On April 19 MIM-Kyiv hosted “Ukraine – China” Business Forum. Representatives of the Embassy of People’s Republic of China to Ukraine, Huawei Ukraine, Export Growth and Fialan together with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Economy and Chinese Commerce Association discussed practical aspects of doing business with China and identified areas of cooperation with the best potential.

Mr. Liu Jun, the Counselor for the Embassy of People’s Republic of China to Ukraine talked about the potential interest of the Chinese business people to Ukraine. He paid special attention to the opportunities provided by the “One Belt, One Road” strategy. “In China agriculture is believed to be the most mutually beneficial area of cooperation. However, I think that manufacturing, IT and infrastructure are other industries with a good trading potential,” Mr. Liu said.

Mr. Valery Pyatnynsky, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade participated in the event. In particular, he explained that as China is one of the biggest global players Ukraine needs to get better adapted to Chinese standards. In this respect our cooperation and focus on the EU standards could be very useful. He also mentioned that quality is the name of the game. 4 types of standards ranging from the national to in-companies’ make a rather liberal trading regimes complicated. Another sad news for Ukraine is losing its industrial engineering positions. Mr. Pyatnynsky said, “China is looking for innovations, it sets the most cutting edge standards. Moreover, it approximates its legal and regulatory framework to the US and EU. We’d better be quick in harmonizing our regulatory and legal frameworks with the EU ones otherwise we would fail in the competition.”

Mr. Ruslan Osypenko, executive director for the Chinese Commerce Association presented the Association and opportunities provided by the organization. He also talked about “The New Silk Route” initiative. The initiative is launched as an infrastructural one. It is about creating a railway to facilitate trade between China, Ukraine, and Europe. However, the initiative is not limited to infrastructure. “In Ukraine many believe that its geographic location will bring business to the country. They are wrong. Unless we improve business climate, coordinate our political and economic efforts and start negotiations on the free economic zone nothing will be invested,” Mr. Osypenko said. He continued, “China is ready to invest fortune in Ukraine. But if investments and investors’ rights are not protected nobody will invest and nothing will happen.”
Mr. Vitaly Matarykin, PR&GR manager for the Huawei Ukraine spoke about Huawei Ukraine’s projects, in particular “Safe City”. As an innovative company it started 38 research campuses world-wide. One of such campuses will soon be launched in Ukraine. In particular, Huawei Ukraine is active in digitalization process as it is one of the most profitable businesses.

Ukraine – China Business Forum proved that China is one of the most important strategic partners of Ukraine. Both Chinese and Ukrainian business people should make the most of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative.