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.
Ukraine could increase grain exports to China in the 2019/2020 marketing year (MY, July-June), Olena Neroba, the adviser to the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA), has said at a press conference. According to her, China this year has experienced a significant reduction in the number of pigs due to ASF, and since substitution of pork with imports is quite expensive and time consuming, China is likely to compensate for the deficiency of protein in poultry. This factor and the trade war with the United States will lead to an increase in demand for barley and other grains, which Ukraine can take advantage of, Neroba said. If earlier practically the only importer of Ukrainian barley was Saudi Arabia, then the opening of a new market will allow increasing the volume of exports of this crop and raising the price.
She also noted that Ukraine this season has felt some U.S. influence on the Egyptian market, which is one of the main consumers of Ukrainian corn. According to the expert, although the absolute figures of exports to Egypt increased slightly compared to last year, however, the share of Egypt in in the structure of Ukrainian grain exports declined.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) has been permitted to transport dangerous goods of six categories from the Chinese aviation authority, the airline has said.
The license gives UIA the right to transport to/from China consumer goods, which are specified as “Dangerous Goods.” These are smartphones, computers, tablets, photo cameras and other electronical items of well-known world brands, which are produced in China.
“It took us over three years for receiving the license, during this time the company was subject to numerous thorough checks by the Chinese Aviation Authority. As a rule, China checks the reliability of the carriers who are going to transport the goods specified as “Dangerous Goods” very scrupulously. Now all the formalities are finalized, UIA has new opportunities for organizing the transportation of consumer goods on non-stop flights Kyiv – Beijing – Kyiv by wide-body long-haul Boeing-777 aircraft,” Peter Kukharchuk, UIA Logistics and Cargo Director, said.
He said that UIA was among the first ones to receive a license for transportation of several categories of dangerous goods, gives us significant competitive advantages.
UIA received a license for transportation of dangerous goods of categories 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 from China.
