我们期待乌克兰能够出现经济繁荣的景象，而中国投资必将成为它的引擎
文｜奥列格·焦明（H. E. Mr. Oleg Dyomin）乌克兰驻华大使 翻译｜王晓波
四年前，经历了“尊严革命”的乌克兰改变了发展方向。我们选择了欧洲化发展方向和价值观，渴望实现现代化和经济的可持续发展。
当然，乌克兰实现与欧洲一体化的进程是漫长而复杂的。包括国家治理 ，经济管理，技术，以及生产标准都需要改革。为使乌克兰快速融入欧洲一体化框架，政府将推出重要改革措施。尤其是对企业管制放松，改进投资环境、提高国家经济与投资管理效率等方面的改革。
目前，乌克兰政府为吸引投资采取了一系列措施：通过了简化程序法令，促进国有化和私有化企业合作；批准国营和民营企业合作风险分配原则；通过工业园区法；启动加入经济合作与发展组织的程序。
2016年1月1日起，乌克兰和欧盟自由贸易区协定生效。该协定使投资者不仅能从乌克兰市场获益，同时世界最大经济市场也向他们开放。根据协定，投资者也可享受原料、零部件、设备免税进口。同时，95%的产品实现零关税，而其他产品的税率也呈下降趋势。
我们认为，在乌克兰和欧洲建立自由贸易区符合“一带一路”倡议，这对进一步深化中乌合作非常有利，也为在乌克兰建立中乌合资企业创造了优越条件，为企业进入欧洲市场提供便利。
乌克兰希望参与一带一路
我们认为，响应一带一路倡议并参与海上丝绸之路经济带的建设是乌克兰的历史机遇。由于我们具备优越的地理位置优势和传统的技术优势，乌克兰不仅有条件成为欧洲与亚洲间贸易、运输和物流的桥梁，而且还可以成为全球颇具竞争力的生产基地。当今世界各国之间都在展开全面合作，经济上的相互依赖和相互补充是最重要的特征，这也是乌克兰希望能参与一带一路建设的考量。
作为中国的国际战略伙伴，乌克兰对于中国新一轮的对外开放极其感兴趣。因为这对乌克兰的再工业化是一个新契机，也能够开辟一种新的合作方式。双方可以展开合作的项目包括：在一带一路框架下，兴建途经乌克兰的中欧物流通道；建立乌克兰与中国联合生产基地，它可以在欧盟的自贸区内经营；在乌克兰和中国启动科技和产业集群建设，在技术研发领域展开合作，并通过招募高素质的乌克兰工作人员实现这些技术的商业化。
这样，我们就能在真正与一带一路倡议相连接，并且实现乌克兰与欧盟的一体化。
众所周知，外国资金都愿意投向社会稳定、经济发展可持续、生活和营商环境安全的国家。虽然现在乌克兰还不能100%确保国内的稳定，但是，我们也与国际社会共同努力，尽一切可能让国家步入正轨。我们并没有停滞不前——政府和企业都在运作，经商不仅有资源保障，而且可以得到法律保护。改革正在进行过程中，营商和发展国际贸易和投资合作的条件是具备的。
政府致力改善投资环境
乌克兰是欧洲国家，遵守欧洲的相关法律，因此投资环境与其他欧洲国家并没有不同，所有与投资相关的立法都建立在国际惯例的基础上。乌克兰尊重每位外国投资者，国内外投资者享有同等的，公平的政策，任何一方都没有特殊待遇，都是按已确立的法律经营。
同时，乌克兰政府一直在改善投资环境，使外方投资更加便利。政府对公共采购制度也进行了改革——公共采购的电子系统已经启动并对外开放。国营企业也正在改革，目的是使它们在私有化前能够具有竞争力。我们认为这也符合中国企业的意愿，因为中国现在是世界并购市场的领跑者。
在投资风险方面，外国投资者们无需担心。与其它国家一样，在乌克兰投资也需遵守其相关的法律规定。为了让投资者们更好地了解和应对，我们有一些专业的法律和咨询公司，可以按照有关的投资协议帮助处理诸如外资和合资企业登记、兼并收购、资产购买等事宜。
乌克兰政府新成立的顾问和咨询机构——乌克兰投资（投资促进局）已经开始与境外投资者积极沟通。该机构可以高效地在中央、地区政府和投资者之间进行协调，并对投资过程中的各项工作提供建议和帮助。
为吸引境外投资，乌克兰投资促进局还制定了一个“4+1”战略。列出了乌克兰经济中具备可持续发展潜力和优势的领域，即：农业（初级生产、粮食加工、农业机械化）、能源（节能、可再生能源）、制造业（车辆、航空航天、医药和轻工业）、基础设施（物流、交通基础设施）。第五个领域是能够助力上述领域产业增值的技术创新，这样就可以创造新的投资机会，并且使乌克兰尽快与全球价值链接轨。
投资促进局确保为外商投资和经营提供所需的基础设施，并且接受各种投资形式，包括：外商直接投资、组合投资、风险投资、兼并收购以及出售和购买资产。来自欧洲国家、土耳其、以色列、日本和韩国的投资者们都很愿意接受他们提供的服务。
在这方面，位于乌克兰的中国—欧亚经济合作基金开了个好头，它已经与乌克兰国家金融机构以及像Horizon Capital和Dragon Capital这样的投资和咨询公司建立了紧密的联系。
为了让中国有意向的投资者了解乌克兰经济、贸易与投资的发展潜力并为其提供服务，与此相关的政府部门和商务机构，包括乌克兰外交部和驻华使馆，都在利用一切传统和现代的方式不遗余力地宣传介绍，比如大型会议、相关论坛以及通过门户网站和社交网络提供信息。我们的宣传途径还在不断扩展——新的咨询平台已经建立，比如位于北京的乌克兰之家、位于基辅的与丝绸之路项目相关的办公室、现代中国中心和许多其它机构。
目前，中国在乌克兰投资的金额还不是很庞大。根据乌克兰提供的数据，过去15年中的投资额仅有2000万美元。应当指出的是，这一数字仅涉及到外商直接投资的部分。因此，虽然它比较低，但有关专家认为，外商直接投资并不能代表两国在经济和投资领域合作的全貌，因为中国还将其它类别项下的资金也投向了乌克兰，可它们并未统计在内。
中国企业在乌克兰有许多动作成功的项目，在港口物流方面，2016年，中国粮油控股有限公司在尼古拉耶夫的海上贸易港口修建了粮食和油料中转站，年接待能力可达250万吨。
中国建材集团在乌克兰的尼古拉耶夫和敖德萨地区建了十个最大的太阳能发电站，它们的总发电容量可达267兆瓦，占到乌克兰目前太阳能发电总容量的一半。
乌克兰电信运营商“Prosat”与中国的信威集团合作，在全国范围内兴建了第四代移动宽带多媒体通信网络，它依靠的是信威集团的McWiLL技术。现在150个基站已经安装完毕，计划未来将在乌克兰境内共安装2000多个这样的基站。
中国进出口银行用四年时间向乌克兰国家食品与粮食公司提供15亿美元的贷款，用于从乌克兰向中国提供谷物，同时使用部分贷款建造物流基地。
中国与乌克兰的企业还在可再生能源、农业和食品加工、信息技术、电子商务、加工及物流等方面成功运作了十几个项目。
如上所述，情况正在逐渐发生改变。政府间的协议对双方的合作也起到了很好的促进作用，特别是在一带一路框架下共同参与经济带的建设方面。在有意愿借助私人投资扩展业务的私营企业界，创新型合作也在向前发展。
双方确定未来优先合作领域
为推进乌克兰与中国经济合作的进一步发展，2017年双方通过政府级别对话，确定了未来两、三年优先合作的领域，并且签署了成果文件。
合作重点领域包括:农业、制造业、交通和能源基础设施建设、银行和金融业。
乌克兰的四大项目是：乌克兰土地政策和粮食部和乌克兰经济发展和贸易部与中国农业部和中国商务部在农业领域展开的投资合作，其中最具发展前景的领域有：推广农产品加工厂项目（谷物和油料作物的深加工、动物饲料及其它加工品的生产），供应乌克兰和中国市场以及其他国家；物流领域基础设施项目的实施——兴建港口粮食码头、谷物升降机、冷藏库及其它设施。
越来越多的中国专家认为，实施一带一路倡议需要充分利用乌克兰的物流潜力。因此，为了改善乌克兰的现有条件，提高货物的吞吐量和运输速度，并且加强中国—西欧—中国线路途经乌克兰的多式联运集装箱运输服务的竞争力，需要大力发展乌克兰港口、公路和高速铁路的建设，并使它们能够达到现代化的水平。
乌克兰与中国已经就设立和保障乌克兰公民住房抵押贷款或融资租赁签署了备忘录，这是一个积极互利的前瞻性合作。它对于加大节能、发展住房和基础设施建设投资提供了极好的机会。
为了拓宽和深化乌克兰与中国在科技领域由来已久的互利合作，两国计划在重大项目上开展创新技术合作。比如，中国专家以前与乌克兰巴顿电焊研究所的合作就颇具成果，现在这一成果已经被用于中国高铁建设中。目前，成立联合实验室、科技园区、技术转让中心和其它平台已经得到了批准。
两国政府都强调2016-2020年乌克兰-中国太空合作计划的重要性，为确保以前已达成一致的方案的落实，并让现有合作有一个质的飞跃，双方将协商采取必要的措施。
乌克兰将在采矿业、核能、原子能、特别是铀矿床的开发方面充分利用中国的投资和技术，继续展开互利合作，实现项目共建。目前，双方合作进展最快的领域是可再生能源。
中乌双方希望两国的企业在经营时能够严格遵守双边法律，同时营商活动也将得到由乌克兰司法部和中国司法部共同成立的工作组的大力支持。为了确保中国投资的安全，乌克兰方面将继续努力改善其营商条件，为中国投资者提供公平、稳定的法律和政治环境。
中国推行改革开放政策已经四十年了，取得了令人瞩目的成果。乌克兰也已经选择了开放作为其进一步发展的战略，因此中国经验为我们提供了很好的借鉴和启示。
最后，我想再次强调乌克兰和中国正在为构建真正的战略合作伙伴关系采取相应的措施。中国非常理解乌克兰政治经济发展中出现的一些动荡，这为我们在如此困难的环境下开辟了一条充满希望、构建文明社会的道路。乌克兰也越来越体会到中国作为合作伙伴给予我们的帮助。
因此，我确信双方的这些努力必将结出丰硕成果：乌克兰将成为中国投资的永久目的国。我们期待乌克兰能够出现经济繁荣的景象，而中国投资必将成为它的引擎。（编辑：张梅）
英文版
China’s Investment Prospective in Ukraine in Frameworks of OBOR
By H. E. Mr. Oleg Dyomin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the People’s Republic of China
Four years ago, after the Revolution of Dignity the people of Ukraine changed the paradigm of its country development. It has chosen the European direction dreaming for a modern and equitable social and economic development.
It is well understood the path to inclusive integration of Ukraine into the European political, economic and social area is lasting and quite complicated one. In fact, it is necessary to change almost everything: from administrative management of the country and the economy (among European countries Ukraine was mostly burdened for long time by the Soviet past management system) to the technical and production standards.
When implementing such radical changes in the country life of the citizens and the business community gets complicated by several times: the reorientation of markets, shortage of finances, growing business risks, increasing inflation, changing labor market.
At this stage the Ukraine’s government reforms play the important role in getting rid of the problems affecting the European integration. They were aimed, in particular, on the deregulation of entrepreneurial activities, improving the business climate, the efficiency of public investment management and public sector economy.
Besides, the Ukrainian government has taken actions directly aimed at investment incentives: adopted the Law of Ukraine on simplification of regulatory barriers for development of public and private partnership in Ukraine, approved the mechanism of distribution of risks between public and private partners, developed a new method of determining the amount of concession payments, adopted the Law of Ukraine on the development of a network of industrial parks, launched the process of Ukraine's accession to the OECD for the protection of investors' rights. By powerful stream goes the formation of anti-corruption legislation, a number of anti-corruption structures have been launched.
Agreement on Free Trade Zone between Ukraine and the EU became valid as from 1 January 2016. This agreement is an important factor for investors, placing their production facilities in our territory and getting access not only to the Ukrainian market, but the markets of our trading partners in Europe. Also, they have access to duty-free imports of raw materials, spare parts, equipment along with the available analogues of national production. Overall, about 95% of tariff items are set at zero level, and for the rest the customs tariffs have been reduced.
To our opinion, the creation of a Free Trade Zone between Ukraine and EU countries generally meets the idea of OBOR. This can be used to deepen the bilateral cooperative ties between our countries, and also it creates the favorable conditions for establishing the joint Ukraine-China enterprises in Ukraine as well as for the implementation of joint investment projects, including those related to the further export of products to Europe.
Ukraine is really interested in Chinese investments.
Today, China ranks second in the world in terms of investment volumes into the foreign economies in all five continents. The greatest growth of overseas China investments over the last 2-3 years is observed in Europe and the partner countries of China sharing the implementation of the Belt&Road initiative.
In Ukraine, we believe that our participation in the China’s initiative to build the economic belt of the Great Silk Road is the opportunity to use historical chance and those objective factors, endowed by fate. In particular, grace to geographic location and technological traditions our country has every opportunity to become not only a kind of trade, transport and logistics bridge between Europe and Asia, but also a powerful production area of this global economic project. The factor of interdependence and complementarity of the economies of the partners, which is the most important in the modern world for the full cooperation of states, has been put in concept of Ukraine's participation in the Belt&Road project.
2016 and 2017 showed the Ukraine and China’s productive work on the plans for further cooperation in midterm period. The result of this work is the conclusion of a number of intergovernmental documents, which determine the main sectors of cooperation. This is the Plan of Actions (Road Map) of the Governments of Ukraine and China on the implementation of Belt&Road initiative and the Program of Ukraine-China investment cooperation in the agricultural sector, and a number of other documents in the context of sectorial cooperation.
Ukraine, as a strategic international partner of China, is highly interested in the deployment of a new round of China's openness to the world and its benefits for all parties in cooperation. For us this is new opportunities and forms of cooperation in such areas as the re-industrialization of the Ukrainian economy upon the example of 16+1 format, the cooperation in the development of fundamentally new logistic corridors from China to Europe through Ukraine in the OBOR framework, the establishment of a joint Ukrainian-Chinese production base, which will operate within the Free Trade Zone with the EU, and the launch of scientific and industrial clusters, centers (both in Ukraine and China) to develop the joint technologies with their further commercialization recruiting the high qualified Ukrainian staff.
This way we see the real possibility for connectivity of the Belt&Road initiative and the European integration of Ukraine.
We all know that money likes peace and order. So, the foreign capitals go to a country where there is a stable and predictable socio-economic situation, security of life and business. Now, Ukraine cannot boast yet of 100% internal stability, and this is primarily because of the aggressive actions of Russia against Ukraine. At the same time, we and progressive international community have done everything possible that our country live today in a routine predictable rhythm. The country does not stand still – the government and enterprises work, the business is provided with the resources and legal protection, the reforms are being implemented, the conditions for business activity and development of international trade and investment cooperation are ensured.
Ukraine is European state and in terms of laws its investment climate does not differ from other European countries. All legislation related to the investment regime in Ukraine was developed and adopted on the basis of international best practices. Investment policy in Ukraine is based on respect for each foreign investor who invests money in our economy with no providing any of them the special advantages or privileges. We believe this is fair. By the way, local investors also do not have any special privileges and operate under established laws. This gives the equal chances to all investors.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine’s government constantly works to improve and facilitate the investment climate. In addition to previously mentioned the public procurement system in Ukraine also has been reformed – ProZorro open system of electronic public procurement has been developed and launched. Ukrainian state enterprises are under reforming as well in order to improve their effectiveness before privatization that, to our mind, may make the interest to Chinese business as now China is the M&A world market leader.
In fact, none of foreign investors has to puzzle over what specific risks can rise in Ukraine. However, regarding the legal aspects of doing business in Ukraine, in particular, investment activities, it has its own peculiarities as in every other country. To resolve such issues in Ukraine there is a system of legal and consulting companies, which follow up the relevant investment agreements such as registration of foreign and joint companies, mergers and acquisitions, asset purchases, etc.
The newly established consultative and advisory structure of the Ukrainian government – UkraineInvest (office of investment promotion) began the active work with foreign investors. UkraineInvest’s highly professional team is effective link between the Central and regional governments and investors – advisor and assistant in all aspects of investment activities.
To attract the investments into Ukraine the UkraineInvest has developed the “4+1” strategy. It identifies the economic sectors of the Ukrainian economy, which have sustained economic growth and clear comparative advantages, namely: agribusiness (primary production, food processing, agricultural machinery), energy (energy efficiency, alternative energy sources), manufacturing (vehicles, aerospace, pharmaceutical and light industries) and infrastructure (logistics, transport infrastructure). The fifth element is the innovative technologies that will ensure added value to each of those sectors, opening up new investment opportunities and Ukraine's integration into the global value chain in world markets.
The activities of such companies confirm availability and successful operation of the required infrastructure for attracting foreign capital in our country in all its options and forms: foreign direct investments, portfolio investments, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, sale and purchase of assets. By the way, the investors from the European countries, Turkey, Israel, Japan and South Korea willingly use their services.
In this aspect, the good example is the beginning of work of China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund in Ukraine that has already established the close contacts with the State Finance Institution for Innovations of Ukraine and the investment and consulting companies such as Horizon Capital and Dragon Capital.
To deliver the information about the economic (trade and investment) potential of Ukraine and provide services to the potential Chinese investors, the relevant governmental and business establishments, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Embassy, use all possible modern and traditional instruments: from personal meetings, conferences and forums to the providing of information via web portals and social networks. This toolkit is constantly expanded – the new consulting platforms are established such as Ukraine’s House in Beijing, Silk Link with a project office in Kiev, the Center of Modern China, and many others.
At the same time, viewing the statistics on Chinese investments into Ukraine, at first it seems that it is a very small value for strategic partnership. According to the Ukrainian statistics it is $20 million over the past 15 years, and Chinese statistics say about $70 million.
However, it should be noted that this is always about the foreign direct investments (FDI), the volumes of which are determined by specific statistical methods. In this context, they are really low. Though, the national experts note that FDI do not represent a complete picture of the economic and investment cooperation between our countries as Chinese capital of other categories that have come and work now in Ukraine is not taken into account.
Here are some examples of successful projects of Chinese business in Ukraine.
In sector of port logistics, in 2016 Chinese company COFCO Agri launched the transshipment complex of grain and oilseeds with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes in Mykolayiv sea trade port, the cost of which amounted to $75 million.
CNBM in Ukraine has ten biggest solar power stations located in the Mykolayiv and Odesa regions. Their total capacity is 267 MW, or half of all Ukrainian solar power stations to date. According to CNBM the investments in those projects amounted to about $1 billion.
Ukrainian telecommunication operator "Prosat" together with Xіnweі Group (one of the leading telecommunication companies in the world) builds the national scale network of mobile broadband multimedia communication of 4th generation on the basis of McWіLL® (Xіnweі Group) technologies. 150 base stations are already installed, and it is planned to install in the territory of Ukraine more than 2 thousand base stations in the future.
A plant that will produce aircraft engines under license and with the direct participation of world-known Ukrainian company "Motor Sich" is being built now in China (Chongqing). The cost of this project is a few billion dollars, a part of which is invested in the development of "Motor Sich".
State Food and Grain Company of Ukraine for 4 years uses a 1.5 billion loan (U.S. dollars) lent by Eximbank of China for the supply of Ukrainian grains to China, and intends to use a part of it for logistics projects that will help to realize the commercial contracts.
Dozens of other successful projects implemented by Chinese and Ukrainian businesses in such industries as alternative energy, agriculture and food industry, information technology, e-commerce, processing and logistics can be listed here as well.
As you can see, the situation is gradually changing. The intergovernmental agreements also promote this process, in particular concerning joint participation in building the economic belt in the framework of the OBOR initiative, as well as the initiative of private business circles that have plans of expanding their businesses with private investments.
In this context, to ensure the further development of Ukraine-China economic cooperation, the important decisions were taken at the state level during the meetings of Subcommittee on trade and economic cooperation (15-17 November 2017 in Beijing) and Commission on cooperation between the governments of Ukraine and China (5 December 2017 in Kiev), which was held during the visit of Mr. Ma Kai, Vice Premier of China, to Ukraine.
In the outcome documents of these inter-governmental dialogues Ukraine and China have identified priority areas of cooperation for the next 2-3 years in which relevant projects the Chinese side plans to invest about $7 billion.
In particular, the parties consider increasing the cooperation through the promotion of joint projects in key areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, construction of transport and energy infrastructure, banking and financial sector.
The quadrilateral Program of Ukrainian-Chinese investment cooperation in agriculture between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, the Ministry of Agriculture of China and Ministry of Commerce of China deserves the high attention of the potential investors. The following most promising areas in the program are: promotion of projects for agricultural product processing factories (deep processing of grain and oil crops, production of animal feed and other processed products) for the Ukrainian and Chinese markets, as well as for the markets of third countries, and implementation of logistics projects – construction of port grain terminals, grain elevators, warehouses of cold storage and others.
In the expert environment of China an opinion is growing that implementation of OBOR idea will not be effective enough without using logistic potential of Ukraine. Therefore, in order to improve conditions, to increase the throughput and speed and to improve the competitiveness of multimodal container transportation services by route China – Western Europe – China via the territory of Ukraine, it is planned to invest in development and modernization of seaports, roads and the development of high-speed railways of Ukraine.
Positive and mutually beneficial prospective cooperation is expected in the framework of the signed Ukrainian-Chinese Memorandum on building and ensuring the citizens of Ukraine with housing based on mortgage lending or financial leasing. This project will also provide an opportunity to increase the Chinese investments in development of energy efficient and fast erecting technologies of housing and infrastructure construction.
With the purpose to broaden and deepen the traditional mutually beneficial cooperation between Ukraine and China in scientific and technical fields it is planned to implement several large-scale projects highly important for innovation progress in both countries. For instance, the positive results of Chinese experts’ cooperation with the Ukrainian Paton Institute of Electric Welding that began in the past are used in the construction of high-speed railways in China. Currently the interest in formation the joint laboratories, scientific parks, centers of technologies transfer and other platforms, aimed to long-term cooperation has been confirmed.
The governments have highlighted the importance of the Program of Ukraine-China space cooperation for 2016-2020: the necessary measures will be taken in order to fully ensure the implementation of previously agreed projects and moving the current cooperation to a qualitatively newer level.
Ukraine and China will continue developing the mutually beneficial relations in the implementation of joint projects in the mining sector, and also those aimed at development of nuclear energy and atomic industrial complex, in particular the development of the uranium deposits of Ukraine with investments and technologies from China. But the most rapid development of cooperation now is in the field of renewable and alternative energy.
The governments of our countries are interested the Ukrainian and Chinese business to be developed strictly in accordance with the bilateral legislations. This also will be supported by the activities of joint working group that is being established by the Ministries of Justice of Ukraine and China. To ensure the appropriate level of security for the Chinese capital that will be attracted into Ukraine, the Ukrainian side will continue its efforts to improve the business climate in the interests of forming a fair and stable legal and political environment for Chinese investors.
Now, when 40 years are passing by since the implementation the policy of openness and reforms by China that led to the impressive results, the entire world is convinced of the non-alternativeness of such a choice. Ukraine, which also consciously has chosen the openness as a form of its further development, the Chinese experience is a perfect example for it.
Summarizing all stated above, I would like to emphasize that Ukraine and China are making sure steps towards building the really cooperation of a strategic nature. Chinese partners understand some turbulence in the political and economic development of Ukraine, which lays a path to a more promising and civilized life in such difficult circumstances. Ukraine increasingly goes for understanding the benefits from partnership with China.
So, I am sure that all these efforts will give a positive result: Ukraine will soon become a permanent platform for Chinese investments. I do not exclude that we can expect an investment boom, and Chinese capital will be the engine of it.