Kolesnikov: Ukraine to give up train imports in favor of developing own wagon production

BERLIN - Ukraine will not import trains from other countries any more, but intends to develop its own wagon building industry, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure Borys Kolesnikov has said.

"We won't import trains any more. Ukraine has no worse engineers, skilled workers, therefore, of course, we will need to import some components, particularly electronic systems, and we can manufacture all the rest," he said at a briefing after visiting the InnoTrans 2012 international exhibition of transport technologies, which opened in Berlin on September 18.

According to him, foreign manufacturers who wish to enter the Ukrainian market will need to either organize production in Ukraine or cooperate with Ukrainian companies.

"Nobody will buy trains. Therefore the world's leading corporations, such as Siemens, Hyundai, have to come to Ukraine, organize production or cooperate with Ukrainian companies," said Kolesnikov.

He said he had met with representatives from two foreign companies that are "potentially ready to start production in Ukraine," but he did not name the producers.

"They are ready, and next week they will send technical teams to Ukraine to inspect the production capacity," he said.

Kolesnikov expressed satisfaction with the presence of some Ukrainian enterprises at a show of such a high level.

The InnoTrans 2012 international exhibition of transport technologies opened in Berlin on September 18, 2012. Some 2,515 participants from 49 countries presented advanced technological innovations and services for rail transport.

Some 12 enterprises represented Ukraine, particularly Azovmash, Kriukov Car Building Works, Transmash, Tekhvahonmash, Pluton, UPEC and others.