China’s CRCC and Ukrzaliznytsia signed a memorandum of cooperation

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China’s CRCC, the railroad construction giant, and Ukrzaliznytsia signed a memorandum of cooperation on Monday. Goals are to modernize Ukraine’s rail system and to promote Ukraine as a rail transit country for China’s trade with the EU, ubn.news reports.

Ukrzaliznytsia is currently evaluating Chinese electric locomotives for what could be a $1 billion deal. At the signing ceremony, Wang Hongwei, deputy general director of CRCC, said his company will open an office in Kyiv this year.

Ukrzaliznytsia wants to work with CRCC to increase the transit of Chinese container trains to the EU. Last year, Belarusian Railways handled 338,500 containers on trains traveling between China and the EU, about double the 2018 volume. CRCC is a major player in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative which seeks to diverse trade routes between China and its trading partners.

“We expect that the cooperation between Ukrzaliznytsia and CRCC will significantly improve the state of transport infrastructure,” Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krikliy, said at the ceremony. “We aim to attract direct structural investments in the creation of a high-speed rail network, not only between ‘millionaire’ cities in Ukraine but also…bring Ukraine to Europe…It will be possible to go to Warsaw, Budapest, and Bucharest in no more than three hours, and from Kyiv to Odesa, the train will take 1.5 hours instead of the current 7-8.”

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