First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has proposed to Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Liu He to commence joint consultations about the possible creation of a free trade area (FTA). “I have offered Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Liu He to start joint Ukrainian-Chinese consultations on the prerequisites for creating a Ukraine-China free trade area,” he wrote on his Facebook page, following a meeting with Liu He during his working visit to Beijing (China) on Thursday.
According to a posting on the website of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, after a long interruption in the work of the intergovernmental commission on cooperation between Ukraine and China, its activities were resumed, which favored increased trade and cooperation between enterprises of the two countries. “However, this volume of trade does not correspond to the existing potential. In the next five years, we can increase trade turnover to $20 billion a year,” the ministry said, citing Kubiv as saying.
As reported, trade turnover between Ukraine and China in January-August 2018, compared with the same period last year, grew by 21%, to $5.8 billion.
The opportunities for cooperation in agriculture, construction and energy sectors have been discussed by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman with Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei. “Ukraine and China plan to double mutual goods flow to $10 billion and are mulling new opportunities or cooperation in agriculture, construction, first of all infrastructure facilities, energy and other areas,” the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers reported after a meeting of the prime minister with the ambassador.
Groysman said that the potential of relations between Ukraine and China is deepening every year, and more and more spheres of mutual interest appear.
At the meeting the Ukrainian prime minster thanked the Chinese diplomat for the successful completion of a project providing ambulances for Ukraine. He expressed hope that China International Import Expo 2018 will be successful. A Ukrainian delegation will take part in the exhibition.
Exports of grain crops in the 2017/2018 marketing year (July 2017 through June 2018) totaled 39.4 million tonnes and amounted to $6.4 billion, according to the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. The largest buyers of Ukrainian grain in this period were Egypt ($ 724 million, with a share of 11.4%), China ($594 million, 9.3%), Spain ($459 million, 7.2%), Indonesia ($375 million, 5.9%) and the Netherlands ($348 million, 5.5%).
In particular, Ukraine exported 17.8 million tonnes of maize worth $2.86 billion (China’s share was 16.4%, Egypt accounted for 13.6%, and the Netherlands for 12.2%). Exports of wheat totaled 17.2 million tonnes worth $2.83 billion (Indonesia with 13.3%, Egypt with 11.8%, and Bangladesh with8.7%); while exports of barley stood at 4.3 million tonnes worth $0.64 billion (Saudi Arabia with 41.2%, China with 19.3%, and Libya with 6.6%).
As noted, 99% of all grain was shipped by sea (39 million tonnes). The ports of Chornomorsk (formerly Illichivsk) accounted for 22% of all grain shipments by sea, the port of Odesa accounted for 19%, Yuzhny for 19%, and Mykolaiv for 18%. At the same time, 306,000 tonnes (0.8%) was exported by rail and almost 80,000 tonnes (0.2%) by road.
Ukraine in the 2016/2017 marketing year exported 43.8 million tonnes of grain, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food earlier reported.
PJSC State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine in the 2017/2018 marketing year (MY, July-June) shipped more than one million tonnes of grain to China National Complete Engineering Corporation (CCEC), which is twofold more than for the previous MY.
According to a report on the website of the state corporation, the corporation through its main partner CCEC exports grain to Austria, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Egypt, Algeria, Bangladesh, and Tunisia.
The government in August 2010 decided to create the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine. The corporation has a chain of branches, comprised of grain storage facilities, flourmills, fodder factories and a cereals factory. The 53 subdivisions of the corporation can store a total of 3.75 million tonnes of grain, which includes the grain handling capacities of Odesa and Mykolaiv ports of some 2.5 million tonnes of grain cargo per year.
China’s Jiangsu Seraphim Solar System has won a tender to supply solar cell arrays with a total capacity of 246 MW for construction of a solar power plant by DTEK in Dnipropetrovsk region, the press service of the Chinese company has reported.
The Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) contractor under the project is China Machinery Engineering Corporation.
Earlier, DTEK CEO Maksym Tymchenko estimated the cost of the project at EUR 230 million. According to him, the construction of the plant is planned to be completed before the end of this year and from March 2019 the company seeks to start transmission of power in Ukraine’s power grid.
To ensure the connection of the solar power plant in Nikopol (Solar-1 LLC), national energy company Ukrenergo plans to reconstruct the open-type 150 kV switchgear of 330 kV Nikopol substation, with an expected tender price of up to UAH 20.833 million.
As reported, in 2017, DTEK launched its first Tryfonivka solar power plant with a capacity of 10 MW in Kherson region.
Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei believes that Sino-Ukrainian cooperation in the scientific sphere should reach a new level. He stressed the importance of developing scientific, technical and innovative cooperation between the two countries. “At the moment, China’s development has entered a new era, so Sino-Ukrainian cooperation should also enter a new era,” he said during a solemn celebration of the Day of Science at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on Friday.
The Chinese envoy said development of scientific, technical and innovative cooperation is very important. During the event, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine awarded prizes for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
As reported, on May 11, the Cabinet awarded five government prizes of UAH 200,000 for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
