Opportunities for Ukraine’s integration in the “New Silk Road” project has become the subject of a lively discussion between Ukrainian and Chinese entrepreneurs and officials during the investment session under the auspices of the Kyiv International Economic Forum held on May 23, 2016.
Participants agreed that the trade turnover between our countries can be
increased by times, if a fruitful dialogue between Ukraine and China establishes
at all levels. New Silk Road economic cooperation association involving 21
countries, including Ukraine, is one of the way to enhance this dialogue. The
official launch of the association, that will take place in June this year in
Beijing, was announced during the event in Kyiv by Xiong Meng, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary
General of China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE). He
also noted that 300 billion yuan (approximately $46 billion) have been raised
for the economic cooperation association, and an extensive online communication
platform for participating companies has been already launched.
In 2015, the trade turnover between Ukraine and China was more
than $6 billion. According to the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development
and Trade Yuliia Kovaliv, China
is one of the top three trade partners of our country and one of the largest
investment partners – joint projects for more than $7 billion are now under
implementation at national level. However, both Ukrainian and Chinese
businessmen are sure that these amounts could be much higher. According to Liu Jun, Adviser to the Office of Trade
and Economic Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine, there are many
prospects in Ukraine-China relations. There are many areas for increasing
cooperation: energy, including the construction of hydroelectric power
stations, railways, port infrastructure, roads, electric cars, garbage
disposal, public transport, etc.
At the event on May 23, Ukrainian officials and entrepreneurs have offered
Chinese businesses to consider Ukraine as a major industrial player and called
for opening modern manufacturing here. For their part, they promised to provide
investors with all necessary infrastructure including industrial parks, as well
as skilled and inexpensive labor, and minimum interaction with officials.
Representatives of Lviv, Cherkasy and Odessa Regions have presented many investment projects, inviting Chinese partners to participate in them. Particular attention was paid to “Bila Tserkva” industrial park, an ambitious project which may become one of the points of Ukraine's economic growth. In his turn, the Head of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Serhii Savchuk encouraged investing in the field of renewable energy. Its national development plan is estimated at $16 billion by 2020. According to Mr. Savchuk, Ukraine has about 6.5 million individual households, which suggests creating a potentially huge market of roof solar panels that can be produced in Ukraine.
In general, from the Chinese side, the delegation was headed by top
officials of the China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE). It also
included representatives of the Embassy of China in Ukraine and about two dozen
large Chinese companies, such as COMPLANT and Anhui Foreign Economic
Construction Group (AFECC), as well as delegates from the Foreign Affairs
Office of Heilongjiang Province.
Ukraine was represented by the Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian and his Deputy Yurii Vaskov, Deputy Minister of
Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Vladyslava
Rutytska, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Yuliia Kovaliv, Deputy
Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Roman Chuprynenko, President of the
Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Anatolii Kinakh, businessmen and
regional authorities.
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Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) is a permanently operating venue for the formation of Ukrainian economic development strategy. It is aimed to set up a dialogue between experts, businesses and government, borrowing the best international practices, creating a road map for the development and promotion of the conversion of ideas into the real action.