The second meeting of Top Level Transport Dialogue between Ukraine and the EU took place in Odessa. In its course the main priorities of Ukrainian ports development were identified. They are in particular:
– Public-private partnership (PPP) projects based on concession;
– Ukraine’s integration into Silk Road and TEN-T routes worked out by the EU;
– Access to European grants for infrastructure development.
According to EC Director General on Mobility and Transport Henrik Hololei, almost 90% of cargoes in the EU are directed to ports. In Ukraine this share is much lower though the sector’s reform continuation and use of the concession instrument may speed up the ports development process. The EU and international financial institutions (IFI) on their part are ready to render the necessary technical assistance. “We welcome USPA joining in ESPO. This is another step towards Ukrainian ports integration into European transport infrastructure. The next step is realisation of projects in the framework of the Trans-European Transport Network TEN-T. As much as 9 Ukrainian ports have already been entered in the list of prospective infrastructure projects till 2030. The investments under these projects are totaling 844M EUR”, noted Mr Hololei.
Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelian stressed upon the fact that positive changes in the national transport infrastructure are to large extent hampered by the absence of relevant legislation. The Parliament has pitifully failed to adopt recently a number of vital bills, in particular on concession, marine industrial complex and inland waterways development.
Also the dividends paid by the USPA and public stevedores to the state budget were discussed. To the European experts’ opinion, 90% rates cannot enable state enterprises develop with only 10% left and efficiently compete both domestically and internationally.
In his turn, USPA’s manager Raivis Veckagans pointed out the importance of investment projects high-quality elaboration for Ukrainian ports in order to involve funds from IFIs and private companies. “We already have a very good experience of cooperation with IFC and EBRD on preparation of public stevedores concession pilot projects in the ports of Olvia and Kherson, the tenders on which are going to start soon”, coined an example the head of USPA, further on presenting the preliminary information on public stevedore concession project in the port Pivdenny (former Yuzhny).
The meeting also noted that another important pace to accelerate Ukrainian port infrastructure modernisation should come rendering to Ukraine possibilities of obtaining the EU grants for infrastructure projects. As EC Mobility & Transport DG mentioned, there are indeed certain difficulties in this issue though they are worked upon.
http://www.uspa.gov.ua/ru/press-tsentr/novosti/novosti-ampu/16955-transportnyj-dialog-ukraina-es-prioritety-portovoj-otrasli-kontsessiya-proekty-seti-ten-t-i-evropejskie-granty