The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the procedure for compensating citizens' lost savings in the former USSR Savings Bank through the repayment of debts for housing and communal services. This was stated by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at a press conference, reports "Ukrainian News.

The sale of forest raw materials at auction is being introduced due to the emergence of a new structure in the region — an association of employers in the woodworking industry, headed by Oleh Boiko.

At the beginning of the year, the stationary retail trade network of legal entity enterprises in the region numbered 1,476 stores with a retail area of almost 129,000 square meters, 531 kiosks, and 1,187 catering establishments.

The Volyn Regional Directorate of Aval Bank continues the tradition started last year of providing charitable assistance to children of orphanages, boarding schools, and children's homes on the occasion of the professional holiday - Ukrainian Banker's Day.

In Volyn, as in the country as a whole, the situation on the petroleum products market, according to Anatoliy Volodin, who heads the regional territorial department of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, is tense but not as critical as in other regions of Ukraine. Mr.

Volodymyr Bondar, head of the Volyn Regional State Administration, at the weekly operational meeting in the administration on Monday, summing up 100 days of work of the new government in the region, emphasized two main problems that exist in Volyn. The first is the failure to fulfill the state budget in the region.

Russia decided to raise the export duty rate on crude oil and crude petroleum products obtained from bituminous rocks by 32.7% to $136.2 per tonne from June 1.

According to Poroshenko, the legislative removal of privileges for all industries "must be combined with the president's thesis on the need for state support of the automotive industry.

The volume of trade turnover in Lutsk is 2.5 times higher than the wage fund.

In the first quarter of 2005, foreign investors invested 382.2 million dollars of direct investment in the Ukrainian economy, including 14.7 million dollars from CIS countries (3.9% of the total volume), and 367.5 million dollars from other countries of the world.