BEIJING -- Ukraine on Wednesday has unveiled a concept of a new railway project "China-Ukraine-EU (European Union)," which is aimed at unlocking Ukraine's transit potential under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
The project, which envisages a construction of a 1,100-km-long high-speed railway line in Ukraine, was presented during a roundtable in Kiev entitled "High-speed railway and transit potential under the Belt and Road Initiative."
The roundtable, which brought together officials and experts from Ukraine and other Belt and Road countries, was organized by the Ukrainian association of Belt and Road cooperation "Silk Link" and "High-speed Rail Lines" association.
Serhii Rudkovskyi, the chairman of the board of the "High-speed Rail Lines" association, said that the project would help Ukraine to become an important transit link on the modern Silk Road by providing favorable conditions for movement of goods between China and the EU.
"We see that there is a need for this project. Currently, about 1 million containers can be delivered annually from China to the EU and in the opposite direction per year," Rudkovskyi told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, Victoria Yanovskaya, a professor at Kiev-based State University of Infrastructure and Technology, said that the planned "China-Ukraine-EU" project will contribute to the development of the Ukrainian economy.
"This project means the creation of new jobs, the further integration of Ukraine into the global economy, as well as the increase in tax revenues," Yanovskaya said.
According to her, the implementation of the project will help to create about 450,000 new jobs in Ukraine at the construction stage and about 70,000 jobs at the operational stage.
According to an optimistic scenario, the "China-Ukraine-EU" project with an estimated cost of 23 billion U.S. dollars could be implemented within seven years.
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