The trade turnover between Ukraine and Azerbaijan for the first time in seven years has reached an all-time high levels of almost $1 billion, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said. “The commodity turnover [between Ukraine and Azerbaijan] not only did not decrease, despite what is happening around the world and our states are no exception, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time in seven years, the trade turnover has reached an all-time high of almost $1 billion “, Zelensky said during a joint briefing with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine and Azerbaijan set a goal to double the volume of joint trade by 2024, increase the amount of joint investments and projects, in particular, the participation of Azerbaijani companies in the Great Construction program, as well as mutual participation in the construction of new infrastructure in both states.
Also, according to the president, Ukraine counts on the active participation of Azerbaijani business in privatization in Ukraine.
Ukraine in January-March 2021 increased the import of oil and petroleum raw materials (according to foreign economic activity code 2709) by 1.7 times (by 124,640 tonnes) compared to the same period in 2020, to 305,313 tonnes.
According to the State Customs Service, raw materials for $110.084 million were imported over three months, which is 10.4% more than in January-March 2020 ($99.746 million).
The entire volume of oil came from Azerbaijan.
Ukraine did not export oil in January-March 2020 and 2021.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is convinced of the need for joint development of transport capabilities with Azerbaijan, the presidential press service said.
“We should make full use of the unique transit potential of our countries and develop the appropriate infrastructure. We agreed to intensify cooperation in international aviation, road and railway transportation,” he said at a joint press briefing with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Baku.
In addition, the parties agreed to hold a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission of Ukraine and Azerbaijan in Kyiv in January. Zelensky noted that he expects “specific cases after this meeting, investments with very specific terms” following this meeting.
Special attention was paid to joint projects in the space and aviation sectors, in particular in aircraft construction.
Azerbaijan’s leader, in turn, called the negotiations fruitful and noted that Azerbaijani businessmen show a significant interest in cooperation with Ukraine, but much depends on the results of the intergovernmental commission.
AZERBAIJAN, COOPERATION, INTERNATIONALTRANSPORTATION, UKRAINE
On December 17, 2019 the Trade House of Ukraine will be opened in Azerbaijan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his official visit to Baku.
“I remind you that the Trade House of Azerbaijan has been successfully operating in Kyiv since 2018, and today, the Trade House of Ukraine will open in Azerbaijan,” he said during a joint press statement with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
The Trading House of Azerbaijan in Ukraine opened in June 2018.
Caspian Service developer (Azerbaijan) intends to invest $7 million in its first own development project in Ukraine, the BASA City residential complex of the comfort+ class in the village of Khodosivka (Kyiv-Sviatoshynsky district, Kyiv region). “BASA City is the first full-scale project of Caspian Service in Ukraine as a developer. Despite temporary difficulties due to political processes, the Ukrainian housing market is very promising. The pilot project is being implemented in the comfort+ class, since, according to our estimates, today this is the most demanded and least risky segment in residential construction,” Chingiz Kishiyev, the CEO of Caspian Service in Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the project includes nine five- to seven-storey houses, designed for 504 apartments. The land plot is located on the lake, not far from the Manufactura outlet village. Its area is 3.5 hectares, the total construction area is 35,000 square meters. The project will be implemented in two phases. The commissioning of the first of them is planned for the first quarter of 2021.
The expert noted the plan for the long term is to enter the segment of business and premium class housing in Ukraine.
“We also intend to develop business and premium class housing, as the company has gained successful experience in implementing such projects in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and other CIS countries: we have built dozens of high-quality projects,” he stressed.
Caspian Service was founded in 2001. Its portfolio includes 71 projects in Azerbaijan, six in Kazakhstan, two in Georgia, one in Poland, eight in Ukraine. Since its foundation, the company has built and commissioned about 1.5 million square meters of facilities.
The group of the seller in a transaction to acquire Preludium B.V. (the Netherlands), through which MTS Group owns the second largest mobile communications operator in Ukraine, PrJSC VF Ukraine (Vodafone Ukraine), by Azerbaijan’s Bakcell telecom operator will terminate control over Preludium B.V.
According to the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) of October 24, 2019, published on the agency’s website on Tuesday, the parties to the transaction have already agreed on the obligations of the Luxembourg subsidiary of MTS Allegretto Holding Sarl to refrain from competing with Vodafone Ukraine for three years territory of Ukraine.
In addition, PJSC Mobile TeleSystems undertakes not to lure employees (unless otherwise agreed between the parties) and Vodafone Ukraine suppliers.
According to the document, at present Bakcell LLC does not carry out economic activities in Ukraine. He is controlled by an individual a citizen of Azerbaijan and business entities non-residents of Ukraine, forming the Bakcell group.
Bakcell, founded in 1994, is the mobile communications operator and a leading provider of mobile Internet in Azerbaijan. It operates in GSM, UMTS and LTE standards.
Bakcell network consists of more than 7,500 towers, covers 93% of the territory (excluding occupied territories) and 99% of the population of Azerbaijan. The company has more than 3 million subscribers.
According to the results of 2018, Vodafone Ukraine reduced its net profit by 18.1% compared to 2017, to UAH 1.8 billion. The company explained this figure as an increase in costs due to the active deployment of 4G and 3G networks.
Vodafone Ukraine is fully owned by Preludium B.V. It is part of the international MTS Group, which shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
