Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post will host its “Doing Business With China" conference on Feb. 25 in the Hilton Kyiv. For ticket information, please go to: https://archive.kyivpost.com/conference. The following are snapshots of conference speakers.
Brian Best, investment banking director at Dragon Capital: “The type of investment capital that Ukraine needs most – infrastructure, energy, banking and agriculture – happen to be the areas where China has considerable investment experience and interest.”
Frank Niu, a partner of the Beijing Dentons law firm: “China has a huge appetite for agricultural produce, steel and coal-based imports, which are some of Ukraine’s strengths.”
Olexandr Danchenko, Verkhovna Rada member and expert on telecommunications: “Not once did I hear from Chinese partners that, even though a project might be very attractive, Ukraine has absolutely opaque government regulatory networks.”
Yevhen Romashchyn, CEO of Corum Group, a coal equipment producer: “We can offer Chinese companies the necessary expertise.” He points to China’s need for more sophisticated ways of coal extraction. Corum just registered a company in China called Beijing Corum Machinery.
Viacheslav Lysenko, president of Ukr-China Communication, a cargo service, says that many sectors of Ukraine’s economy are in need of foreign investments. Lysenko sees China’s investments to be on Ukraine’s priority list yet finds China’s cultural aspects as a challenge for Ukrainian businesspeople.
Vladyslava Rutytska, deputy agriculture minister, says that China is Ukraine’s fifth largest destination of its agricultural exports. Considering that volumes of exports to Russia are contracting, China will be Ukraine’s key partner in addition to the EU. “We are very interested in developing trade relations with China,” she says.
Aivaras Abromavicius, economy minister: “It is of great importance for Ukraine and for me to foster economic and business ties between our countries.” The two countries are already cooperating in such sectors as aviation, finance, energy and agriculture but broader collaboration is needed.
Thomas Miao, managing director at Huawei Ukraine, a telecommunications company, says that Ukraine-China business relations is a win-win situation where Ukraine needs more investment and cost-effective products whereas China needs rich human capital and natural resources. “We have to admit that it is not easy to do business in Ukraine.”
Igor Didenko has been the deputy energy minister since May 2014. Today he is cooperating with Chinese partners in the field of energy. In February, Didenko met with the vice president of the China Development Bank as well as China’s general director of the commerce ministry.
Kyiv Post staff writer Ilya Timtchenko can be reached at [email protected].
