China expects Ukraine to provide state guarantees for investing $600 million in the construction of a new unit at Sloviansk thermal power plant (TPP, PJSC Donbasenergo), Liu Jun, the adviser for trade and economic issues at the Embassy of China in Ukraine, has said.
“The Chinese side is ready to invest more than $600 million in this project, provided that the Ukrainian side provides state guarantees,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Jun recalled that the investment agreement between Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEIC) and Donbasenergo for the joint implementation of the project was signed in December 2018.
“The construction of the sixth power unit is a new serious potential joint project between Ukraine and China. I am sure that its implementation will bring great benefits for both the Ukrainian people and Chinese enterprises,” he said.
As reported, the contract between DEIC and Donbasenergo provides for the construction of power units Nos. 6A and 6B of 330 MW each at Sloviansk TPP using CFB technology (burning solid fuel in a circulating fluidized bed).
The contract price is $684.296 million. Financing for the reconstruction foresees 70% of funds of a credit from a Chinese bank.
The Boryspil international airport from January 26, 2020 started temperature screening of passengers arriving directly from China, specialists and equipment have been prepared, the Health Ministry of Ukraine has reported. “From January 26, screening of passengers arriving directly from China will begin at the Boryspil airport. The sanitary-quarantine department specialists have already been trained and equipped with infrared thermometers,” the ministry said on its Facebook page on January 25 in the evening.
It is also reported that on Saturday the World Health Organization (WHO) updated screening guidelines at points of entry into countries where the spreading of a new coronavirus has not yet been recorded.
“Previous WHO experience has shown that introducing body temperature screening to identify potential suspected cases of coronavirus required significant investments and was not effective enough. However, during the outbreak of coronavirus 2019-nCoV, most cases of illness at airports were detected precisely because of temperature screening. This method reduces the risk of introducing the coronavirus into the country,” the Health Ministry said.
Also, to minimize the risk of coronavirus infection, WHO recommends routine SARS prevention activities.
As reported, a pneumonia outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan began in December 2019, as a result of a new strain of coronavirus.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (Kyiv) and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), the largest state-owned construction company in China, have signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation. According to the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the memorandum was signed by head of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov and member of the board Remigiusz Paszkiewicz from Ukraine and the deputy director general of CRCC from China.
According to the report, the Minister of Infrastructure noted that the signing of the document is an important stage of cooperation for the development of railway connection in the direction of Ukraine-China, attracting Chinese partners to modernize the Ukrainian railways and realize the transit potential of the country on the European Union-China route.
“The fact that the Chinese corporation decided to open a representative office in Ukraine and sign a memorandum of strategic cooperation indicates that the economic situation in the country is changing, the investment climate is improving, the largest foreign technology and manufacturing giants are interested in working in the Ukrainian market,” the minister said.
According to him, the ministry expects to restart and intensify the participation of Ukraine in the project One Belt – One Road, which will make it possible to fully realize the transit potential of the country in the continental cargo turnover.
CHINA, CORPORATION, RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION, REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE
Authorized bodies of Ukraine and Chine have approved an international veterinary certificate for exporting frozen beef from Ukraine, according to a posting on the website of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection of Ukraine.
As reported, the authority expects that in 2019-2020 some 24 states would open their markets for Ukrainian poultry products.
In 2018, Ukraine opened 85 new markets for various types of products and increased the number of companies authorized to export animal products.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (Kyiv) will provide regular routes of the Metrans transit train in the territory of Ukraine from China to Slovakia. According to the press service of the company, the first container train from the Chinese city of Xi’an to the Slovak city of Dunajska Streda ran through Ukraine on September 27-29. It is formed of 44 forty-foot containers.
It is preliminarily planned that four pairs of container trains will run from China to Slovakia every month. In October 2019 it is planned to send two trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia notes that Metrans reoriented freight traffic along this route from the Polish territory to Ukraine as the route through Ukraine is shorter by 520 km, which saves the sender’s funds.
As reported, in 2018 Ukrzaliznytsia transported 334,963 containers in twenty-foot equivalent (TEU), which is 13% more than in 2017 (295,479 TEU).
Skyrizon Aircraft, a Chinese private company, and Xinwei Technology Group listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange under the terms of agreements with Ukroboronprom state concern will provide Ukraine’s aircraft manufacturing industry with grant financing in the amount of $100 million in case of obtaining permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) to purchase more than 50% of shares in PJSC Motor Sich (Zaporizhia), an informed source in the government has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The receipt of these funds in the special fund is already provided for in Paragraph 9 of Article 11 of the law on the national budget of Ukraine for 2019: some UAH 2.8 billion at the exchange rate at the time of adoption of the state budget,” the source said.
He noted that this condition is one of the key in agreements between the Chinese investors and Ukroboronprom approved by the government together with the transfer to the Ukrainian state corporation of a blocking stake in the amount of more than 25% of the shares for the joint management of Motor Sich.
The source noted that this project on the development of aircraft production in Ukraine and the construction of semi knocked-down production in the Chinese city of Chongqing was launched in 2015 on the basis of cooperation agreements between Motor Sich, Skyrizon and Xinwei Group. Within its framework, the Ukrainian company in 2016 received preferential credit financing in the amount of $100 million, and in Chongqing the construction of an assembly plant has now begun.
The basic document for the project is the agreement on cooperation dated April 27, 2018 between Ukraine represented by Ukroboronprom and Skyrizon and Xinwei, which underwent an independent examination of British law by one of the world’s largest law firms, the source said.
