler plant waste, director of the ecology cultural center of Ukraine Volodymyr Boreiko told a press conference, ForUm correspondent reports.

“The reason that for the last 15 years the level rabies among animals has increased is mass scale discharge of rotten mean in forests and fields of Ukraine. Nobody speaks about it, but it is a serious problem. The fact is there are several large poultry plants in Ukraine, which do not have proper utilization plan for dead chickens,” he said.  

According to Boreiko, every big incubator has up to 7% of defective products. These are chickens, died of various diseases. Thus, there are about 350 thousand tons of carrion accumulated annually in Ukraine. Only 150 thousand tons get reprocessed, while the rest gets simply discharged.

“Apart from dead chickens, meat plants discharge dead cattle and rabbits. Such endless landfills of rotten meat become the focus of rabies virus and assist to uncontrolled reproduction of foxes and stray dogs,” he noted.

According to Boreiko, release of farming wastes is not controlled in Ukraine. Maximum what sanitary service can do is to impose a fine in the amount of 100-200 hryvnias.

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Half population of wolves killed in Ukraine annually

News / 17 January 2013 | 15:52

Half the population of wolves is killed in Ukraine annually, director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreyko told a press conference, ForUm correspondent reports.

“There are 2600-2700 officially registered wolves in Ukraine. Every year, 1300-1400 wolves are fired off, that is, half of the population. This figure does not include poaching and dying wolves,” he said.

According to Boreyko, wolves are often killed under the pretext that they are the main carriers of rabies, while only about 0.5% of the disease transfer falls on this animal species.

“40% of cases of rabies transfer accounts for foxes and 20 % – for dogs, they are the main carriers of the disease. The wolf is the most important fighter against animal rabies, as it reduces the population of stray dogs and foxes,” Boreyko informed.

In addition, according to the ecologist, a lot of wolves eat offal and meat scraps from poultry farms, being the cleaner of the forests and farming. However, people continue killing wolves massively, and that results in negative consequences.

 

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