Ukrainian seaports look to their infrastructure
The Ukrainian Seaports Authority (USPA) says its 2017 strategy will focus heavily on the modernisation and development of its national port infrastructure.
It unveiled its marine civil’s strategy at a meeting held jointly with the European Business Association (EBA), the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine (ACC) and the Employers’ Federation of Transport of Ukraine.
This year, USPA also wants to focus on attracting investments, improvement of industry legislation and measures to ensure equal conditions for doing business in seaports.
Raivis Veckagans, the acting CEO of USPA, said: “We are striving for these infrastructural and investment projects so that Ukrainian and foreign business will see the results of our activities. Our goal is steady development of seaports in all regions providing a balanced operation of the whole transport system. We can already observe the first results of our work.”
He pointed out that USPA will be focusing on 12 key infrastructure initiatives in 2017, including two projects on the development of the Yuzhny seaport and several projects in Odessa port, namely the continuation of container terminal construction at the Quarantine Mole, construction of berth “№ 1-z” and berth No.7.
Other projects will include reconstructing the approach channel and deepening port areas up to 16m at the ports of Chornomorsk and Mariupol.
In addition to these projects, USPA plans to apply international control standards in the construction process of port infrastructure facilities (FIDIC) that should allow foreign dredgers to enter the Ukrainian market and assure investor companies transparency of tender procurement processes.
By Anne-Marie Causer
