Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Ukraine Fan Xianrong says China is interested in increasing exports of Ukrainian goods, especially food.
He said this during a meeting with Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna.
During the meeting, the interlocutors considered the state of implementation of the decisions of the 4th meeting of the Commission on Cooperation between the Governments of Ukraine and China.
“The participants of the meeting discussed ways to increase mutual trade and investment cooperation. Ambassador Fan Xianrong noted that China is interested in increasing exports of Ukrainian goods, especially food,” the statement reads.
“Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe and a kind of “a bridge between West and East, North and South”. This creates significant trade opportunities for global producers to develop their capacities in Ukraine. We are also interested in maintaining the dynamics of trade with China, opening new commodity markets in PRC and continuing the dialogue on the implementation of investment projects,” Stefanishyna stressed.
The Ukrainian side informed the Chinese representatives about the course of consultations with business on their interest in the development of certain areas of trade with China and priority areas of investment cooperation.
Among the priority areas of investment are considered the following: agriculture (development of industrial parks with an agrarian bias, production and supply of soybeans, and cattle breeding); environmental projects (recycling); infrastructure development (container railway transportation, port and airport infrastructure, production of electric buses and smartcity projects).
Olha Stefanishyna and Fan Xianrong agreed to speed up the elaboration of a roadmap for the implementation of the Ukraine-PRC Cooperation Program in the Initiative of Joint Construction of Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (The Belt and Road Initiative). The program was signed at the 4th meeting of the Commission and provides an opportunity for Ukrainian business in cooperation with Chinese partners to receive administrative support from China and access to project funding in priority areas. (Ukrinform/Business World Magazine)