Denmark is interested in investment in the Ukrainian agricultural sector and energy saving technology. Currently more than 300 companies from that partner country work on the Ukrainian market, and dozens of new companies are willing to enter this market with investment and cooperation proposals. The bilateral economic relations suggest a huge reserve of untapped potential, this is what partners will be working on. These issues were on the agenda of the Danish-Ukrainian Business Forum in Kyiv, which was attended by Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
“Ukraine has great potential, and now it’s time for a strong partnership between the two countries. We are ready to assist in developing economy, innovation. Thus, Danish companies have ready-made solutions used in the food industry, renewable energy, energy saving technologies. Ukraine must be a strong partner,” Rasmussen said.
President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Anatoliy Kinakh shares this opinion. During his speech addressing participants in the event, he said trade turnover estimated at $400 million did not correspond to the scale of the cooperation partners were engaged in. He also urged his colleagues from Denmark not to focus on two areas alone – agriculture and energy saving – despite their high priority and active implementation of related projects.
“Our country has great intellectual potential – this is the same IT sector where we are in the lead in Europe in terms of provided services, as well as engineering industry and the aerospace sector. I am confident this is a very interesting and promising area of cooperation for the countries that choose to develop in the innovative way,” the ULIE leader said.
Kinakh thus told the heads of the Confederation of Danish Industry, who were also present at the Forum, that he proposes facilitating bilateral communication and increasing the number of joint projects in the framework of a document on cooperation signed in 2007. He also expressed hope that business-related issues would be included in the agenda of the European Business Summit in Brussels, scheduled for June 1.
Deputy Director General of the Confederation of Danish Industry Thomas Bustrup thanked the ULIE for assistance in arranging the Business Forum in the Ukrainian capital and noted that Denmark is interested not only in the agricultural sector but also in information technology and innovation.
“We see the reserve for greater cooperation. We will be developing our relations, as even the offices of the Confederation and the ULIE are in the same building,” he said.
Danish national leading companies together with financial institutions came to Kyiv to attend the Forum. In particular, representatives of the Confederation of Danish Industry, Denmark’s Heat Supply Council, the Agricultural Council of Denmark and others took part in the event.
Ukrainian businessmen who attended the Forum were able to learn about technologies that help Denmark to achieve the highest productivity in animal and crop production, occupy a leading position in quality and safety of food, and optimization of production facilities.
The sides also signed a number of business deals in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Ukraine.
