Ukraine on the Silk Road

China and Ukraine are thousands of kilometers apart, but these countries may launch numerous joint projects soon. Almost all imported corn and sunflower oil in the People’s Republic is Ukrainian in origin. Meanwhile, the coming years may see China, the second largest economy of the world, investing in the Ukrainian energy industry, infrastructure, and construction.

Recently, Ukrainian journalists talked to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to China Oleh Diomin. He spoke of the ambitious Sino-Ukrainian projects, the embassy’s activity in Chinese social networks and passivity of Ukrainian officials.

ENERGY COOPERATION: JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON

“Many important projects were planned several years ago. At the end of 2012, China and Ukraine signed a credit line agreement to aid grain exports to China and determined the conditions for the allocation of more than 3.5 billion dollars to modernize the energy sector of Ukraine. The first credit line is running at half its capacity, with Ukraine allocated 1.5 billion dollars so far. This grain campaign is gaining momentum, although many issues have not been resolved yet. Even so, 90 percent of imported corn in China is of Ukrainian origin at the moment, and 95 percent of sunflower oil brought to China is Ukrainian-produced as well.

The energy project could not start on time because of corruption issues that existed in Ukraine in the past. This direction included projects in the territory that is now in the anti-terrorist operation area, I mean producing syngas from coal and coal fuel for thermal power plants. Now, these projects cannot be implemented because of new developments, that is, the ongoing events in eastern Ukraine.

At the same time, the past year saw the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine and Naftohaz of Ukraine company, which are involved in the “energy” credit line, joining the Chinese side in active search for other promising areas of cooperation. These may include modernization of Ukrainian thermal power plants, production of syngas in some other location, and processing of brown coal to syngas using Chinese technology. This work started a bit late, as Ukraine wasted a year and a half, if not two years. Meanwhile, approvals for feasibility studies for the project take time. Much depends on the efforts of Ukrainian officials and agencies that will carry out this project.”

“UKRAINE WILL GET A DEEPWATER PORT BUILT”

“Now to new cooperation projects. There is a good prospect of concluding agreements on housing construction. Some memoranda have been signed already. The construction work may involve using Chinese technology and financing by Chinese banks. For this, we may need to get Chinese banks to open branches in Ukraine that would finance construction of housing and provide mortgages. We are working on a few options that are now considered by us and the Chinese side.

We must make up for lost time by working day and night. Prospects are good enough, for the Chinese side is interested in Ukrainian technologies, particularly those of machinery industry. China is even ready for joint production.

The Chinese are interested in Ukrainian infrastructure. They planned to build a deepwater port in Crimea. When well-known events began on the peninsula, the Chinese company that already had designs for the port declared to the entire world that it would not build the port in Crimea. Chinese representatives believe that the peninsula is under illegal occupation at the moment. Therefore, an expert team is now working in earnest to determine a location for the port in mainland Ukraine. Most likely, it will be in Odesa or Mykolaiv region. Still, Ukraine will get a deepwater port built. In addition, there is a proposal from the Chinese side on modernization of Ukrainian railroads.

Furthermore, there is a global project known as the Silk Road Economic Belt [it involves creating an economic corridor along the ancient Silk Road. – Author]. Ukraine was the first European country to officially recognize its feasibility and offer political support for its implementation. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and the Ministry of Commerce of China have signed a protocol on Ukraine’s participation in the project. What we need now is to fill this interaction with concrete deals. Again, we need to add to the intensity of our cooperation with China. In this regard, Georgia has beaten us in a good way. Georgians held a huge symposium on the Silk Road Economic Belt project and are cooperating with the project’s investment fund.”

“THE CHINESE KNOW A LOT ABOUT UKRAINE”

“China hosts a Ukrainian community including Ukrainian students and businesspeople. Every year, the number of Ukrainian students in China increases by a third, and they take courses in many diverse fields. I have just arrived from the city of Dalian. The local university of foreign languages held an international conference on the mission of youth in the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt and Ukrainian youths were active in the event, which is a significant and pleasant development. By the way, our embassy opened the Center of Ukrainian Studies at Dalian University of Foreign Languages past year. Similar centers were founded by us in Tianjin and Shanghai past year as well. Such structures offer an opportunity to convey information about Ukraine.

Still, working with the media is our main concern. China is “hungry” for Ukrainian journalists. We at the embassy are trying to hold a press conference at least once every two weeks and communicate information about the events in Ukraine as we see them. Chinese media censor this information a little, although they often call a spade a spade nonetheless, when speaking about problems including separatism and the Crimea issue.

For the second year, the Embassy of Ukraine in China is present on Chinese social networks. Facebook and Twitter do not work in China, and local social networks thus offer the best way to reach the people. We work daily in two directions: providing political information on current events in Ukraine and telling stories about Ukrainian traditions and history. The Chinese know a lot about Ukraine, and we help them expand that knowledge.”