During his three-day visit to Ukraine, Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen together with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko highlighted the achievements of their countries’ bilateral trade at a business forum at the Fairmont Grand Hotel in Kyiv on March 14.
As he is visiting Ukraine for the first time on March 13-15, Van der Bellen is accompanied by an economic delegation of about 40 representatives from more than 30 Austrian companies and Vice President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Richard Schenz. The delegation is also visiting Lviv where many Austrian companies currently operating in Ukraine are based.
“More than 40 representatives came to Ukraine and they are extremely interested in the opportunities to invest, develop manufacturing,” Poroshenko said. “The statistics that we have for 2017 convincingly testify about the promising Ukrainian-Austrian business relationships.”
In 2017, bilateral trade turnover increased by 18.5 percent and Ukrainian exports to Austria increased by 48 percent, Poroshenko said.
“What more convincing evidence do we need to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area that fully went into force in 2017 and the effectiveness of the association agreement with the European Union that started on Sept 1.”
According to the Austrian Embassy in Kyiv, Austrian exports to Ukraine went up by 15.5 percent to 423 million euros in the first 11 months of 2017 and Ukraine’s exports to Austria increased by 34.6 percent to 607 million euros for the same period.
Van der Bellen says that these bilateral trade figures are showing strong signs of improvement that are largely due to Ukraine’s association agreement with the European Union.
“These are solid numbers that show the great potential in this relation,” he said. “This agreement not only had already given a boost to our economic relationship but most importantly it also lays a strong and solid foundation on which to build this relationship.”
Austria is Ukraine’s sixth largest investor attracting $1.3 billion in foreign direct investments.
“If you take into account the relatively small size of Austria, this strongly reflects the disproportionally big interest of Austrian companies in the Ukrainian market,” Van der Bellen said. “Regardless of which figures you use… Austria is one of the biggest foreign investors in Ukraine and there is certainly plenty of potential left untapped given the right circumstances.”
Austria’s strongest Ukraine presence is noticed in the banking and insurance sectors including players such as Raiffeisen Bank Aval, UNIQA, Vienna Insurance Group and Grawe. Other companies include Fischer Sports based in Mukachevo with a 1,500-person plant making skis and luxury car parts. Frey Wille, Blizzard, Swarovski, Red Bull, Agrana, Billa, EuroGold are other examples.
The Austrian embassy closely collaborates with more than 150 Austrian businesses in Ukraine many of whom are noticing positive changes within the business environment.
Austrian businesses are providing over 32,000 jobs and almost all of them stayed in Ukraine during the difficult economic 2014–2017 period.
Poroshenko thanked the Austrian businesses for not leaving Ukraine.
“In 2014, when Russia started its aggression against Ukraine, exactly four years after Crimea was illegally annexed (by Russia), representatives of many companies had thoughts about the unsafe conditions of being in Ukraine, some… left and are now sorry about it,” Poroshenko said. “Not sure if I can disclose this secret, but in 2013 (Raiffeisen) Bank Aval also thought about perhaps selling (its assets in Ukraine) to someone. Today it is very happy that it didn’t.”
“These companies bring European experience, methods, standards, technologies, and know-how,” he added.“Most importantly, they bring to their capital the truth about Ukraine that counters fake news from Russia Today.”
Ukraine’s president concluded his remarks with three requests to the audience: “First, those who already invested, continue to invest in Ukraine. Second, those who are still (indecisive), this is the right time in the right place to be here now. Definitely, no doubt. Third, don’t be silent. Talk about your impressions of Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan, Vice Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko and Ecology Minister Ostap Semerak presented investment opportunities in front of the delegation.
Business-to-business meetings are being scheduled throughout the trip in order to establish further economic cooperation.
Hermann Ortner, Commercial Counsellor at Austria Advantage’s Kyiv office, told the Kyiv Post that, despite the short notice and limited time to prepare, this was the most successful delegation he has witnessed during his five years of working in Ukraine.
“We are especially happy that the federal economic chamber which I am representing in Ukraine could organize a big economic delegation,” he said. “We were organizing many, many B2B meetings. Today (at the forum) there were like 200 people, so it really reflects that the interest in increasing the business is very big.”
