Champagne-filled glasses and a full-band orchestra playing Chinese and Ukrainian folk music provided an upbeat opening to the Chinese Commerce Association in Ukraine on Sept. 7 at Kyiv's President Hotel.
Like other chambers of commerce, the association aims to promote Chinese business in Ukraine as well as bilateral trade. China is Ukraine’s second-largest single trading partner after Russia, with $8.6 billion of commerce last year. Eight percent of Ukraine’s exports go to China, whereas 10 percent of the country’s imports come from its Asian partner.
“This is another window for Ukraine and Chinese businesses,” Deputy Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko said at the opening ceremony. “The opening of the China Commerce Association is viewed by us as an opportunity for investment in Ukraine, as well as the possibility to export Ukrainian goods to China.”
Weijian Zhou, the president of the association and general manager of electronics firm Lenovo Ukraine, talked up Ukraine’s prospects in front of a capacity audience at the ceremony.
“Today is a very important day in the development of Ukrainian-Chinese trade relations,” Zhou said. “We want to demonstrate our wish for long-term development in the Ukrainian market, and we’re confident in Ukraine’s future and the future of the Ukrainian people.”
China’s ambassador to Ukraine, Zhang Xiyuyn, said more could be done to increase trade between Ukraine and China, which is the world’s second largest economy, with a GDP of $11 trillion.
One way would be to include Ukraine in China’s Silk Road Economic Belt, an initiative spearheaded by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The project foresees connecting China with Europe, the Middle East and Africa via upgraded infrastructure and free trade zones.
“Geographically, Ukraine is positioned very fortuitously,” Xiyun said. “We’re offering the initiatives of the Silk Road Economic Path.”
No Chinese company has left the Ukrainian market in the past year, and more are expected to enter, the association’s president told the Kyiv Post in an interview on Sept. 7.
“Certainly relations are going to improve,” Zhou said.
To deepen cooperation, the association signed a partnership agreement with the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce at the event. As their first mutual project, the two entities will hold a forum on the Silk Road project at the end of September.
“For us this is a very important sign that China sees and views Ukraine as an important economic and strategic partner,” Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce President Gennadiy Chyzhykov said.
China has provided Ukraine with two loans totaling $6.6 billion since 2012. One was a $3 billion loan-for-corn deal and the other was a credit line in 2014 to state-owned Naftogaz to finance natural gas and coal projects.
And on March 26, Ukraine signed a $15 billion memorandum of understanding with China’s CITIC Construction firm to build affordable housing at a minimal interest rate over 15 years.
China is still waiting for more clarity from Ukraine’s Energy Ministry on how it wants to approach energy projects, with the aim of substituting gas with coal using Chinese technologies.
These new realities include Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has claimed 8,000 lives and caused billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and industry.
When the Kyiv Post asked the ambassador if China needs to pick between Russia or Ukraine for economic cooperation, the ambassador replied that “China is China – choose us.”
Apart from electronics firm Lenovo, the other association co-founders are: Huawei Technologies, Sany Heavy Machinery, polyester staple fiber producer Eko-VTOR and engineering company CCEC-Ukraine.
Five people sit on the trade association’s board of directors, and 15 members have joined so far, including Canadian, Ukrainian and Chinese businesses from such industries as information technology, agriculture, energy and transportation. Only two people have permanent jobs at the association, but it is looking to hire more people.
Kyiv Post staff writer Ilya Timtchenko can be reached at [email protected].
