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Internet TV with the use of OTT (Over the top) technology* is gradually becoming an alternative to traditional types of delivery of audiovisual content. The global market of OTT audiovisual media services has grown by more than 20% every year, and according to expert estimates, the total revenue of OTT companies will reach 83 billion dollars in 2022, which is twice as much as in 2016.
In Ukraine, the share of audiovisual services using OTT technology is about 2% of the market, which is a small rate compared to satellite, cable and terrestrial TV. The current television and radio broadcasting legislation does not take into account the changes in the audiovisual sector and provide the comprehensive regulation for market participants using modern technologies. This provokes negative consequences for a promising segment: distortion of competition in the market, risks of illegal content use and threats to state information security.
The government, business and market representatives discussed the market issues during the Roundtable “OTT video content market: modern technologies VS outdated laws” on March 16. The event was organized by the BRDO Office with the EU4Business/FORBIZ support as part of the #PRODialogue Public Dialogue.
“Creating effective principles for interaction in any sector is possible only through a dialogue with market participants. The development of modern innovative markets requires the principles of open competition and equal rights,” the Sector Manager on Competition and Economic Issues of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Iryna Hubarets said.
The BRDO analyzed the regulatory environment of the sector and presented the results in the Green Paper “OTT Video Content Market”. “In Ukraine, the development of this market is restrained by the inability of the state to update the legislation quickly, so now it does not allow to fully identify OTT provider services as a software service provider. Instead, we have a high level of piracy and unequal conditions for Ukrainian provides compared to foreign ones in terms of taxation and state information security,” the BRDO’s IT&Telecom Sector Head Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
For example, OTT-providers who are non-residents do not pay taxes on incomes from economic activities when providing their services on the territory of Ukraine. At the same time, they do not need to meet the requirements for the distribution of foreign TV programs and content, which are subject to restrictions in Ukraine.
Due to the fact that there is no registration of OTT-providers in Ukraine, it is impossible to determine the exact number of such provides as well as the number of households receiving their services. In addition, the market is characterized by unequal conditions for provides that offer services using various technologies.
Experts concluded that the basic principles for activities of television and radio broadcasting market participants defined by the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” didn’t meet the needs of the time and required urgent changes.
Market share by TV reception modes: Satellite, Cable, Terrestrial, IPTV, OTT. Source – the SES (data as of the end of 2016)
Oleh Chernysh, member of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting, agrees with this. “In order to resolve problematic points and introduce European standards in audiovisual media services, we need to create a transparent and affordable procedure for domestic and foreign OTT-providers to enter the market by introducing a regulatory principle of registration and/or notification,” he said.
The implementation of this principle will allow:
“Technological markets are drivers of changes, so it is very important to introduce liberal and clear rules that will promote the development, fair competition and investment attraction,” Natalya Klitna, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Rights Holders and Content Providers, summed up.
Global OTT video content market
Analyzing the revenue growth in the OTT market globally (by 2022, the growth is expected to be more than doubled compared to 2016), it can be assumed that Ukraine will have the same dynamics.
Revenues from subscription-based TV in the world compared to OTT, billion dollars
OTT Subscription-based TV
Source – the Digital TV Research Limited (2022 – forecast)
As a reminder, on December 14, 2017, the VRU registered a draft Law on amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” (No.7397), which is restated as the Law of Ukraine “On audiovisual media services”.
The event will be attended by Tetyana Popova, Chairman of the Board of the Association “Telecommunication Chamber of Ukraine”, representatives of the “Clear Sky” Initiative as well as business, expert groups and the public.
Source: 24tv.ua.
The less available land a city has, the more expensive it is, and the higher buildings built on it. This is an axiom for megacities. Kyiv has not become a city of skyscrapers yet, but it is no exception – high-rise buildings and projects that may become so appear in the city with increasing frequency.
Should we expect the boom of such buildings? What are the specifics of such a construction and does Ukraine have appropriate rules for their construction? We discussed the realities and prospects of high-rise construction with the BRDO’s Construction sector head Olena Shulyak.
Height of buildings and Ukraine
Ukraine takes the 51st position (out of 174 countries) in terms of the total number of high-rise buildings and the 49th position in the list of 59 countries, which have more than 150 meter buildings.
In 2017, there were 144 skyscrapers of more than 200 meters high built globally. This is the largest-ever number of super-high buildings that were put into operation for the year. The average height of such facilities increased by 6 meters and reached 244 meters.
“In Ukraine, the average height of “skyscrapers” is 132.6 meters. The only project that has the chance to exceed this figure is a building of the multifunctional Sky Towers complex in Kyiv. Taking into account its spire, the highest point of the complex can be 220 meters high when the construction is finished,” Olena Shulyak said.
The Sky Towers Complex design project, which is being built in Kyiv
Such kind of “skyscrapers” are a real high-tech architectural and engineering miracle. Experts say that its design and construction requires ensuring a number of conditions such as a highly skilled engineering resource, modern design and construction technologies, access to modern high-quality construction materials and financial opportunities.
However, in Ukraine, for example, the highest tower crane used in construction reaches 200 meters in high. It is located in Zaporizhya and used for the construction of bridges. But the construction of the construction of bridges requires having a special equipment, which operates on a different basis.
Complicated life of skyscrapers
In addition, it is important not only to build, but also maintain a “skyscraper”.
Olena Shulyak says that the maintenance of a skyscraper is significantly more expensive than any other usual “high-rise”. The key factors of rising costs are the supply of water to the upper floors and the cost of servicing high-speed elevators.
“In the 632-meter Shanghai Tower skyscraper, elevator cabs move at a speed of almost 74 kilometers per hour, which is 20.5 meters per second. It is clear that servicing such a mechanism doesn’t come cheap. And this is one of the reasons why we do not have such buildings,” the BRDO expert said.
However, this is not the main point. The BRDO office is convinced that Ukraine has a chronic problem – the outdated, and in most cases, not available system of construction rules and standards for high-rise construction.
“We have technical rules and standards of the midst of the last century. They allow to build buildings no higher than 100 meters, and it is 25-30 floors. That is why, the buildings that exceed this mark have the status of pilot projects. And Sky Towers is one of them,” Olena Shulyak comments and adds that the current legislation doesn’t regulate even this experimental construction, and this is a significant gap in the regulatory policy.
“Our high-rise somewhat leaned”
There are different experiences with high-rise construction “pilot schemes”. Take a classical example. In the Brazilian city of Santos, which is not far from Sao Paulo, there is a city block with crooked multistory buildings located along the coastline.
Crooked high-rise buildings in Brazilian Santos
Until 1968, local construction rules did not provide for any special conditions for the type of foundation that could be used for multistory buildings. In theory, the building foundation should reach the grounds, which lies at a depth of about 50 meters in this region. However, these buildings on the waterfront have been built before these standards were amended, and their foundation is only 4-5 meters. After the first building leaned, it became clear that they should stop placing high-rise buildings on a small foundation, and the requirement to have a deep foundation for high-rise buildings was added to construction standards. Today, in Santos, there are about 90 buildings, which have already “deviated” from the vertical at a distance of 0.5-1.8 meters. In spite of this fact, people still live in their apartments, although they are dealing with everyday difficulties: furniture shifts, the impossibility to fill up a cup of coffee and so on.
People living in these Brazilian high-rise buildings can not even fill up a cup of coffee easily
The issue of high-rise construction is also closely related to the infrastructure problems of cities. After all, it is necessary to clearly understand logistics and engineering elements to maintenance “superbuildings”.
“Providing the skyscraper’s operation is another problematic issue, for which Ukraine has still no answer. After all, putting such a building into operation implies both the imbalance in networks, the logistics load and the issue of parking lots. For example, according to the Sky Towers project, which is being built almost in the very heart of Kyiv, about 17,000 people can work in the office building at the same time. And the project itself provides only 850 parking lots. Imagine how much time people will spend on finding a parking space?” Olena Shulyak emphasized.
According to UN forecasts, in 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. Today, this figure exceeds 54%. The population of cities increases by 68 million annually. That is, the urbanization will be at least 180,000 people a day in the next few decades. That is why, the process of “increasing cities up” due to high-rise buildings is an inevitable fact. This is the reality of the near future. And it is very important to be prepared for this.
Olena Shulyak believes that a difficult but important way lies ahead. We need to develop and implement high-rise construction rules urgently, analyze the possibilities of building skyscrapers in Ukrainian cities and create the preconditions for avoiding infrastructure collapses. The BRDO is ready to provide expert-analytical support for this process, because we may keep our eyes closed, but the problem won’t go away.
By Yanina Tkachuk
Someone thinks that the boundaries of an administrative-territorial unit are a conditional line, where a city ends. At the same time, specialists in spatial planning, land management and cadaster believe that this idea covers a comprehensive range of troublesome problems, which have not been solved for years and the consequences of which affect everyone.
What do actually the boundaries determine?
The boundaries of administrative-territorial units determine quite real things – the land management functions of local self-government and executive authorities. We have the right to choose a land plot for privatization or lease precisely within these boundaries and apply to an appropriate body to obtain it. In order to start negotiations with the authorities, any investor planning to invest in promising construction projects first and foremost will ask, “Where does a city end?”
The boundaries of administrative-territorial units influence the possibility to establish a normative-monetary valuation of land plots, set a land tax and hence to fill local budgets. It is because the land tax is paid to the budget of a territorial community, where a land plot is located. And this implies both the future development of the settlements’ infrastructure and many other urgent problems, which are solved using budget funds.
Lastly, the boundaries of administrative-territorial units determine the territory that will become a focus of activities of urban planning specialists. After all, how is it possible to perform spatial planning activities without being aware of a “scope of work”?
However, often the boundaries, or more precisely, the boundaries, which are not clearly defined, may have a destructive impact creating situations when several government bodies claim to control the same land plot. This is the very case, when people and sometimes the whole communities are divided by borders.
The city of Kherson can be a vivid example of this situation. The interest to the boundaries of this city grew after the land plots of 2 hectares were privatized for private agriculture purposes by 36 individuals based on the order of the head of the regional State Geocadastre. These land plots share borders directly with one of the residential areas in Kherson.
According to the Kherson City Council, the inventory of city’s lands was carried out in the 60s of the last century, while additional territories were annexed in 1984 and 1989. During the years of independence, the city’s boundaries have not been determined, and a land management plan for establishing the boundaries of the administrative-territorial unit has not been developed at all.
In these circumstances, we can use the existing urban planning documentation and the Public Cadastral Map.
As of February 15, 2018, the State Land Cadastre included the data on 674 administrative-territorial units. However, they are not included to the cadastral map. As for Kherson, the State Geocadastre only drew a boundary line of lands mentioned above as a separate cadastral zone, which is allegedly located outside the human settlement, and included several tens of agricultural areas allocated in 2013 to this zone.
At the same time, the disputed territory is considered as urban lands in the general plan of Kherson.
The point is that a new geoportal “Hromada”, which, by the way, is also filled up by the State Geocadastre, defines one half of the disputed land area as a city’s territory, and the second half – as a territory beyond its borders.
In such a way, due to the uncertainty of Kherson boundaries, the land plots allocated by the head of the regional State Geocadastre “are in the air” – the city authorities and State Geocadastre officials see the Kherson boundaries in different ways, and, of course, everyone tried to take advantage.
What can become a regulatory factor in these circumstances? The answer is traditional: quality laws and open data.
There should be a larger variety of quality geoportals
In general, we were pleasantly surprised with the filling of the mentioned geoportal “Hromada”. The resource, first of all, was created to make the transfer of land plots to united territorial communities (UTC) public, but it also includes the boundaries of raions and settlements. Obviously, we are not talking about the accurate mapping of one hundred percent of boundaries, but we are satisfied with such an initiative of the State Geocadastre.
At the same time, there is a Geoportal of administrative-territorial system of Ukraine developed on behalf of the Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities. It turns out that we now have two geoportals that contain information about administrative-territorial units, although according to the current legislation, the Public Cadastral Map should be the web resource, where their boundaries will be displayed. However, it contains no boundaries.
“Obtaining a land plot for construction in the direct neighborhood with the boundaries of the settlement is an additional risk for investors. No one guarantees that a neighboring community will not declare its rights to this territory,” the Construction Sector Head at BRDO Olena Shulyak says. “Due to the fact that the boundaries of settlements were determined yet in Soviet times, often there are situations when it is impossible to 100% confirm the accuracy of these boundaries. For example, the boundaries of the city of Kyiv have not officially been determined since independence till now. If the capital provides such a model of delay, then other cities are slow to make their boundaries clearly defined.”
This situation is completely in the style of Ukrainian realities, and there is no surprise at all. But it would not hurt to return to the normal state of affairs. For example, the information on the boundaries of those 674 administrative-territorial units included in the State Land Cadastre should be added to the Public Cadastral Map. The next step can be to digitize the borders that were really defined, but they were not included in the cadastre.
As for the rest of settlements, one can determine the boundaries systematically throughout Ukraine on the basis of index cadastral maps. In order to avoid such situations as it happened in Kherson and determine the boundaries of an administrative-territorial unit accurately, it is important to use data on the boundaries of village and township councils, former collective farms and state-owned farms for comprehensive activities.
After these activities are over, the data on the boundaries of administrative-territorial units should be displayed on the Public Cadastral Map as a separate element. When clicking on a city, village or township, the information on when the boundaries were established and by which order they were approved should appear. When clicking on settlements, the boundaries of which were determined on the basis of index cadastral maps, this information should also be provided.
Such ideas do not claim to be the ultimate truth, but they are dictated by the experience of searching for information about the boundaries of cities, and the proposed model would be easy to use.
Legislative context
Today, you can count provisions of the current legislation, which regulate establishing and changing the boundaries of administrative-territorial units, with the fingers of one hand. These are some articles of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Land Code, Laws of Ukraine “On Land Management” and “On the State Land Cadastre”.
But the content of these few provisions is a matter of concern for specialists.
For example, on February 14, 2018, the NGO “Association of Land Management Specialists of Ukraine” held a nationwide roundtable on “Problems of establishing boundaries between administrative-territorial units and united territorial communities”. During the discussion, mainly the requirements for the land management plan’s data set forth in Art. 46 of the Law “On Land Management” caused the indignation. According to the specialists involved in establishing and changing boundaries in practice, the inaccuracy of requirements in this article (for example, including a general plan’s copy in the land management plan without specifying whether all the general plan’s data, which takes more than one hundred pages, or only some parts of the documents are required, etc.) leads to its divergent interpretations during the state examination of land management documents, so in two similar cases, one land management plan is approved, and the other – is not.
A separate aspect covers problematic issues that are not regulated by law at all: what to do if it is impossible to find the Soviet-era documents indicating a course of settlement’s boundaries, or if, as it sometimes happens, there is just the total area of an administrative-territorial unit instead of the boundaries defined, or what to do when a city boundary divides private plots in half.
These issues, as well as the problem of agreeing borders with neighboring communities, often delay the process of establishing boundaries of administrative-territorial units for years with no prospects of being ever completed.
The video from the roundtable is available here and here.
It seems that all the disadvantages of legislative regulation of the procedure for establishing and changing the boundaries of administrative-territorial units should be resolved by a certain specialized law. Especially as the administrative-territorial reform has now been long overdue: under the Law of Ukraine “On voluntary unification of territorial communities”, the UTCs are created throughout the country, but the Constitution of Ukraine still does not consider them as components of the administrative-territorial system that threatens the legitimacy of ongoing processes.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government agrees that it is necessary to adopt the specialized law.
“The principles of the administrative-territorial system and the procedure of establishing and changing boundaries are regulated by various legislative acts: the Constitution, the Land Code, and the Law “On Land Management”. In practice, this creates a number of problems, so the members of the relevant Committee have a clear stance: these issues should be regulated by a separate law,” the Committee’s chief consultant Yuriy Harbuz says.
Actually, the first step towards this has already been taken recently – the Cabinet of Ministers submitted a draft Law “On Principles of the Administrative-Territorial System of Ukraine” to the parliament. Meantime, the document has been only submitted to the relevant Committee, so it’s too early to speak of a thorough analysis of the text. “The draft law has not been completely reviewed. Probably, it will be amended, but in general, the Committee supports the adoption of such a law,” Mr.Harbuz says.
At the same time, Roman Marusenko, the PhD in Law, Associate Professor of the Department of Land and Agrarian Law of the Law Faculty at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Ukraine, points out the common weaknesses of the document. “It is important to read the explanatory note, as it describes in detail the real problems. And then we should compare it with the draft law and see what was implemented and in which way. Having looked briefly, I do not see the solution to all the problems in the note.” In such a way, the draft law still has some issues to work out and discuss in order to systematize it and submit for a plenary vote.
However, the current parliament will complete its term soon. If this draft law is considered as slow as it was submitted, then it will not be adopted by this Verkhovna Rada. Therefore, it is important not only to finalize this draft law in a professional way, but also to intensify activities on its advocacy in the parliament.
The sooner the legal gaps are resolved, the less often there will be cases similar to the situation in Kherson. The sooner we establish and make the real boundaries of human settlements publicly available, the less incentive the deal makers will have to allocate land plots in violation of community rights.
Written by Alisa Voytenko
From now on, the regulation.gov.ua/inflation service allows everyone to make their own dish and track the dynamics of its price! You just need to choose the products your dish is made and a time interval by using the online tool, and the program will show how the price for each single ingredient or for a dish as a whole has been changed.
“This tool allows you to see how the prices of products commonly used in Ukraine change in a few clicks, and make your own conclusions based on this information,” the BRDO Head Oleksiy Honcharuk says.
The platform is also equipped with an inflation calculator that allows to evaluate how the prices have changed in the country over time.
The online service regulation.gov.ua/inflation automatically collects data from open sources (Derzhstat, the NBU, World Bank, Eurostat) and records the daily dynamics of prices for products according to the largest online supermarkets. Information is also presented by regions.
The regulation.gov.ua/inflation platform:
Users are able to edit the chart according to their goals and download it to their computers. It is also possible to add individual charts to your website. Soon the BRDO Office will launch a Housing Affordability Index.
The Ministry of Education and Science and the BRDO Office will work together to create conditions for developing a market of educational technologies and services. As part of the signed Memorandum of Cooperation, the BRDO will help the Ministry to develop new rules for the market of electronic educational content and implement its effective regulation.
In particular, the BRDO will join in the creation of a National Educational e-Platform. BRDO experts together with the specialists of the Ministry of Education and the Institute of Educational Content Modernization are already developing a regulatory framework that will provide a basis for the e-platform, which will accumulate modern educational content in digital format.
“The state should clearly formulate its digital education policy, and our goal is to help the Ministry of Education with that. It is obvious that it is impossible to implement such a policy effectively without creating a market for the production of educational technologies, so we hope to work together in creating a regulatory framework to stimulate its development” the Head of the Better Regulation Delivery Office Oleksiy Honcharuk said.
We also remind that in February, the Ministry of Education submitted two conceptual documents – the draft Order “On Approval of the Regulation on Electronic Textbooks” and the draft Resolution of the CMU “On the National Electronic Platform” – for public discussion.
Public consultations on the development of e-platform specifications and requirements will be launched with the involvement of IT market experts soon.
About 100 residential buildings of more than 16 floors, that is, more than 50 meters in height, are built annually in Ukraine. 54% of buildings of 16 floors and more are built in the capital. To build a 16-storey building, a construction project owner should obtain approvals from:
In addition, the UkSATSE can send its approval for examination to a specialized project institute (Ukraeroproekt).
73 air facilities were registered in the State Aviation Service: international airports, airports and aerodromes of civil aviation, helicopter aerodromes and landing grounds.
There are 5 airports (Boryspil SE, Zhulyany PUC, Antonov-1, Antonov-2, Kiev (Buzova), Dnipro-1 helicopter platform and a number of landing grounds (Chayka, Kyiv-Challenge, Kyiv-Yacht Club, etc.) in the metropolitan area. The State Aviation Service requires that construction projects should be necessarily agreed with 4 operators of aerodromes and the helicopter platform. Therefore, a real estate developer should spend his time and money to obtain 7 separate approvals on the same matter – ensuring aviation safety – by his own and for a long period to construct such a building in Kyiv. There is no responsibility for delaying the period of issuing approvals, and it may take up to 18 months to receive a package of approvals.
Subordinate legal acts are not in line with provisions of the Air Code and the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development” and create excessive and unreasonable complications for business owners. Subordinate acts cancel out the functions of local authorities in terms of determining conditions for the development of territories as well as urban planning conditions and restrictions.
And most importantly: this complicated long procedure has nothing in common with compliance with aviation safety requirements. The Air Code of Ukraine does not provide for sanctions against urban development actors for violations of construction procedures at aerodrome environs. For example, the “Sofiya Klubnuy” Residential Complex located at Sofievskaya Borshchagovka, 3 km from Kyiv. When being designed, this project was not approved by the State Aviation Service. On July 18, 2017, the State Aviation Service took a decision to suspend the construction of this RC on the grounds of violation of Article 69 of the Air Code. However, at the time when this order was issued, 8 out of 18 buildings included in this project have already been built and commissioned.
The BRDO Office launches reviewing the procedure that exists today. Our goal is to increase the effectiveness of regulation, ensure the safety of aviation and reduce the time and money of Ukrainian businesses. Join us!
Source: minregion.gov.ua.
The Ministry of Regional Development in cooperation with the public and experts worked out a roadmap of tasks to introduce new procedures for considering and approving deviations from state building codes. The roadmap was developed with the assistance of the BRDO Office, the International Intergovernmental Development Law Organization (IDLO), the government-public initiative “Together against corruption”, the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) and the Reform Support Team (RST).
“The deregulation in the construction sector and the elimination of corruption risks are the priority tasks of the construction block of the Ministry of Regional Development. A particular attention is given to state building codes. We already have a plan to revise outdated DBNs and approve the new ones, which there are 16 DBNs this year, while we approved 13 DBNs last year. In addition, our joint task is to make procedures for considering deviations from DBNs as transparent as possible with maximum publicity and eliminate existing corruption risks,” the Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Hennady Zubko said.
As a result, in cooperation with international partners and the public sector, the membership structure of sections of the Scientific and Technical Council (that deal with deviations from DBN) was changed and the presence of an independent expert community was increased as well as the publicity of procedures was enhanced.
In addition, anti-corruption measures taken by the Ministry of Regional Development in this area were mentioned in the public report of the Government-public initiative “Together against corruption”.
Oleksiy Orzhel, the BRDO’s Energy sector head, said that it is impossible to develop the market of electric charging stations in Ukraine without creating an appropriate legislative framework. This was discussed during the presentation of the Concept for development of the market of electric charging stations as part of the Third International Exhibition of Electric Vehicles and Plug-In Ukraine hybrids.
In Ukraine, there is actually no market of electric charging stations, and this hinders the development of the segment of environmentally friendly transport modes significantly. Using electric cars requires to resolve a number of issues on their maintenance and service. A specialized cluster of topical issues is related to the development of infrastructure, in particular the conditions to connect to electricity networks. That is why BRDO experts conducted a detailed study of the regulation of energy efficiency markets and the retail electricity market. It served as a basis to develop the Concept for development of the market of electric charging stations.
“Electric cars reduce the state’s dependence on energy resources, promote environmental safety and have a positive impact on the country’s economy as a whole. However, in Ukraine, the development of this sector is impossible without creating the appropriate legislative framework for the market of electric charging stations,” the Energy sector head Oleksiy Orzhel said.
Read more about the Concept for development of the market of electric charging stations here.
The BRDO presented a Dumpling’s Index and an online service allowing users to get the current prices in one place in a few clicks and in real time. This service saves users’ time to find and process the information.
“To calculate the dumpling’s price, you need to know how much every single ingredient such as eggs, flour, sour cream, butter, etc. costs. Our service contains the daily dynamics of prices for these products according to the largest online supermarkets. Information is also presented by regions. This will allow every user to monitor online how the prices change for the whole country or in each region,” the BRDO Head Oleksiy Honcharuk said.
According to him, prices in the Dumpling’s Index have grown by 6.82% over the past 4 months.
“We do not want anyone manipulating the data, trying to justify their false space theories. Therefore, our BRDO team has developed an online service that will provide users with the latest and most accurate information regarding such serious matters for the country as prices for social important products,” Honcharuk summed up.
There is an inflation calculator that allows to evaluate how the prices have changed in the country over time, available on the platform. In addition, the service will provide the information on how much the hryvnya depreciates in reality allowing to make conclusions about inflation.
How does it work? The online service automatically collects data from open sources (Derzhstat, the NBU, World Bank, Eurostat) and presents them in a convenient way.
In addition, users are able to edit the chart according to their goals and download it to their computers. It is also possible to add individual charts to your website.
The Dumpling’s Index (11.2017-02.2018, data of retail store chains)
+6.82% 35.57 UAH
*Calculations are based on a classic recipe of dumplings with potatoes. Portion for 4 persons
**Source: Online prices of Fozzy, Hobyc, Metro and Auchan
The BRDO plans to continue introducing new instruments that will help analyze the relationship of inflation and other indicators. Soon we will launch a basket of consumer goods of Ukrainians and a Housing Affordability Index. Details at https://regulation.gov.ua/inflation.
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The Ministry of Education and Science submits a draft Regulation on the National Educational Electronic Platform for public discussion.
This document is the product of joint work of experts of the Better Regulation Delivery Office, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Institute of Education Content Modernization with the advisory support of the State Agency for E-Government of Ukraine.
The Regulation will create a regulatory framework for the implementation and operation of the e-platform, which will provide all those involved in the educational process with modern electronic educational resources and services. In particular, the e-platform will become a resource to provide school students and the teaching staff with electronic textbooks free of charge in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Education”.
The National Educational E-Platform will boost the development of the market for electronic educational products and services, serve in promoting the e-learning and developing the digital competency of all those involved in the educational process in Ukraine.
The discussion of the draft Regulation will continue up to March 28. Please follow the link to read the document and join the discussion.
In addition, we are currently preparing for public consultations on the development of e-platform technical specifications and requirements.
In 2016, solid household waste generation volumes in Ukraine comprised 49 million cubic meters or about 11 million tons. In spite of the fact that Ukrainian population has been constantly decreasing over the past 20 years, garbage generation volumes are increasing, amounting to 250-300 kg per person annually.
In 2016, only 5.8% of generated household waste were recycled, while the rest was brought to landfills. In 2016, 5,470 landfills were registered in Ukraine; 305 of them are overloaded, and 1,646 do not meet environmental safety standards. The country needs to build at least 464 new landfills.
Why is the situation catastrophic? Our country does not have national and regional waste management plans. The Cabinet of Ministers approved the National Waste Management Strategy only at the end of 2017. Local authorities establish either unreasonable tariffs for solid household waste collecting services (too high level of profitability, additional costs) or the tariffs that are not economically justified. Moreover, local authorities are delaying the creation of a mechanism for setting up the price of both household waste recycling and disposal services for business entities. Landfills are full, but they are still being used. Due to imperfect organizational and economic principles of using recycled materials in production, only a small percentage of garbage is sorted.
We in the BRDO are not happy with the situation. Therefore, we are initiating a review of the state policy in the waste management sector. Stay tuned.
The second meeting of the working group on the harmonization of national standards in construction was held today with the participation of representatives of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Construction and the Ministry of Economic Development, heads of associations and professional organizations of constructions materials manufacturers.
They discussed the terms and definitions used in the draft law No.7151 “On Basic Requirements for Buildings as well as Conditions to Place Construction Products on the Market”.
“We will continue working to ensure that the draft law No.7151 is a really useful and transparent instrument that will become the basis to fully implement the provisions of European legislation regarding the economic introduction of construction materials after its adoption by the Verkhovna Rada,” the Construction Sector head Olena Shulyak said.
According to provisions of the Association between Ukraine and the EU, our country was committed to implement the standards of European legislation regarding the elimination of non-tariff barriers by 2020 and review the national system of technical regulation.
The Government simplified the procedure for the development and approval of research and project documents for construction in historical settlements. The relevant draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On Amendments to the Procedure for Determining the Boundaries and Regimes of Using Historical Areas of Settlements and Restrictions on Economic Activities in Historical Areas of Settlements” was approved by the Government on February 21.
The draft resolution cancels the necessity of a historical and city planning justification in those historically populated areas where historical and architectural reference plans have been developed and approved in accordance with the established procedure. And starting from January 1, 2019, a historical and city planning justification system will be completely abolished. All project documents for new construction projects in historically populated areas should be developed solely in accordance with historical and architectural reference plans.
“Such an instrument as the approval of historical and city planning justifications is not provided by law. Its development is determined only by methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Culture, but the use of this instrument made it possible to go beyond the rules of general plans and involved risks to the preservation of cultural heritage,” the BRDO’s Construction Sector head Olena Shuliak said.
However, this can be considered only a half victory, since not many settlements have historical and architectural reference plans. According to the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development”, it is necessary to define regimes of land development regulation and develop historical and architectural reference plans for settlements, which are historic sites, within defined areas in the framework of general plans. However, as of September 2017, such plans are approved only in 86 settlements, that is, in 20% of places of historical interest in Ukraine. So, land development rules are not actually specified in 80% of settlements. Moreover, 50% of regional centers, particularly, Kyiv and Lviv, where UNESCO World Heritage sites are located, do not have reference plans.
BRDO hopes that the abolition of historical and city planning justifications would accelerate the adoption of historical and architectural reference plans of settlements by relevant local authorities.