The South Korean company Caris plans to build a plant in Ukraine for manufacturing of road safety fences from recycled plastic worth more than $60 million, considering the Stryi district of Lviv region as a site, according to the website of the city council of Stryi.
According to the press service, Mayor of Stryi Oleh Kanivets last week signed a memorandum with Caris CEO Yu Cheol during his business trip to Kyiv.
“The company plans to build factories in Ukraine for the production of plastic road safety fences. We are ready to create about 900 jobs. Stryi territorial community is interesting for its convenient logistics location and proximity to the European market,” the press service said.
In turn, the press service of the Ministry of Economy also announced the plans of Caris to build a $60 million plant in Ukraine for the production of road safety fences.
According to the report, on June 11, Deputy Economy Minister Iryna Novikova met with Yu Cheol.
“There is a hope that the project will be able to take advantage of new government support for projects with substantial investment, since it provides for $60 million in investments and the creation of new jobs. Investment projects that take into account environmental issues are important for us,” Novikova said.
The press service of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also reported about its support of this project.
“We will accompany this project, and we will use all the possibilities of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry so that the investor does not regret any dollar invested in Ukraine,” the press service said, citing President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hennadiy Chyzhykov.
According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the representative office of Caris in Ukraine is headed by ex-head of the State Finance Institution for Innovations (SFII) Volodymyr Stavniuk.
In January 2020, the Korean company announced on its website that it had signed an agreement with SFII for the construction of a plant for the production of plastic fences in Ukraine. In particular, the agreement provided for the creation of a PVC production and technology joint venture. Investments in the construction of the plant were projected in the amount of $100 million.
According to the public register, in December 2019, Caris Ukraine LLC was registered in Ukraine, 51% of which is owned by Yu Cheol through Caris, another 49% is owned by Vladlen Levchuk through Socrat Development LLC.
The State Agency for Infrastructure Projects of Ukraine (Ukrinfraproekt) has fulfilled the state road safety program by 72% in 2020, head of the agency Kyrylo Khomiakov said during the presentation of the report for the past year on Friday.
According to him, in 2018 the program was not completed, in 2019 it was completed by 30%.
“If we talk about the tasks of the state program, 42 out of 45 tasks for 2020 have been fully completed. One of the tasks – the construction of roundabouts – has not been fully completed due to the SACI (State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate) reform and weather conditions, but we will complete this by the middle of the second quarter,” he said.
Among the most important projects implemented by the agency in 2020, Khomiakov named: the installation of 20 Weigh-in-Motion (WiM) complexes on the roads; purchase of 220 auto-fixing complexes, which are now being installed on state roads; installation of four integrated speed control systems (Phantoms) and 72 TrueCam 2.
According to him, in general, in 2020, UAH 3.168 billion was allocated for this program, 100% of which were procured, contracts were signed in the amount of UAH 2.993 billion (95%).
Ukraine and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the margins of the Ukraine-EU summit in Brussels on Monday signed an agreement on the allocation of a EUR 75 million loan for the implementation of the project on improving road safety in Ukrainian cities. “The EIB allocates EUR 75 million, which will be received by five largest cities in Ukraine – Dnipro, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv,” the press service of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze reported.
The EIB said in a press release due to the signing of the agreement that in addition to the loan, an EU grant of EUR 4.25 million will be provided as part of the so-called Neighborhood Investment Facility (NIF), allocated for the preparation of the project, development and monitoring.
The executor of the project is the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry, and the recipients of financial assistance from the EIB are the authorities of these cities. Investment will be directed to eliminate the most dangerous sections by creating better interchanges and modern transport systems, as well as improving intersections and updating the road infrastructure, the bank said.
According to the bank, other changes planned within the project will include the development of a network of safe bike and pedestrian paths, urban transport planning system, introduction of speed limits in residential areas and school areas, and the introduction of an IT-based traffic management system.
