The Government of Sweden and the United Nations Development Program are providing funding to support electronic and inclusive services for vulnerable groups in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said.
“Cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation will take place within the framework of the project ‘Digital, Inclusive, Accessible: Supporting the Digitization of Public Services in Ukraine’ (DIIA Support) with a total budget of UAH 128 million (approximately $4.5 million),” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
Fedorov wrote that this project is aimed at improving the quality of access of Ukrainians to electronic administrative and social services.
Within its framework, the Ministry of Digital Transformation will work on: providing comprehensive services for vulnerable groups of the population; developing of software for services and related equipment; creating sustainable infrastructure and access to information and communication technologies; raising the level of digital literacy; conducting communication campaigns about electronic services and providing support for users of services; developing a system of advanced training and a regulatory framework; creating educational and training programs for public authorities, Administrative Service Centres, and so on; cooperation with the office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the implementation period of the program is January 2021 – December 2023.
DIIA Support was launched by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine with the support of the Swedish Embassy.
Oleksiy Arestovych, non-staff advisor to the Head of the President’s Office on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense, announced the planned return of the post of special representative of the State Department of the United States for Ukraine, which was occupied by Kurt Walker in 2017-2019.
“There is strong support, so far informal, from Britain and the United States. The talk is about the fact that there will be a new United States special envoy for Donbas, that is, this post is institutionally returning. There are several statements by the French and German Foreign Ministries that Ukraine is making strong consistent steps on the implementation of agreements, and Russia is not doing this,” Arestovych told reporters after the press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that the future administration of United States President-elect Joe Biden is already considering the possibility of introducing tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation. “In the future Biden administration, many people say informally that sanctions will be imposed on Russia, which do not constrain, but cripple, break. Many people say that for every death of our soldier, artillery fire should be opened,” Arestovych said.
In addition, he said that on December 10, a meeting will be held at the level of the heads of EU states, where sanctions against the Russian Federation will be automatically extended. “The point is that they may even be strengthened after this demarche, after Russia once again showed that it is a state that does not fulfill international agreements at the highest level. Putin actually signed these agreements in Paris, and who did not fulfill them? President Zelensky gave a year to fulfill them. Who is to blame? The Russians,” the advisor said.
Arestovych said that Russia accuses France and Germany, the participants of the Normandy format, of playing the role of mediator in an inappropriate way and playing along with Ukraine. “In fact, Russia wants to get out not only from Minsk, but also from the Normandy format now,” he said.
TOP 20 countries Ukraine has posted the highest surplus of trade in goods in Jan-Aug (thsd usd).
SSC of Ukraine
As of November 30, Ukrainian agricultural producers harvested 80.9 million tonnes of basic crops from an area of 23.8 million hectares, in particular, 62.5 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops were harvested from an area of about 15 million hectares (98% of the forecast).
According to a report on the website of the Ministry of Economy, the following crops were harvested: corn – 26.8 million tonnes from an area of 5.1 million hectares (94%), soybeans – 2.8 million tonnes from 1.3 million hectares (99%), sugar beet – 9 million tonnes from an area of 212,200 hectares (98%).
Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia Mykola Kulinich held a number of meetings in Melbourne, the purpose of which is to expand the Ukrainian-Australian cooperation in the trade and economic sphere, the press service of the Ukrainian Embassy in Australia said.
“The meeting with President of the Australian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce Eugene Hawryszko was devoted to the discussion of the prospects for increasing trade between the two countries, the possibility of entering the Australian market for new types of Ukrainian products, as well as the establishment of joint ventures,” the statement says.
In addition, according to the press service of the embassy, during a meeting with head of the Australian-Ukrainian Business Council J. Epp, they discussed attracting Australian investments and technologies to Ukraine, as well as further organizational restructuring of the business council.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-November 2020 halved compared to the same period in 2019, to $3.93 billion from $8.15 billion, in November the foreign trade deficit amounted to $590 million compared to $360 million in deficit in October and $860 million in deficit in November last year. According to the data of the State Customs Service, export of goods from Ukraine for the specified period compared to the same period in 2019 decreased by 3.51%, to $44.45 billion, import by 10.77%, to $48.38 billion.
The State Customs Service clarified that in November this year, compared with October, the volume of exports increased by 2.21%, to $4.73 billion, imports by 6.75%, to $5.32 billion.
At the same time, compared to November 2019, exports increased by 9.15%, imports by 2.43% in monetary terms.
According to the customs data, China remains the largest trade partner of Ukraine in January-November with a trade turnover of $43.9 billion, a deficit of almost $15.6 billion. It is followed by the Russian Federation (a turnover of $39.7 billion, a negative balance of $12.97 billion) and Germany (trade turnover is $28.3 billion, a deficit of $11.86 billion), according to the State Customs Service.
