
Stepan Kubiv met with Ambassador of New Zealand to Ukraine Wendy Hinton
On February
15, First Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Economic Development and Trade of
Ukraine Stepan Kubiv met
with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of New Zealand to Ukraine (concurrently)
Wendy Hinton.
During the
meeting the interlocutors discussed the possibility to enhance mutual trade and
investment. For 11 months of 2016, the exports from Ukraine to New Zealand
increased 1.5 times and amounted to $ 2.4 million (for 11 months of 2016 against
the same period of 2015). However, the actual volumes of bilateral trade
remained rather low and amounted to $ 12.6 million.
Stepan Kubiv noted that trade between New Zealand and Ukraine is
characterized by significant changes, primarily in the structure and volumes of
commodities. This is a consequence of the policy of reorientation of markets,
which is carried out both in Ukraine and New Zealand.
“Ukraine engages
in active work to create conditions for expanding markets for our exporters who
suffered from the loss of the Russian market as a result of Russian economic
aggression against Ukraine. The support for Ukraine by New Zealand is especially
valuable, because the Russian market played an important role in the economy of
New Zealand. Therefore, our countries should help each other in activities on
the diversification of markets, which were lost as a result of Russian
aggression in Ukraine”, explained Stepan Kubiv.
Wendy
Hinton, in turn, noted that New Zealand had had similar experience of pursuing structural
reforms and demonstrates readiness to share it with Ukraine.
“For instance,
in the 1980's, New Zealand had introduced a radical structural transformation,
completely abandoning subsidizing any industries. New Zealand is known
worldwide by making this step and for the deregulation processes. We are ready
to impart this experience with Ukrainian colleagues”, stressed Wendy Hinton.
Stepan Kubiv also noted the positive results of the implementation
of the free trade agreement with the EU from 1 January 2016 and other results
of the work on the expansion of export opportunities of Ukraine.
The meeting
participants agreed to continue active cooperation aimed to increase the
volumes of mutual trade and expand the range of export-import operations
between Ukraine and New Zealand.