France is willing to invest and seeks to increase trade with Ukraine, French Foreign Trade Secretary of State Matthias Fekl said during a one-day visit to Kyiv on July 7.
He was the first
French minister responsible for economic affairs to have visited Ukraine in
four years. And it came as France and Ukraine are seeking to improve bilateral
trade ties, following Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s visit to Paris in
April.
Fekl met with Deputy
Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko who is also the minister of regional development.
He also met with the ministers of economy, energy, infrastructure, as well as Kyiv
Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
France wants to
support Ukraine “on the domestic frontline,” he told Agence
France-Presse, noting that the country is going through a major economic crisis.
The crisis has
been exacerbated by the conflict in eastern Ukraine instigated and engineered
by Russia. Accompanied by French businessmen, Fekl said French companies were
willing to invest in Ukraine.
“No French
company has left Ukraine in spite of the crisis, in spite of the economic
difficulties, in spite of the political context,” he said. He acknowledged
that trade between the two countries had dropped by 18 percent following the
EuroMaidan Revolution and Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.
“There is
more than €1 billion of trade between the two countries, but we need to do
more,” Fekl said.
The French
delegation named transport, renewable energy and energy efficiency as key
sectors that have potential for development. Fekl underlined that energy is the
main field of cooperation between the two countries.
An investor
conference “will be held in Paris this autumn,” he said. In 2014,
bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $2.4 billion. Ukraine’s
exports to France include food waste and residue, seeds, animal and vegetable
fats and oils, and inorganic chemicals.
French exports to
Ukraine include chemicals and pharmaceuticals, nuclear reactors and equipment,
and essential oils.
France also has
taken part in brokering a peace settlement to quell the war in the Donbas as a
member of the Normandy Group, which also includes Germany and Russia. Its first
meeting took place on June 6, 2014, in Normandy.
Kyiv Post writer Yves Souben can be reached at [email protected].
