The first container train on the China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-Ukraine new route, which delivered 41 containers with refrigeration equipment, has arrived in Ukraine.
The press service of Ukrzaliznytsia said on Thursday morning that the train had been on the way for 19 days.
Work is underway on the frequency of the train running once a week. “If there is sufficient cargo, the frequency of running will be increased and the train will run according to a clear schedule,” the press service said.
Work on the route’s capacity filling continues, “especially in the direction of receiving subsidies from China for cargo, so that the conditions of cargo transportation are economically attractive for carriers.”
In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia is developing an online service to enable customers to order a container seat on a train and pay for the service online, similar to purchasing tickets for passenger trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia recalled that direct container trains from China to Ukraine began to run on the territory of four countries from June 8, 2020. During this time, 13 trains have already arrived.
Container traffic accounts for 2.3% of the total volume of cargo transportation by rail in Ukraine. Currently, 36 container trains organized by Ukrzaliznytsia run on a regular basis across Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes that current good indicators of trade turnover between Ukraine and China can be significantly increased, and Ukraine will have something to offer China in terms of exporting high-tech products, products with a high degree of processing and high added value.
“Ukraine has significant potential for cooperation with China in various fields, comparable or even greater than that of many other Eastern European countries. We are interested in the successful realization of this potential. China confidently took the first line in the ranking of our largest trading partners: last year our trade turnover amounted to about $13 billion. And China takes leading positions among the main export partners of Ukraine. I am convinced that the current figures can be significantly increased,” he said in an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The President of Ukraine said that Ukraine was one of the first countries to support the initiative of the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping “One Belt, One Road.”
“Ukraine has a unique geographical location – on the eastern border of the EU, on the way from Asia to Europe, as well as between the Black and Baltic Seas. We have the necessary economic and industrial potential for effective participation in this ambitious project,” he said.
Among the priorities of practical cooperation with China, Zelensky named the credit and investment, agro-industrial, engineering and transport sectors. “Ukraine has significant scientific and educational potential, rich culture. All this provides good opportunities for increasing the volume of trade and economic cooperation, enhancing bilateral humanitarian contacts and exchanges,” he said.
Zelensky said that in order to create better conditions for tourism development, Ukraine introduced a temporary visa-free regime for Chinese tourists from August 1.
“We will continue to try to improve the conditions for mutual trips of citizens of the two countries, so that they have better opportunities to get acquainted with the rich history and culture of Ukraine and China,” he said.
In his opinion, one of the steps towards cultural rapprochement between the two peoples should be the systematic training of specialists in Sinology in Ukraine, and now the Chinese language is being studied at Ukrainian secondary schools and universities, in Ukraine about 500 Sinologists annually receive diplomas of philology, there are qualified translators.
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova during a video conference with her colleague, First Deputy Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Le Yucheng, agreed to step up cooperation in the political and economic plane. “The parties assured each other of the invariability of the fundamental principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, enshrined in the political documents concluded since the establishment of diplomatic relations,” the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said.
In addition, among other topics that were in the spotlight became further interaction on the fields of international organizations, ways to intensify trade and economic cooperation, joint participation in the implementation of projects within the framework of the global Chinese initiative “One Belt, One Road.”
The parties also exchanged invitations to visit Beijing and Kyiv.
Shabo, a large Ukrainian wine manufacturer (Odesa region) on July 28 opened its third brand store in China, Fuzhou, the previous two working in Guangzhou and Xi’an.
According to the company’s website, the official store opened at the end of the previous month became the largest of the three stores. Shabo has been exporting its products to China since 2013. The first brand store was opened here two years ago.
“This is the third Shabo store with the products represented in China under the Master Tardan trademark, the previous two are successfully operating in Guangzhou and Xi’an,” the company said.
The new store in China has 240 square meters of stands with products, a wine storage, a tasting room, and office premises.
“This is the third store we’ve opened in three years and we plan to move forward at the same pace. I believe that by 2021 the Shabo brand store will open its doors to Shanghai residents as well,” Stanyslav Kobyletsky, the company’s export director, said.
The company noted that Shabo products are now exported to 18 countries of the world.
Shabo was established in 2003. The company is engaged in growing and processing grapes, production, and sales of alcohol products.
The company has been producing cognacs and brandy since 2005, and Shabo grape vodka since 2013. The manufacturing capacity of the complex, occupying more than 10,000 square meters, provides a full cycle of production of strong alcoholic drinks of grape origin.
The range of Shabo products is presented in all regions of Ukraine, as well as in Georgia, Israel, China, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Azerbaijan, Japan, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
The company owns processing capacities for the season amounting to more than 20,000 tonnes of red and white grapes. The Shabo vineyard covers a total area of about 10,000 square meters. Shabo produces 50 million bottles a year, with a total of about 80 items of products. Bottling is performed at nine filling lines.
Based on the state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of Shabo Industrial-Trade Company LLC is Eldar Iukuridze, Agrofirma Shabo LLC (both in Odesa region, the village of Shabo) Eldar Iukuridze and Bela Cholikidze.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that visa liberalization for tourists from China and India should be carried out as soon as possible.
According to the presidential press service, the head of the state said this at a meeting with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine members on Monday, July 13, at which Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the government is actively working on the issue of liberalizing the visa regime for tourists from these countries.
An Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF) IL-76 MD plane has delivered humanitarian aid from the People’s Republic of China to Kyiv for combating COVID-19. The shipment is the largest provided so far to Ukraine from China.
“The largest humanitarian aid ever delivered from China by the UAF plane contained more than 125 cubic meters of cargo,” Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Enin said at a briefing at Boryspil Airport on Wednesday.
The humanitarian aid includes protective masks, suits, disinfectants, as well as 10 mechanical ventilation devices donated by the founder of the Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Enin said that the cargo was collected by 39 institutions: heads of provinces, enterprises and some public activists.
“The Chinese people have shown an extremely sincere gesture of solidarity with the Ukrainian people in countering the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Ihor Ivaschenko said that all the cargo received is humanitarian, and its recipient is state-owned enterprise Ukrvaccine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. The cargo will be distributed between the healthcare institutions of Ukraine, higher educational institutions, as well as regional administrations.
The list of cargo recipients also includes separate institutions that are defined as targeted delivery of goods, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, higher educational institutions such as Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, National Aviation Institute, and some regional administrations: Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Sumy, Poltava and some city councils. There are also goods that will be sent to the Main Military Hospital and the Oleksandrivska Hospital.
Ivaschenko also said that over the next month the goods will be distributed in accordance with applications.
At the same time, Enin added that regarding the received artificial lung ventilators, a distribution decision will be made in the near future, and they will be sent to places that need this technical support most.
AID, CHINA, HUMANITARIAN, PLANE, UAF
