The locomotives and passenger trains can be purchased for the Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) from foreign companies only on condition of localization of production.
Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov stated this in response to a question from the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development’s Deputy Chairman Dmytro Kysylevskyi, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Business Censor publication.
Kysylevskyi expressed concern at the lack of requirements for localization of production in the documentation for Ukrzaliznytsia's tender for supply of trains worth UAH 31 billion.
"There is no word about localization in the tender, although it is assumed that a foreign manufacturer can win. The government will send UAH 31 billion abroad and the Ukrainian budget will lose UAH 5 billion in taxes," he said.
According to Kubrakov, localization of production at Ukrainian enterprises is mandatory during purchases from foreign companies, not only purchases via this Ukrzaliznytsia tender.
“We do not consider projects without production localization at all. Similarly, we do not consider other projects without production localization, especially such large projects,” the minister said.
According to him, this also applies to the agreements that were previously reached for the purchase of 130 locomotives for Ukrzaliznytsia from the Alstom company (France).
"You know, there is a separate intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and France. It stipulates a percentage of production localization, which we monitor and without which implementation of the project will not begin," he said.
As reported earlier, the parliament adopted the first reading of the draft law No. 3739 on localization of industrial production during purchases of foreign equipment for state-owned companies and government agencies on 21 July 2020.
According to representatives of industrial enterprises, the final adoption of the document on mandatory production in Ukraine of part of engineering products purchased abroad will facilitate the attraction of large-scale investments to Ukraine.
