KIEV, December 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Fourteen agreements signed by Ukraine and Russia on December 17 were designed to stabilise trade and economic relations between both countries, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) Andrei Klyuyev said on Friday.
After the creation of the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) trade and economic relations have started complicating between Ukraine and the Customs Union. “New regulations and new trade rules have been worked out. Very often these rules run counter trade principles, which earlier existed between Ukraine and Russia,” the NSDC’s press service reported.
“This year this had a serious impact on trade balance between both countries and on Ukraine’s economy as a whole,” the press service said.
Thus, President Viktor Yanukovich and the government riveted more attention to the talks with Russia. “There were periods when our enterprises had no orders only due to the complications in trade and economic relations with Russia,” Klyuyev said.
He cited as an example the Kryukov railway car building works and Azovmash heavy machine-building plant. “Their products are supplied to the Russian market and to other countries of the Customs Union. When Ukraine faced difficulties it started losing the markets, for example in aircraft building, the space industry and shipbuilding. The effects became very sensitive for the Ukrainian economy. Our enterprises have been working for decades on these markets. It’s natural that it will be necessary to search for new markets,” he said.
“Now the gas price is of 268.5 dollars for 1,000 cubic metres of gas. This is an acceptable price and our economy can ‘catch a break’ and the population as well. We don’t raise prices for housing and utilities sector. The state budget subsidised the difference between the real price and what the population pays for,” Klyuyev said, adding that the reduction in import gas price would have a positive impact on Ukrainian goods’ competitiveness and on the population’s ability to pay.
“Promising agreements were signed in several fields. For instance, an agreement on aircraft building envisions a contract to produce 80 An-124 planes. This is a very serious order,” Klyuyev said, adding “These are hundreds of thousands of jobs. It is very important for the economy.”
He said the issue of 15 billion dollar bonds would make it possible to solve several problems related to promising projects, including on the development of the infrastructure. “These are the existing jobs and the creation of new ones. In other words, the agreements are designed to develop the economy,” Klyuyev said.