OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2008. Aiming stirring up of bilateral Ukrainian-Chinese cooperation the Ministry of Regional Development and Building of Ukraine has elaborated a draft Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Government of the Peoples’ Republic of China on the development of cooperation in the sphere of building infrastructure.

Minister of Regional Development and Building of Ukraine Vasyl Kuibida announced while making a statement at the Tenth sitting of Ukraine-China Intergovernmental Commission underway in China.

The mainstream objective of concluding of such an Agreement, as Vasyl Kuibida put it, is elaborating of parity conditions of cooperation between Ukraine and China in building domain. “We are striving to establish equal conditions for accessibility of products and labour resources alike to the realization of building projects,” the Minister emphasized and admitted that endorsed by the government of China decrees in terms of participating of foreign builders in Chinese tenders do not promote drawing of Ukrainian construction enterprises to Chinese market.

Vasyl Kuibida suggested to the Chinese party to hold two-way consultations in order to thoroughly study this issue and develop a joint stand concerning possibility to simplify procedures of involvement of Ukrainian enterprises to the realization of projects on the territory of China. The Minister handed over to the Chinese party a draft Agreement (Ukrainian variant) for consideration and added that on agreeing upon amendments the Ukrainian party is ready to discuss along the way a date and place to ink the instrument. 

It should be noted that in April of 2004 China approved “decrees 113 and 114” which concern participation of foreign builders in Chinese tenders. Pursuant to the new rules in order to take part in a tender a foreign builder has to either register the company in China or set up a joint venture with a Chinese company.

The builder has to possess USD 36 million on the account of this enterprise and can participate in tenders with a fivefold sum from the starting one, meaning up to USD 180 million. Engineers ought to be registered in the People’s Republic of China and to stay in China for not less than 6 months a year.

Chinese officials in the construction area consider the new rules will set foreign builders in equal conditions with local construction workers. Foreign business circles expressed serious dissatisfaction with the mentioned rules as they don’t harmonize with the norms of the World Trade Organization (WTO).