Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia Mykola Kulinich held a number of meetings in Melbourne, the purpose of which is to expand the Ukrainian-Australian cooperation in the trade and economic sphere, the press service of the Ukrainian Embassy in Australia said.
“The meeting with President of the Australian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce Eugene Hawryszko was devoted to the discussion of the prospects for increasing trade between the two countries, the possibility of entering the Australian market for new types of Ukrainian products, as well as the establishment of joint ventures,” the statement says.
In addition, according to the press service of the embassy, during a meeting with head of the Australian-Ukrainian Business Council J. Epp, they discussed attracting Australian investments and technologies to Ukraine, as well as further organizational restructuring of the business council.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Senik has held talks via videlink with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman Ahmed Yousuf Al-Harthy. These are the first talks at the level of deputy foreign ministers in the history of bilateral relations, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported.
It is noted that the main topic of the conversation was practical steps that will enable intensification of the development of Ukrainian-Omani cooperation in the political, trade, economic and investment spheres.
“Ukraine and Oman have significant potential for expanding trade and economic cooperation. In particular, an increase in the supply of Ukrainian agricultural and food products to the Omani market will increase the level of food security of the Sultanate,” Senik said.
The parties noted the importance of maintaining a political dialogue between Ukraine and Oman, in particular in the format of regular consultations between the foreign ministries. In this regard, Senik invited Al-Harthy to visit Kyiv.
The Omani side also welcomed the initiative of the Deputy Minister to organize a visit of a business delegation to Muscat in order to intensify contacts between commodity producers.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, trade in goods between Ukraine and Oman amounted to $89.1 million (domestic exports accounted for $79.45 million) in 2019. In January-August 2020, it was equal to $78.88 million (of which Ukrainian exports was $63.78 million).
In December 2018, an export mission of Ukrainian producers visited Muscat. In April and October 2019, Ukrainian-Omani business forums were held with the participation of delegations from regional chambers of commerce and industry of North Ash-Sharqiyah and Al-Buraimi provinces. On November 6, 2019, the first round of political consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Sultanate of Oman took place in Muscat.
Ukraine and France may soon sign an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation with ALSTOM for the implementation of a project for the supply of electric locomotives to a company with partial localization of their production and maintenance in Ukraine.
This was announced by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who is the head of the the Ukrainian-French Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, during negotiations with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Ukraine Etienne de Ponsen and head of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC Volodymyr Zhmak on Friday, the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
“We have been working on the details of a common project with the French side for a long time and in the near future we can reach the signing of an intergovernmental agreement that will fully meet the needs of Ukraine,” the press service quoted Avakov as saying.
Zhmak, in his turn, said during the negotiations that Ukrzaliznytsia has a very old park and it needs to be strategically updated. At this stage, according to him, Ukrzaliznytsia is interested in 50 two-system electric locomotives capable of transporting from 5,500 to 6,000 tonnes of cargo.
“We need these locomotives with a long-term system of maintenance and localization of production in Ukraine. At the second stage, we are interested in getting single-system locomotives,” he said.
CEO of ALSTOM Henri Poupart-Lafarge assured that it could be a reliable and long-term partner for Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukraine.
“We have been working in the market for many years and we can satisfy the needs of Ukrzaliznytsia. ALSTOM has experience in working in markets with the localization of production and service capacities. This strengthens our cooperation and creates new jobs. In particular, we work in this way in Kazakhstan and South Africa,” he said.
The ministry also notes that this project was founded in September 2018, when ALSTOM and Ukrzaliznytsya signed a memorandum of understanding, which formalizes cooperation in the provision and maintenance of electric locomotives. The financial model of the project involves the attraction of credit funds from the French State Treasury and other sources.
As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on October 27 met with CEO of ALSTOM Henri Poupart-Lafarge and discussed with him the prospects for the implementation of joint projects in the railway sector.
The French machine building company ALSTOM is one of the world leaders in the production of power equipment and railway transport.
Ukraine and France may sign an agreement within the framework of the Mixed Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation in the near future, Head of the Ukrainian side of the commission, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov has said.
“We have been working on the details of a common project with the French side for a long time and in the near future we can reach an intergovernmental agreement that will fully meet the needs of Ukraine. Including the requirements set by the President of Ukraine regarding the localization of production at Ukrainian enterprises,” Avakov said at a meeting with CEO of ALSTOM Henri Poupart-Lafarge on Tuesday, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reports.
At a meeting with the participation of the French Ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins and the general director of Ukrzaliznytsia Volodymyr Zhmak, the parties discussed the prospects for implementation of the ALSTOM electric locomotive supply project with partial localization of their production and maintenance in Ukraine.
“We have a very outdated fleet of locomotives and we need to strategically update it. At this stage, we are interested in 50 two-system electric locomotives capable of transporting from 5,500 to 6,000 tonnes of cargo. We need these locomotives with a long-term maintenance system and localized production in Ukraine. At the second stage, we are interested in obtaining single-system locomotives,” Zhmak said during the negotiations.
Poupart-Lafarge, in turn, assured that ALSTOM could be a reliable and long-term partner for Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukraine.
“We have been working on the market for many years and we can meet the needs of Ukrzaliznytsia. ALSTOM has experience in working in markets with the localization of production and service capacities. This strengthens our cooperation and creates new jobs. In particular, we work in this way in Kazakhstan and South Africa,” he said.
De Poncins said that over the past two years, taking into account the active implementation of helicopter (Airbus Helicopters) and ship (OSEA) projects of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, a humanitarian project to improve water supply in Mariupol with the prospect of its spread to Luhansk region, the total cost of all economic cooperation programs between Ukraine and France is EUR 800 million.
Ukraine and China have signed a program of cooperation in the field of aerospace for 2021-2025, which consists of 69 joint projects with a total value of contracts of more than $70 million.
As reported on the website of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU), the program was signed at a meeting of the Ukrainian-Chinese subcommittee on cooperation in space of the Commission on Cooperation between the Governments of Ukraine and China on October 22. The Ukrainian side was chaired by SSAU Head Volodymyr Usov, the Chinese – by Administrator of the Chinese National Space Administration (СNSA) Zhang Kejian.
The cooperation program will be the main one for joint activities of the two countries in space exploration in the medium term.
During the meeting, an agreement on the establishment of a joint laboratory of space science was also signed and an agreement to strengthen the exchange of information on space activities of the two countries was reached.
The next meeting of the subcommittee on cooperation in the field of space is scheduled for 2021 in China.
The Ministry of Infrastructure is mulling several options for cooperation with foreign partners on the project for building high-speed railways, according to the ministry’s website.
Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Vladyslav Krykliy on October 16 met with the director of the Hyundai Corporation representative office in Ukraine. First Deputy Minister Dmytro Abramovych also took part in the meeting.
Krykliy noted that Ukraine is interested in cooperation with Hyundai Corporation.
“The selection of a partner for the implementation of the project for construction of high-speed railways will be carried out on the basis of analysis of the proposed conditions, which should be beneficial for Ukraine. The project requires an integrated approach, in particular, in terms of financing, timing of implementation, the possibility of preparing a feasibility study using grant funds, etc.,” the ministry said.
During the meeting, the director of the Ukrainian representative office of Hyundai Corporation announced his interest in the implementation of infrastructure projects in Ukraine.
During the meeting, the parties also discussed the use of rolling stock on high-speed railways and models for financing infrastructure projects.
