A deep-water port with a 25-meter underwater area will be built in the Crimea with money from Chinese investors, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports. This was announced by Oleksii Maziuk, the general director of Kievgidroinvest, which is the company developing the project.

Kievgidroinvest and China’s BICIM signed the relevant memorandum at a Ukrainian-Chinese business forum in Beijing on Thursday. "It is a unique structure, the function of which will be redistribution of cargo flows from the East to Europe," Maziuk said in comments to journalists.

The project will be implemented as a public-private partnership. Maziuk stressed in particular that this will set a precedent for implementation of large-scale infrastructural projects in Ukraine with money from investors and without government guarantees.

According to him, the project involves construction of several terminals and grain elevators with a capacity of 20 million tons. The port will be built near the village of Frunze in the Saki district of the Crimea. Maziuk said that the port’s waters will be in an area dug directly on land, using unique technologies, and that its harbor will be able to accommodate vessels with deep drafts.

According to him, the decision to implement the project was made one month ago, and work on it is expected to begin next year. The approximate cost of construction of the first phase of the project is USD 3 billion. First phase will be implemented in about four or five years.

"Based on the fact that the estimated capacity of the port will be from 140 million tons a year, it can be calculated that port charges and other charges alone will earn the state at least USD 1.5 billion per year,” said Maziuk. He added that goods from Asia to Europe and vice versa would pass through the port.