03 October 2022, Monday, 10:14 273

Ukrzaliznytsia can create a joint venture with German Deutsche Bahn

Редактор: Roman Vaniyan

The Ukrzaliznytsia joint-stock company and Deutsche Bahn, the national railway operator of Germany, are considering the possibility of creating a joint venture (JV).

Volodymyr Shemayev, a deputy director of the investment activity department of Ukrzaliznytsia, told about this in an interview for the CTS publication, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

In particular, Ukrzaliznytsia and Deutsche Bahn signed a memorandum of understanding on long-term assistance and support.

"The memorandum that was signed gives a new account of the cooperation between Deutsche Bahn and Ukrzaliznytsia since the beginning of the Russian aggression. Within the framework of the memorandum, we will focus on three areas. The first is help with European integration. Our legislative framework must correspond to the European one. The second is help in infrastructure restoration. This is about the verification and prioritization of the main projects, as well as the formation of these projects in accordance with EU norms, so that in the future we will be able to attract financing from the EU or international trust funds for them," he said.

According to Shemayev, the third direction of cooperation is the improvement of coordination in the cargo segment.

"We want to establish more stable corridors in the direction of seaports or logistics hubs to the EU. We are also studying the possibility of creating a joint venture to organize route trains that could run regularly from the Ukrainian border to specific German ports or logistics hubs," he said.

According to Shemayev, at the moment, German colleagues are studying this issue from the point of view of compliance of the potential JV with antimonopoly legislation and are calculating the economics of the issue.

"For our side, such an enterprise would provide an opportunity for more precise planning, perhaps the formation of specific routes and the minimization of downtime at border crossings. For foreign partners, there is a cargo flow that is calculated in millions of tons, which they previously did not serve. We proposed to make a pilot project - to organize a train route from Ukraine to one of the German ports. From our side, we could put 120 grain railcars into operation for such an enterprise, from Deutsche Bahn we need at least two locomotives," he said.

Shemayev added that there is still no final decision regarding the creation of the JV.

"Much will depend on the economic effect. In addition, we understand that the state of war carries additional risks for foreign partners," he said.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Ukraine and Poland intend to create a joint logistics enterprise to increase the volume of railway transportation of Ukrainian exports to the European Union and to world markets through Europe.