Belt and Road co-operation discussed at Ukraine China economic forum in Kiev
A Ukrainian and Chinese economic forum focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative took place in Kiev on the 4th June, attracting more than 200 participants.
During the event, Chinese and Ukrainian officials and representatives of business and industry explored ways to consolidate the economic relations between the countries building on the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Jointly organized by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the forum highlighted the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative to Ukraine, which is situated at the centre point of the trade route between the East and the West.
Speaking to Xinhua, Valeriy Korol, vice-president of the UCCI. said: “I’m sure that it has a great future, first of all, for the Ukrainian business.” Ukraine and China have undertaken the first steps toward closer partnership under the Belt and Road Initiative, which included a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on bilateral co-operation. In the meantime much work lies ahead to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by the initiative.
Zhang Yi, deputy secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce commented that China and Ukraine must align their respective development strategies to fully tap their cooperation potential. “I hope that the business and the industrial circles of the two countries will take advantage of this forum to begin in-depth exchanges, achieve even greater mutual understanding, and find new opportunities for cooperation,” Zhang said, adding that Ukraine and China must exploit their complementarities to push forward bilateral cooperation in agriculture, mining, processing industry and infrastructure.
The Ukrainian Deputy Infrastructure Minister, Viktor Dovgan, commented that pragmatic co-operation between China and Ukraine in infrastructure is already thriving. “We actively participate in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past year, the amount of infrastructure projects implemented by the Chinese companies in Ukraine has reached US$200 million.”
Ukraine together with Chinese partners plans to launch a bridge project in Kremenchug city, an industrial hub of central Ukraine. “It is a symbolic project — the construction of a bridge across the Dnieper River,” Dovgan said, adding that it will symbolize a bridge linking the two countries under the Belt and Road Initiative.
