Ukrainian ports from December 20 to 29 left 41 vessels with almost 1.6 million tons of food, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) reports.
“From December 20 to 28, 38 vessels left Ukrainian ports, they transported a total of 1,552,879 tons of grain and other foodstuffs within the framework of the Black Sea grain initiative,” the report said.
It is noted that on December, 29 three dry cargo vessels with 42,070 tons of food left Ukrainian ports.
Two vessels New Victory (23.5 tons of barley) and Panjali Teymurov (3.3 thousand tons of vegetable oil and 2 970 tons of soybean oil) went to Tunisia. Aileen dry cargo ship will deliver 12.3 thousand tons of sunflower meal to Morocco.
SKZ reported that “61 applications for participation in the initiative have been submitted.
In addition, 10 vessels are waiting for permission to enter Ukrainian ports, 31 loaded vessels are waiting for departure to their destinations.
“As of December 29, the total tonnage of grain and other agricultural products exported from the three Ukrainian ports is 15,959,660 tons. A total of 1,206 vessels have been permitted to move so far: 597 to arrive at Ukrainian ports and 609 to leave them,” the JCC summarized.
The Verkhovna Rada has ratified an agreement between the governments of Ukraine and the Republic of Tunisia on cooperation and mutual assistance in customs matters.
As the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk said in the Telegram channel, the corresponding decision was made at a parliament meeting on Friday.
It is noted that the purpose of the bill is the ratification of the said agreement, the entry into force of which will create legal grounds for resolving issues of cooperation and mutual assistance in customs matters between Ukraine and the Republic of Tunisia.
The document, in particular, provides for the provision of mutual administrative assistance in the customs area in order to counter customs offenses and prevent them.
“The signing of the intergovernmental Ukrainian-Tunisian Agreement on cooperation and mutual assistance is extremely important in the context of the development of relations between Ukraine and Tunisia, both in customs and in general,” Melnichuk wrote.
COOPERATION, CUSTOMS MATTERS, MUTUAL ASSISTANCE, RATIFIED AGREEMENT, TUNISIA
Tunisia is ready to start the negotiation process on concluding an agreement on a free trade area (FTA) with Ukraine, negotiations may begin in the first quarter of 2022, Ukrainian Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia Volodymyr Khomanets has said. “Tunisia views Ukraine as a strategic partner, and this has been declared. Tunisia confirmed its readiness for the negotiation process during consultations in July this year,” Khomanets said during the presentation of the study “Evidence-based Policy Making – Economic Impact Assessments of Potential Free Trade Agreements of Ukraine,” held in Kyiv on Thursday.He noted that Tunisia seeks to diversify the geography of foreign economic activity.“They have experience of concluding FTA agreements with partners such as Turkey, Great Britain. They are somewhat disappointed in this, therefore, Ukraine is considered as a more reliable and promising trading partner,” the ambassador said.He emphasized that the FTA with Tunisia will also open up the markets of its two neighbors, Algeria and Libya, for Ukraine.Khomanets also recalled that Tunisia is part of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention. Ukraine is interested in Tunisia from the point of view of opening the European market for itself, and the Tunisian side, according to him, is ready to introduce liberal rules for trade on a quota basis.As noted by Scientific Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting Veronika Movchan, presenting an assessment of the potential impact of the FTA with Tunisia, grain and ferrous metals are the basis of Ukrainian exports to this country. From Tunisia, Ukraine mainly exports soles for shoes, to a lesser extent – electronics and textile clothing.According to her, modeling the introduction of the FTA with Tunisia assumes an increase in Ukrainian exports to this country by 115%, which is due to a low comparative base, and imports to Ukraine – by 53%. “Sectorally, metallurgy will mainly benefit, as well as crop production,” Movchan said.
OTI Holding, which includes the Ukrainian tour operator Coral Travel, intends to create the OTI Hotels & Resorts International hotel chain as part of the reorganization of the hotel business. Director of Coral Travel Tetiana Prokopenko told Interfax-Ukraine that by the beginning of the summer season 2020, the network will include more than 20 hotels, and by the end of the year it will expand to 30 hotels in the resorts of Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia.
According to Prokopenko, the network will be developed via renting or buying hotels, taking them into management, and also through franchising – work under an agreement on holding standards related to service, staff training, guest relations, food, drinks, branding, active leisure, sports, animation, children’s events and sanitary standards.
OTI Hotels & Resorts International will include hotels of various levels. They will operate under the new Seven Seas Resorts & Hotels brand, as well as under the well-established brands Otium Hotels and Xanadu Resort.
In addition, Coral Travel plans to expand the flight program from Kyiv and the regions in the 2020 season, as well as increase its own product list in the most popular directions – Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Spain.
The tour operator also plans the further development of its own two franchise networks, Coral Travel travel agency and Coral Elite Service travel agency. By the end of 2020, the latter would have 350 offices in 90 cities of Ukraine.
CORAL TRAVEL, EGYPT, HOTEL CHAIN, OTI HOLDING, TUNISIA, TURKEY
