Ukraine and Canada will work on deepening economic cooperation and expansion of the bilateral free trade area (FTA) agreement to the sphere of services and investments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. “Trade, economic and investment cooperation have an important place in Ukrainian-Canadian relations, and we would like to strengthen it. Therefore, our sides will work to expand the scope of the bilateral free trade area agreement to services and investments,” he said in Toronto on Tuesday at a joint briefing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after their meeting.
Zelensky said that in the near future these agreements will be translated into documents.
“This means that Ukrainian IT specialists and entrepreneurs from different industries will be able to better cooperate with Canada without leaving Ukraine. This means more jobs, better relations between our countries,” he said.
The cities of Lloydminster in the province of Alberta, Canada, and Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine yesterday announced a historic sister-city agreement. Mayor Gerald Aalbers signed on behalf of Lloydminster and Mayor Andriy Fisak will be signing on behalf of Nikopol.
This agreement is the first major announcement of non-military cooperation between Canada and Ukraine in 35 years. It recognizes the long history and close relationship between Western Canada and Ukraine and will serve as the starting point for a renewal of goodwill as both cities invest in each other, through increased trade, commerce, education, athletics, and cultural exchanges.
Mayor of Lloydminster Gerald Aalbers: “I am pleased to announce that the City of Lloydminster will be partnering with Nikopol as sister cities. Council approved a motion at the July 16, 2018 council meeting for the sister city agreement. I look forward with great anticipation to building this relationship. I am eager to welcome a delegation from Nikopol in the coming months. Ukrainian heritage runs strong in Alberta, and especially in Lloydminster, and I’m honoured to witness this historic sister city agreement.”
“Canada and Ukraine enjoy close bilateral relations and the historic ties of friendship between our two countries were forged through generations of Ukrainian migration to Canada”, said Mayor Fisak. “Today, these historic bonds are reinforced by shared values and interests to produce a mature, balanced and mutually beneficial partnership for the 21st Century.” Mayor Fisak said: “I trust a Sister City Agreement between Lloydminster, Canada, and Nikopol, Ukraine, will create an environment conducive to the development of both of our communities, and will offer the possibility to strengthen our social and cultural relations – as well as improve the welfare of the residents of our two cities.”
Today’s announcement has been widely celebrated by Ukrainian-Canadians. Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz, President of Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Alberta Provincial Council said, “We are thrilled with the new twinning of the Ukrainian city of Nikopol with our own Alberta city of Lloydminster. Being the first Alberta city twinned with a city in Ukraine, this will be a great opportunity to develop trade and commerce between these two municipalities. UCC-APC looks forward to working cooperatively in a variety of sectors including education, arts and culture, economic cooperation and governance.”
A key motivation for this agreement is the historic undertaking in Nikopol by Calgary-based investment firm Refraction Asset Management through its subsidiary, TIU Canada, a renewable energy company. On January 26, 2018, TIU Canada opened a 10.5-megawatt solar power plant in Nikopol with a total investment of €10.5 million (approx. CAD$16.1 million). This investment is the first investment from Canada under the 2017 Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
Refraction Asset Management’s President, Michael Yurkovich said, “We at Refraction Asset Management are pleased to play a role in bringing together Lloydminster and Nikopol. This is the first sister city agreement in Alberta with a Ukraine city, and it’s an indicator of both the strong ties between Canada and Ukraine, as well as the success of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.”
The text of the agreement is attached separately to this release.
For more information, please contact:
(inquiries in Ukrainian should be sent via email only)
Shayne Saskiw
Principal, Alberta Counsel
780-652-1311
ss@albertacounsel.com
CANADA, HISTORIC AGREEMENT, LLOYDMINSTER, NIKOPOL, SISTER-CITY
Ukraine will open the Consulate General in Canada’s Edmonton on September 7, Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has said. “On September 7 this year, we plan to accept the first citizen of Ukraine in Edmonton and thereby start the work of the Ukrainian Consulate General in Alberta province,” he told Interfax-Ukraine. Shevchenko noted that Ukraine’s presence in the western part of Canada will be ensured in this way.
The ambassador expressed hope that the opening of the consulate will be important for establishing contacts with business.
Canada will issue $30 million to finance a new project of assistance to Ukraine aimed at development of entrepreneurship, Canadian Minister of International Development and La Francophonie Mandate Letter Marie-Claude Bibeau has said.
“We have announced a preliminary selection of projects from Ukrainian, Canadian and international organizations. Projects should be aimed at strengthening the role of women in economy and business. The program of assistance to Ukraine will be designed for five years,” she said asked by Interfax-Ukraine at a press briefing in Kyiv.
According to First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv, currently Canada is implementing 11 international technical assistance projects in Ukraine for a total of $116.8 million.
Canada’s Brookfield & Partners has headed a consortium of investors who joined a project to build a first stage of Innovation District IT Park in Lviv with gross area of 10 ha. The cost of the project is $160 million. An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that investors jointly with Canadian ambassador to Ukraine Roman Waschuk, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy and Lviv IT Cluster representatives, who would be the future tenants of the park, took part in the groundbreaking ceremony.
Founding Partner & CEO of Horizon Capital Lenna Koszarny told Interfax-Ukraine that the funds managed by Horizon Capital are among consortium investors.
She said that a design company has been created. It owns a part of the land parcel where the project will be implemented.
Developer and investor of Innovation District IT Park, owner of Galereja Centre Volodymyr Zhenchak said that in coming months the design company plans to buy the rest of land parcels for the project. Today these parcels are leased. He also said that leasing arrangements for over a half of the area of the IT park have been made with the future tenants of the park.
He said that it would take two and a half years to build the first stage of the park.
Zhenchak also said that negotiations on lending by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are underway. Representatives of the two international institutions were present at the groundbreaking ceremony.
He said that the first stage would be over 160,000 square meters, although it is incorrect to assess the project only in terms of square meters.
“How could 3 ha of green areas be assessed? The main thing is that the project would give 14,000 jobs,” he said. The shares of the current participants of the project are not disclosed.
As reported, the IT Park will occupy 10 hectares between Stryiska, Chmoly, Luhanska and Kozelnytska Streets in Lviv. The construction of the first stage of the IT Park will last about 2.5 years, which will cover about 90% of the entire project, and the first round of investment will reach $95 million. The second stage of the IT Park provides for the construction of business centers and will last about five or six years. Six eight-storey Class A office buildings, three business centers, a hotel (5,700 square meters, 150-200 rooms), a kindergarten (2,000 square meters), a university (6,000 square meters), a health club, and a parking lot for 3,167 cars are to be built under the project.
SoftServe, N-iX, GlobalLogic, Intellias and Perfectial will be first residents of the Innovation District IT Park. They will occupy about 50,000 square meters of office space. The university block will house a department of Lviv’s Ukrainian Catholic University.
In addition, Lviv IT Cluster plans to open modern IT labs there that will be available to IT students of all Lviv-based universities.
Brookfield Asset Management is the largest Canadian investment company with widely diverse asset portfolio and a 115 year-long history. The company specializes in infrastructure and real estate operations, renewable energy, and direct investments.
Lviv IT Cluster is a community of IT companies in Lviv.
Galereja Centrе, created in 2001, is a private investment and development company that implements commercial real estate projects in Lviv and the Western region.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced the holding of the third international Ukraine Reform Conference in Canada in 2019. Canada is pleased to host the next conference, she noted at the second international Ukraine Reform Conference in Copenhagen (Denmark).
We are passing the baton to Canada, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen said.
