OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2016. Ukraine will continue the implementation of major infrastructure projects significant for the country with the help of concessional funding from Japan. This was the topic of a meeting of Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine/ Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko and Director-General of the European Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Hajime Hayashi.

"We have embarked on the implementation of a project to modernize Bortnychi aeration plant. The Government and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have adopted all the necessary decisions, amendments in legislation for this purpose", stressed Hennadii Zubko.

The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine noted that the Government had allocated UAH 63.1 million from the State budget of 2016, while the Government of Japan had extended a US\\$ 900 million soft loan for the implementation of this project. The terms offer 0.1% interest rate, 40 years amortization, a 10-year grace period.

Hennadii Zubko noted that another important cooperation line is the energy sphere, in particular, the introduction in Ukraine of advanced Japanese Clean Coal Technologies (CCT) to improve the efficiency of coal-steam plants in Ukraine.

Apart from that the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Director-General of the European Affairs Bureau of the Japanese MFA also discussed possible participation of Japanese companies in projects to complete the construction of a bridge across the Dnieper river and a section of subway to Trojeschyna area.

The interlocutors also focused on the reforms in Ukraine and the necessary assistance in the framework of cooperation with the Support Group for Ukraine, established by ambassadors of G7 states (the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, the U.S.A., France, Japan). Moreover, they tackled holding meetings-consultations of Ukrainian ministers with this Group to discuss problems in implementation of reforms in specific areas. The Support Group for Ukraine chairs Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Ukraine Shigeki Sumi.

It should be noted that Japan is presiding over the Group of Seven in 2016 and expressed its readiness to make efforts to support reforms in Ukraine. Japan announced the G7 summit due to take place in central Mie prefecture on May 26-27, 2016.