Foreign Ministers of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan Bakhtiyor Saidov, Amir Khan Muttaki and Ishaq Dar signed a trilateral framework agreement on the development of a feasibility study for the Trans-Afghanistan Railway project during a meeting in Kabul on Thursday.
“We have signed a trilateral framework agreement on the development of a feasibility study for the Trans-Afghanistan-Pakistan Railway project, which is of strategic importance for the whole of Eurasia,” the Uzbek Foreign Minister said in his telegram channel.
He noted that this transportation corridor will improve trade, support Afghanistan’s economic recovery, and open new routes to world markets through southern ports.
According to Saidov, during the meeting, the Uzbek side reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening trade ties, expanding cooperation in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles and construction, as well as increasing the capacity of the Termez International Trade Center (opened in Uzbekistan near the Afghan border).
As reported, in February 2021, representatives of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan signed a joint action plan for the construction of the Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway with a length of 573 kilometers and a transit potential of up to 20 million tons of cargo per year following talks in Tashkent.
The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) have expressed interest in financing the project.
In April 2024, during Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to Moscow, a preliminary agreement was reached on Russia’s participation in the project. The volume of Russian cargo transportation along the projected route can be estimated at 8-15 million tons annually.
According to the Ministry of Transport of Uzbekistan, the construction of the Trans-Afghan railway line will take at least 5 years, with a preliminary cost of $4.8 billion.
AFGHANISTAN, CONSTRUCTION, PAKISTAN, Trans-Afghan railroad, UZBEKISTAN
At URC-2025, SCM Group’s Intech investment company umgi has presented a project to build a grain terminal in Pivdennyi port with a planned annual transshipment capacity of 9 million tons and the ability to receive Post-Panamax vessels at its own berths. According to the press release, the estimated cost of the project is $200 million.
“We are pleased to join the recovery process. One of umgi’s initiatives was included in the Catalog of Investment Projects presented at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 in Rome,” the company said in a statement.
It is specified that due to its strategic location and efficient infrastructure, such a terminal will play a key role in the export of Ukrainian agricultural products. This is a unique opportunity to invest in Ukraine’s strategic infrastructure, expand grain transportation capacity, and strengthen the country’s role in global trade.
Overall, the investment potential of key sectors of the Ukrainian economy over the next decade exceeds $300 billion. This figure includes rebuilding the destroyed sectors, transforming the economy and building a stable and environmentally friendly future. Realizing this potential will create a demand for equipment worth EUR33.8 billion annually in Ukraine.
A catalog with 250 current projects can be found here: https://kse.ua/…/07/Investment-catalog-Ukraine-2025.pdf
umgi is an investment company focused on the development of businesses in the raw materials and processing industries. It was founded in 2006 by SCM Group. Investment focus: mining; by-product and waste management; production of industrial goods and services. The total value of the portfolio companies is estimated at over $500 million.
NovaSklo plans to start construction of a float glass plant in the Kyiv region in March 2026.
As NovaSklo CEO and founder of investment company EFI Group Igor Lisky told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the URC-2025 recovery conference, investments in the project amount to more than €240 million.
The project is being implemented with the support of UkraineInvest and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
The project includes, in particular, the construction of a plant with a capacity of 24.8 million m2 of glass per year. The enterprise will reduce dependence on imports of flat glass and will produce products for export.
Liski noted that the project could pay for itself in 6-7 years.
He said that a memorandum had been signed on the sidelines of the conference between NovaSklo and three leading European equipment manufacturers – Horn Glass Industries AG (Germany), Zippe Industrieanlagen GmbH (Germany) and Bottero S.p.A. (Italy), which will be the main suppliers of technology and equipment.
According to Liska, NovaSklo has already secured a plot of land for production and purchased a license for sand extraction.
Commenting on the risks associated with the construction of an industrial facility in Ukraine, Liska noted that “this is an important symbolic project because it is a symbol of Ukraine’s recovery.”
“Broken glass and broken windows are always a symbol of decline and war. A new plant that produces high-quality glass is a symbol that we, Ukrainians, have a future, and we will rebuild Ukraine with the best glass and the best technology. We must do everything in our power to ensure that Ukraine has a different future,” he said.
Liski noted that the project is finalizing the signing of contracts with financial institutions for lending.
“This is a good margin project because all glass is currently imported, which involves high transportation costs. This project is efficient and has good margins. We think that the payback period will be 6-7 years,” he said.
NAEK Energoatom and Holtec International signed an agreement on the margins of URC-2025 in Rome, which provides for the construction of a plant for the production of small modular reactors (SMR) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) containers using Holtec technology, Energoatom head Petr Kotin said.
“The agreement with Holtec is also a forward-looking agreement. It fixes what we plan to do with them. This is a plant to produce SMRs in Ukraine using their technology. They also transfer to us the technology of production of SNF containers,” Kotin said in comments to Interfax-Ukraine after signing the document.
He recalled that Holtec technology was used to build the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (CSNFSF), which constantly needs new containers for it.
“Containers are needed all the time for spent fuel. They are now produced in the United States, and later we will produce them in Ukraine. It will be cheaper,“ – explained the head of ”Energoatom”.
As reported, Energoatom and Westinghouse on the margins of URC-2025 in Rome finalized agreements on the production in Ukraine of nuclear fuel using the technology of the American company.
“We signed a memorandum that consolidates everything that has already been done with Westinghouse (…). And this was just the summarizing part of the documents,” Kotin said in comments to Interfax-Ukraine after signing the memorandum.
Ukraine has not bought nuclear fuel from Russia since 2020 and has also refused to buy spare parts for nuclear reactors.
In June 2022, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an agreement to supply nuclear fuel for all Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
The CCNF is an autonomous nuclear facility designed for long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel from the Pivdenno-Ukrainian, Khmelnytsky and Rivne NPPs, which until 2021 was exported to Russia for storage and reprocessing, costing Ukraine about $200 million annually. Fuel from these NPPs was supposed to be received by the Central Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility from April 2022, but the war corrected these plans, and the fuel was stored at the plants themselves until 2023, when its pilot operation began.
Since 2023, Ukraine has had a law adapting EU Regulation 305 and raising the requirements for the quality of building materials. The transition to the new standards will last until 2026, Andriy Ozeychuk, director of Rauta, said in an article for Interfax-Ukraine.
The document also requires the introduction of energy efficiency, certification, and increased responsibility for the declared characteristics of products.
Rauta is a leader in the Ukrainian steel construction market and a member of the European Construction Industry Association. The company provides design, manufacturing, and installation solutions in accordance with current EU regulations. The company is licensed to perform construction works with medium and significant consequences (CC2, CC3). According to the Unified State Register, the owner of 100% of the company’s authorized capital is Andriy Ozeychuk.
Ukrainian construction companies are experiencing a steady staff shortage, with some vacancies remaining open for up to six months, Rauta CEO Andriy Ozeychuk said in an op-ed for Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, in 2022-2024, wages in the industry grew by about 20% annually.
Companies are increasingly attracting women and older people, and are also considering hiring workers from Asia.
Rauta is a leader in the Ukrainian steel construction market and a member of the European Construction Industry Association. The company provides design, production, and installation solutions in accordance with current EU regulations. The company is licensed to perform construction works with medium and significant consequences (CC2, CC3). According to the Unified State Register, the owner of 100% of the company’s authorized capital is Andriy Ozeychuk.
