1. Last week, the first working meeting of the participants of the Rivne Furniture Cluster took place, which became another successful project of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, uniting the most powerful enterprises in the industry. They were joined by furniture makers from the Lviv region, Kyiv region, Kharkiv region, Podillia, and Chernihiv region, who came to Rivne to take over the experience of industry clustering.

2. This year’s first wave of applications for receiving microgrants under the “Vlasna sprava” program for starting or developing one’s own business began in early February. Receive a micro-grant from 50 to 250 thousand UAH. active entrepreneurs can. It can be spent on purchasing or leasing equipment, purchasing raw materials and renting premises.

3. So that domestic and foreign investors who have taken a wait-and-see position are not afraid to take risks in war conditions, a draft law on business investment insurance has been initiated, which will be carried out within the limits of the authorized capital of the export credit agency, as well as by reinsurance of investments in foreign insurance companies.

4. The further, the greater the number of Ukrainian companies deliberately abandoning the Russian language on their websites, applications and business communication. At the same time, their managers report that this has by no means affected their profits. And furniture makers should not be left behind in this matter.

5. Last year, the State Tax Service returned only 69% of the requested VAT refund. In January, the number of blocked invoices decreased to 0.9%, which is explained by the fact that government officials excluded VAT invoices with a supply volume of up to UAH 5,000 from monitoring. and renewed the registration of documents that were blocked from October 14, 2022.

6. The government expanded the program of providing compensation to employers for the employment of certain categories of registered unemployed. The state compensates the payment of unemployment benefits in the amount of up to two minimum insurance contributions for employment for at least two years of the unemployed with additional guarantees in employment. We are talking about people who are 10 years old or less before retirement, single parents, orphans, and released after imprisonment.

7. Attempts to “play” with grading and cubic capacity, the presence of a conflict of interests (for example, when the wood is sold to a contractor who harvests it), manipulations with the formation of lots for the exchange – these and other violations in forestry management will be recorded by raiding teams of the security department of the State Forestry Agency and materials will be immediately handed over to law enforcement agencies.

8. The Danish furniture company “BoConcept” continues to support Ukraine by providing another two million Danish kroner for the restoration of destroyed housing in the capital. For the previous one and a half million, the restoration of the building is being completed, to which 115 residents of the capital will return already in the spring.

9. The Swedish furniture giant “IKEA” offered the market a new trend: a comprehensive collection of household items for a healthy and beautiful home arrangement. The BASTUA collection includes 26 products – from furniture to tableware and textiles in bright prints. The collection is designed to create the impression of endless summer.

10. The market of furniture fittings has been replenished with third-generation B-type-i insert curtains, equipped with a Titus premium-class damper of the same brand with a guarantee of 80,000 work cycles. For installation on furniture facades with a thickness of 15 mm or more, the curtain cup requires a shallow drilling depth – only 11.5 mm.