The Georgian ambassador to Ukraine, who was recalled for consultations in May 2020 in connection with the situation related to former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, will be sent back to Kyiv in the near future.
The decision to bring the Georgian ambassador back to Kyiv will be made shortly, Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said on the Rustavi 2 television channel on Saturday. “This is the wrong time and the wrong circumstance – tensions escalating around Ukraine – to not have our ambassador in place,” Zalkaliani said, adding that Georgia would seek dynamic development of relations with Ukraine.
“We have a lot of common challenges, bilateral relations have been affected, but we are a state and we act to the benefit of state interests,” Zalkaliani said, adding that Ukraine took Georgia’s decision to recall its ambassador with understanding.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry recalled Ambassador Teimuraz Sharashenidze from Kyiv for consultations in May 2020 after former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (2004-2013) was naturalized by Ukraine and took charge of the Executive Committee of Ukraine’s National Reform Council. Tbilisi explained its demarche with the appointment of a person convicted in Georgia to an official position in Ukraine in contradiction to the spirit of bilateral cooperation. In addition, the Georgian authorities repeatedly called Kyiv’s attention to the fact that Saakashvili kept interfering in Georgia’s internal affairs.
Ukraine in January-March this year increased exports of coke and semi-coke in quantity terms by 6.7 times compared to the same period last year, to 48,970 tonnes.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service, in monetary terms, exports of coke and semi-coke increased by 14.2 times over this period, to $11.880 million.
At the same time, main exports were carried out to Turkey (52.68% of supplies in monetary terms), Bosnia and Herzegovina (12.58%) and Kazakhstan (12.28%).
Ukraine in January-March 2021 imported 84,895 tonnes of coke and semi-coke, which is 2.4 times more compared to January-March 2020. In monetary terms, imports increased by 2.5 times, to $21.141 million.
The products were mainly imported from the Russian Federation (57.24% of deliveries in monetary terms), Poland (24.37%) and the Czech Republic (14.53%).
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 12/04/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of April 12
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukrainian vehicle manufacturers produced 1,829 vehicles in January-March of this year, which is 34% more than in the same period in 2020, according to a posting on the website of the Ukrautoprom association.
As reported, in January-February 2021, vehicle production exceeded the figure for the same period last year by 3%.
According to the preliminary data of the association, in the first quarter the production of passenger cars increased by 43%, to 1,690 units, production of buses decreased by 24%, to 133 units, and only six commercial vehicles were produced versus 12 a year earlier.
In March alone, car production increased 2.5 times compared with March 2020, to 722 units, including cars produced 2.7 times more – 665 units, which is also 48% more than the February indicator of the current year.
At the same time, the association recalled that in March last year, statistics in this segment were formed only by one plant – Eurocar, and the Zaporizhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ) resumed production of passenger cars only in September.
In the March statistics on commercial vehicles, as in the previous year, only two vehicles assembled at the Cherkasy Bus plant are announced, and AvtoKrAZ still does not disclose information on its production figures (since August 2016).
The production of buses in March grew by 37.5%, to 55 units.
The specialized departments of the State Customs Service have begun testing the updated automated risk management system (ASUR 2.0), developed as part of the EU4PFM program support, the authority said on its website.
As indicated by the State Customs Service, the updated system will allow transferring a significant part of data from paper format to digital, and processes will go online.
“In particular, ASUR 2.0 should allow maintaining an electronic register of profiles (replacing the hard-to-use paper one), digitizing the history of the profile (including the history of all actions that occur with this profile),” the service said.
In addition, the updated system contains tools for monitoring and analyzing the effectiveness of risks, as well as analyzing declarations to work on new risks.
ASUR 2.0 has already passed four types of preliminary tests, including stress testing and testing for vulnerabilities. It is equipped with all the required papers, internal regulatory documents have been drawn up, the customs service said.
