Ukraine plans to reduce tariffs for cargo transportation to China through the Silk Road countries

Almaty. August 26. Silkroadnews – Kiev talks of Ukraine and China governmental delegations resulted in agreement to deepen the cooperation between the countries, Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure reported.

«Ministry of Infrastructure noted the importance of Chinese companies' taking part in delivery of goods through the port Chernomorsk on the territory of the Silk Road member countries: Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Within a joint initiative on building «the economic belt of the Silk Road» Ukraine takes measures to arrange and reduce tariffs for multimodal transport links China-Ukraine-EU», the department's official site informs.

Also during the negotiations, the parties have signed a protocol of the subcommittee on trade and economic cooperation between China and Ukraine.

Earlier it was reported, that the first experimental trip on Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China route started from Illichivsk (Black Sea) sea port of Odessa region on January 15. The wagons dispatched to China were not even fully loaded and transportation up to the Dostyk station took 15 days.

Originally the route from China to Europe via Ukrainian port Ilyichevsk assumed to take up to 9 days (in case no delays happen, for example, because of the storm) rather than 30 days of transportation through the territory of Russia.

The idea of building the transport, energy and trade corridor between the countries of Central and South Asia and Europe was voiced by the chairman of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping during his visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013. Recently Kiev has actively started to promote the idea of using the country's territory for transportation of goods within the framework of this project known as the «Great Silk Road».