KYIV
The governments of Ukraine and France signed four framework agreements for more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.57 billion) after the French trade mission visited Kyiv last week, the Ukrainian government said.
The agreements were touted by officials as measures to boost industry and improve living standards and focused on efforts to diversify sources of supply, including the purchase of 130 electric locomotives by rolling stock manufacturer Alsthom to Ukrzaliznytsia – the national rail network – for a total of 900 million euros.
Desautel, a manufacturer of firefighting equipment, is to supply Ukraine’s emergency services with 370 trucks with long ladders to tackle blazes in high-rise apartments that dominate the skyline in many Ukrainian cities.
Two deals, each totalling 70 million euros, will help provide infrastructure for drinking water in Kyiv and in the eastern region of Luhansk.
“All projects provide for localisation at Ukrainian enterprises from 30 percent and higher, which is quite consistent with our strategy for the development of national production,” Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as saying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, quoted by Ukrainian media, praised the agreements as a successful outcome of his recent talks in Paris with his French opposite number, Emmanuel Macron. He singled out for praise the accord on drinking water, saying the deal involved considerable levels of expenditure and would be of great benefit to both the capital and Luhansk region.
The Paris financial daily Les Echos stressed the importance of the agreement on locomotives, saying it was still to be finalised later in the year and could by that time be worth more than 900 million euros. It recalled that Alsthom had earlier clinched similar deals in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Les Echos also said that Ukrzaliznytsa had for a time considered buying diesel locomotives from General Electric, but now believed a solution involving electric locomotives was a better option. Ukraine had largely, since independence relied on Russian locomotives, but had sought other sources since the 2014 conflict involving the occupation of parts of eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists.
Le Maire, quoted by Ukrainian media, said France wanted to build on a 2020 trade turnover of 1.6 billion euros.
“It’s a very large sum that remains stable despite the crisis associated with COVID-19,” he was quoted as saying. “Now we want to strengthen and accelerate economic cooperation between our two countries.”
There are 160 French companies in Ukraine, employing 30,000 people.